DEATH

One of the first things people tend to learn about the Tarot is that the Death card isn't what it seems. I admit, it's pretty fun when the card comes up-- there's that split-second where the person sitting across from me stares and thinks, Oh great, I WOULD go and drawn the frigging Death card, wouldn't I? And then laughter. Joke never gets old.

Death itself is a joke that never gets old. If you click the card above, you'll be directed to a gallery containing 150 MB (may load slowly) of classical portrayals of Death in all his bony splendor, boosted from books, artwork and architecture dating back to the medieval period. The images range from grim to grimly humorous. But as the portal to this treasury, I've selected a much newer image by artist and tarot enthusiast Eric Thurnbeck. His Butterfly intaglio print (worth viewing large) has been burned into my mind as the ideal icon for this transformative moment.

Like a butterfly's metamorphosis, Death represents any development that's both inevitable and irreversible. As Eric once told me, the card is a door that one can pass through, but not return through. Once a new butterfly has dried its wings and taken flight, does it remember that its stalk-like body was once earthbound, wormlike? I doubt it. That's not necessarily a spiritual metaphor; our lives provide plenty of moments in which, all at once, we are no longer what we were. It's not necessarily tragic, but it is powerful and demands acknowledgment-- and if you let nature run its course, you may find yourself flying through whatever comes next, a wholly remade being.

The barrage of imagery in the linked gallery, however repetitive it may seem, offers a wonderfully saturating experience. How silly that we dread and avoid contact with something so innate! It is already here, always. A fact which is tragic and horrifying, but also humorous and tantalizingly mysterious, even erotic.