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This [the Scorpion] represents putrefaction in its lowest form. The strain of the environment has become intolerable, and the attacked element willingly subjects itself to change. [352]

Image : A dark skeletal figure bears a scythe and an ancient Egyptian crown. A snake, fish and scorpion are about the base of the image and a geometrical net stretches to the upper right. Formless white figures swirl in the net.

Death is one of three cards attributed to the lower paths of the Tree of Life which enter into Tiphareth. We will come to look at the Devil on the opposite side of the Tree, and Art (Temperance) which also enters Tiphareth from below, completing this triad. We might consider how Death, the Devil and Art (especially as Alchemy) correspond with each other and form together into a functional system.

Crowley holds the Death card in high regard, saying “it is even a compendium of universal energy in its most secret form”. [353] He talks of Scorpio, corresponding to this card, with regard to Leo, as “one of the two most powerful in the Zodiac”. [354] The symbol of the Fish, representing the Hebrew letter “Nun”, another correspondence, is “paramount” to the overall theme of the card, as is the Serpent, the “main theme” of the card. [355]

Crowley weaves these correspondences together in depicting the “dance of death”, where the skeleton wields the scythe of Saturn (representing unchanging tradition) to create transformation in three levels; that of the Scorpion, the Snake and the Eagle. In doing so, he regards the card as the completion of Lust (Strength, XI), with the Hanged Man (XII) linking these two cards by illustrating the process of dissolution. Also, the Mem or waters corresponding to the Hanged Man are the waters in which the fish Nun swims – Death is “within” the Hanged Man, the sacrifice of the divine to create, bringing about change, and hence transformation.

In a reading, we can apply these three types of transformation (putrefaction) when the Death card appears, informing the client that they have three paths open to them in bringing change:

The Path of the Scorpion: Willingly surrendering to the “strain of the environment and subjecting yourself to whatever happens. [356] This is the lowest and simplest option.

It is of note that Crowley refers to this card as signifying putrefaction ; this is not the commonly understand nature of the word, but the alchemical one. Living systems are sometimes seen as having three components; body, spirit and soul – the formative structure, the information held, and the energy inherent in the system. When something is removed from its source (i.e. a fruit cut from a tree, or the Hanged Man, XII moving to Death, XIII), putrefaction commences, and the living element becomes two components – fixed and volatile. In the Death card, this is the Saturnian element and the Mercurial one, and in real life it is when we go through a significant life-change, and we feel torn apart or divided as the old fixed structure (identity, beliefs, behaviour) is replaced by the new state.

This is significantly different to the type of change indicated by the Tower card – which is more destructive - and it is important in a reading to understand what type of change is being signified by the appearance of either of these cards – which are different again to the changes symbolised by the Wheel, High Priestess or Moon.

Crowley advises, in his letters to a disciple in Magick Without Tears , “particularly useful against the fear of death is the punctual and vigorous performance of Liber Resh [a series of solar adorations performed daily]. Meditate on the sun in each station: his continuous and even way: the endless circle. That formula in the Tarot book is the most valuable”. [358] So, by facing our fears, tracing our history and contemplating the endless cycle of existence, we transform our relationship to death.

When this card appears, we have many levels by which we can deepen the querent’s appreciation of change occurring in their life, and bring about the transformation this card heralds.

Here the skeleton wears the crown of Osiris, in his form as the fertile god of the Nile, stirring up the silt of creation to make new forms, new birth, new being, all of which Harris so expertly weaves into a singular dance of existence.

As symbols of Saturn, the scythe and the skeleton represent “the essential nature of existing things”. [359] The Skeleton is the elemental nature of the universe, the very fabric of matter, which remains unchanged beneath the transformations wrought by time – the scythe. In this dance, when the card appears in a reading, we might ask “what stays the same underneath all that is changing”?

Although they appear like swirls caught in the net of the scythe, Crowley describes the patterns arising from the geometric lines as “bubbles”. [360] It is within these bubbles that new forms are being created and joining the dance of eternity.

Crowley states that the symbolism of the fish, through correspondence of this card to the Hebrew letter Nun , meaning ‘fish’, is “paramount”. [361] Not only was Christ represented by a fish, but other deities connected with resurrection and reincarnation. Crowley connects the fish to Mercury, through its cold-bloodedness and swiftness, and thence to a sexual connotation. The ejaculation is both a form of sacrifice and contains the potential for new life – we can see this act is hidden in plain sight upon the card. It cannot be many decks that have got away for so long with an ejaculating skeleton.

Another point of projected geometry on the card – other than the pelvis of the skeleton - is located in the upper-left corner, and is a stylised White Eagle, which we have seen is a further symbol of semen in the physical realm, and creative potential in terms of a general interpretation.

It is time to face facts, when the Death card appears. We do not need to simply surrender to inevitable change, but dance with it, embrace it, and recognise it as existence. The strain we might feel when faced with a situation is only where we are attached – the scythe of time has come to slice through those fixed ideas and comforts, to release us to an as-yet-unknown novelty.