Tarot del Fuego - Death - 13

The Principle that the Tarot calls "Death" corresponds to the constellation of Scorpio, which is co-ruled by the disruptive planet, Mars, and the transformative planet, Pluto. It wouldn't be wrong to regard the two planets as octave iterations of the same energy. Scorpio is associated with the interrelated themes of sex and death. The Hebrew letter that corresponds to Death is Nun, a fish. In his Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, Paul Foster Case tells us that, as a verb, Nun means "to sprout" or "to grow." He attributes this to the fish being an animal that reproduces prolifically. As such they are also a symbol that represents the sexual impulse itself. The corpses of fish are high in nitrogen and, for that reason, have been recognized as a good fertilizer of food crops probably for as long as people have been engaged in agrarian activity. This image - the corpse, its decay and putrefaction, and what was once a rotten fish becoming a nutritious ear of corn - illustrates that change is the constant that underlies all of these apparently separate phases of all of these apparently separate objects like "fish," "soil," "microorganisms," and "corn." Case's observations along the same vein go on to point out that,

...[Nun has] the primary meaning of "to walk."....All motion is change, transformation, modification, variation. Thus, by linking up these ideas with the thought of foundation or groundwork implied by the ideas of Nun, we arrive at the conception that change is the basis of manifestation.

The TdF's Death turns these same themes over and over again as well. The main figure in the scene is a skeleton. It continues to be animated by the fire of passion in its gut, which propels it through various modes of existence. It shares this commonality with the male figure in the Lovers. It is a chimera like the female figure depicted in the same card, alluding to the underlying unity present even in appearance of diversity. The double headed serpent at knee-level reiterates the same theme. One of the skeletal figure's heads is human, the other skull is that of an ox. The ox is the vehicle of the Vedic god of the underworld, Yama. He holds a scythe in his right hand for the purpose of harvesting the living, thereby facilitating the change that keeps the physical realm fresh, renewed, and vital.

A severed head, apparently harvested by the skeletal figure, lies on the ground at the level of its knees. The head represents people, because people do come into existence, persist for a while, and then seemingly blink out of existence. But what really happens in this example is that Nature undergoes a series of superficial changes, while remaining Nature the entire time. The same process of harvesting occurs at every level of existence. Even an atom isn't a static thing. The subatomic particles that, at several orders of magnitude up the chain of manifestation, form the very ground beneath your feet are constantly phasing in and out of existence. Quantum physicists regard these "particles" more as "waves of probability" than anything tangible. And yet you continue to rest on solid ground.

The skeleton's knees are at ground level because it is standing in a grave. The flower growing out of it, near the skeleton's groin area, reminds us that death is as much about initiating and sustaining life as it is about ending it. The cocoon in its left hand and the mature Death's Head moth below it convey the same message of "life," "death," and "change." The many suns in the sky are actually just the same sun as it appears at different points during the day and during different seasons. It is as if all of Time, here, is superimposed upon this single point, happening all at once. The pink background stands in apparent contrast to the gruesome images in the foreground, but it also softens them. It reminds us that, just as change is intrinsic to all modes of existence, so too is Love. In fact, this Love and this change that we are talking about might just be one and the same. 

In the Tantrik model of the Principles of Manifestation, the 13th tattva, or Principle, is Prakṛti, which is to say "Nature," or "Materiality." Prakṛti covers everything that is manifest as matter or energy which, if you're up on your quantum physics, you'll recognize are two sides of the same coin. Matter really only is energy. At a quantum level, matter behaves as either a particle or a wave, depending on the attention and intention of the observer. Prakṛti operates as a foundational principle both in the individual, and in the world around them. In the individual, she is the body-mind complex. In his Tantra Illuminated, Christopher Wallis points out that the body and the mind are two aspects of the organism that aren't actually separate at all, as people tend to assume. Instead, they exist on a continuum.

...The mind is the subtlest aspect of body and the body the most tangible manifestation of the mind. This is why disease in the mind affects the body, and vice versa.

Prakṛti is also Nature as inherent in the manifestation of the external world. However, she is that which is the constant undercurrent of all of the concrete forms which come to be. This is exactly the same idea I was attempting to express when I started talking about "change" and "Love" in discussing the Tarot Trump, Death. All of the following tattvas (14-36/Tarot Trumps 14-21), and their corresponding Major Arcana, are expressions of Prakṛti in one of her various permutations. Borrowing from the original teachings of Saṃkhya, which they expanded upon, the Tantras inform us that Prakṛti possesses three qualities (guṇas), sattva, rajas, and tamas. Sattva is a pure, still quality, which imparts a certain clarity. As a reflection (think Hanged Man/Purusha) is more clear in a still pond, so too is the Divine reflected more clearly in a still mind and a pure body. Rajas is more energized; even frenzied. It is identified with the passions and characterized by striving and restlessness. Tamas is the quality characterized by darkness, density, and inertia. My Guru's Guru, Swami Muktananda, used to use the word "jada" or "jad" (pronounced "jud"), as a label for people whose behavior was characterized by laziness and unconsciousness (i.e. tamasic traits), which my Guru translates as, "stupid like a stone." Fluctuations in these three qualities, and their proportions in relation to one another, go on to account for every manifestation (ābhāsa/lit. "to flash forth") of which the microcosm of Man and the macrocosm of the external world is comprised. In the words of a particularly profound Tantrik treatise, The Heart of Recognition, "Consciousness becomes diverse because of the division of reciprocally adapted objects and subjects."