An empty crossroads on a heath at night, a leaning signpost and poppy heads in the verge.

The tarot · XIII

Death

Child of the Great Transformers, Lord of the Gates of Death

The face of XIII, Death, engraved in gold on black, with its title, Child of the Great Transformers, Lord of the Gates of Death.

Ending, transformation and the gate of renewal.

Upright

Something has run its course. Clear it away so the new can come in. This is rarely literal death, almost always a necessary ending.

Reversed

Clinging to what is already gone. Fear of change dragging out a natural close.

Show the spirits

The spirit work

In the Goetia, Bifrons moves the bodies of the dead and lights candles on their graves. Anubis opens the ways. A strong card for ancestor work and for closing out a chapter with ceremony.

A question to sit with

What is already dead that I keep trying to feed?

Where the card sits

Correspondences

Path24, Tiphareth to Netzach
Hebrew letterNun, the fish, value 50
AstrologyScorpio, fixed water, ruled by Mars
Presiding powerAnubis, opener of the ways of the dead
Governing angelBarchiel, angel of Scorpio
RuneIsa, ice: stillness, a pause, a standstill
Show the spirits
SpiritBifrons, earl
The seal of Bifrons

Appears as a monster, then a man. Teaches astrology and geometry, the virtues of stones and woods; moves the dead and lights candles on graves. Goetia 46.

Death in the guidebookAll seventy-eight cards

The Sablerune Tarot

In the making

Seventy-eight cards in fine gold line. Hear when the deck is ready to hold.

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Notes on sources

The meanings, the questions and the correspondences are the guidebook’s own. The paths, letters and astrology follow the Golden Dawn’s attributions; the angels are the Shem ha-Mephorash, as the deck gives them; the spirits, shown only when you ask for them, are the seventy-two of the Goetia. Where each comes from, and what is old and what is modern, is set out in the guidebook’s Notes on sources and seals.