Tarot - Arcanum No. 13

This Arcanum, the Death, covers two aspects: the first aspect is the death of all human beings and the second aspect is from the esoteric point of view. In the first aspect, all of the texts of occultism, pseudo-occultism, pseudo-rosicrucianism and theosophy state that one is born at a certain hour and dies on a determined day, hour and second according to the Law of Destiny.

This concept is not exact because the Lords of Karma deposit determined "Cosmic Values" within human beings and one can preserve this "Capital" so that the lifespan can be prolonged for a long time; or one can waste these Values and life can be shortened.

Life is prolonged by accumulating Cosmic Capital. If there are no good deeds, the Lords of Karma will prolong life but only in determined cases. The Lords of Karma deposit a determined quantity of Vital Values into each one of our Three Brains:

1. The First Brain: Thinking or Intellectual Brain, in the head.
2. The Second Brain: Motor Brain, located in the upper part of the spinal column.
3. The Third Brain: Emotional Brain, located in the Solar Plexus and nervous sympathetic centers.

If one exhausts the Vital Values of the Thinking Brain by abusing the Intellect, it is clear that the death of this brain is provoked or one contracts nervous type of sickness such as neurasthenia, imbecility, schizophrenia; madness or mania are produced in persons who have exhausted the Values of the Intellectual Centre.

If one exhausts the Values of the Emotional Centre, then heart illnesses, nervous and psychic sicknesses are provoked, as well as sicknesses related with emotive or emotional aspects; many artists exhaust the emotional brain and end up with certain psychopathic, emotive or cardiac states. Those who exhaust the Values of the Motor Brain finish up with paralysis or with sicknesses related with the muscles, knees, joints or with paralysis or damage to the spinal column, etc. In general, all sicknesses result from the wrong use of these Three Brains, this means that one dies by thirds, little by little.

Arcanum No. 13 contains the Gospel of Judas. Judas represents the Death of the Ego. This is his Gospel, the script that he performed was commanded by the Great Master. Judas is actually working with the Demons in the Infernal Worlds in order to redeem them and he has succeeded with a few. When he finishes his work, he will go with Jesus into the Absolute because he will have truly earned it.

The first thing one must do in order to Die is to Dissolve the "I"; the “I” is a mass of Demons, which the Egyptians call the Red Demons of Seth. We must do this in order to awaken Consciousness and receive direct knowledge. The Red Demons of Seth are all of the Demons that we have inside, they are Satan, they must be killed. Horus must defeat these Demons.

When the hour of death arrives, the Angel of Death who is in charge of cutting the Thread of Existence approaches the bed of the dying person. In the very moment when the last breath is exhaled, The Angel of Death takes the individual out of the Physical Body and with his scythe cuts off the Silver Cord (a certain mysterious silvery thread that connects the Internal Bodies with the Physical Body). Such a magnetic cord can extend or contract itself to the Infinite. In the moment of awakening from the world of dreams, we can reincorporate again in the Physical Body thanks to such a thread.

The dying people see the Angel of Death; while working, they dress themselves with funeral robes and assume a spectral, skeletal appearance as they grasp the scythe with which they cut the Silver Cord. They assume this gloomy appearance only while working, when they are not on duty they adopt very beautiful faces, such as children, ladies or as Venerable elders. The Angels of Death are never evil or perverse, they always work in accordance with the Great Law. Everyone has his hour to be born and his exact moment to die.

The Angels of Death are very wise and they operate and develop themselves under the Ray of Saturn. They not only know all that is related with the common and current death of the Physical Body, but these Ministers of Death are profoundly wise in all that is related with the Death of the “Pluralized I”.

Three human forms go to the grave:

That which continues, that which is not going to the Grave, is the "Ego", the Itself, the Myself, the "I": a certain sum of “I”- Devils that personify our Psychological Defects. Arcanum No. 13 is Death, but it can also signify something new, there may be Wealth, there may be Poverty, it is a number of great synthesis. The Arcanum No. 13 contains the Gospel of Judas. Judas represents the Death of the "I". The Gospel of Judas is that of Death, it is the Dissolution of the Ego. Judas symbolises the Ego that must be decapitated.

• Hebrew Letter: „Mem”
• Transcendental Axiom: „The night has passed and a new day has arrived, so dress yourself with the Arms of the Light.”
• Timetable: Fouth Hour of Apollonius: „The neophyte will wander among the sepulchers at night, he will experience the horror of the visions, he will be delivered up to Magic and to Goeteia” This means that the disciple will see himself attacked by millions of Black Magicians in the Astral World; these Tenebrous Magicians try to divert the disciple from the Luminous Path).
• Forecasting Element: "It promises disappointments, disillusionments, death of affections, negative answers to that which is sought, collapse, pure delight and pleasure to the Soul, painful improvements, assistance from friends.Renewal of conditions, the good for the worse and the bad for the better".

SYNTHESIS:

• One must convert oneself into the Sacred Crocodile Sebek by means of enormous ordeals and great sacrifices.
• Efforts are not enough, super-efforts are necessary for this.
• The human being enters into the Kingdom of Adam-Kadmon when he reaches in depth Self-Realization.
• We have to give form to ourselves; this requires super-efforts by means of constant and intensive daily work.
• The dead live in the sphere of Yetzirah, the dead live in the world of Nogah (Astral World).
• The deceased that were fornicators are cold and tenebrous, they live in the World of Assiah, full of coldness and darkness.
• The disciples that have been chaste and have awakened the Kundalini are full of youth and Fire after death.
• The 13th hour is intimately related with Death, Resurrection cannot be achieved if there is no Death; the Liberation is the Thirteenth Hour of Apollonius.
• The Twelve Doors of Mercy are the 12 Zodiacal Signs, the 12 Regions or the 12 Supra-sensible Worlds; the Door Number 13, the Liberation, is for the escape into the Absolute.
• One dies to the Cosmos when one is born for the Absolute.
• One must Die in order to Live. One must Die and Resurrect.

Excerpts from the book “Tarot and Kabbalah” by Samael Aun Weor

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