Tarot Card Comparisons: The Thoht Tarot-Key 13-Death & The Wild Wood Tarot-Key 13-The Journey.

Both are the Path of Nun: Hebrew letter meaning- Fish.

The Story of the Hebrew letter- NUN- is assigned the Story of Noah (Noach):

                        Genesis 6:9

Being righteous in his generation, is a relative statement. After all the ten generations between Adam & Eve and Noah were a steady stream of immorality, greed, corruption---mankind was a nasty being at the time. So Noah, who secluded himself from the culture and keep his morality---looked pretty good. Like comparing copper to silver, silver looks better. But when comparing silver to gold, gold is definitely more valuable. Comparing Noah to a modern man of goodness, well...Noah would lose. For example, years latter when God said he would destroyed Sodom, Abraham bargained with god --always trying to save at least a few people. However, when God said he'd destroy the world of man, Noah didn't even consider others, he just followed orders. His silence showed that he didn't consider others very often, if at all something a modern man would consider "uncivilized". Empathy, comes from experiencing many lives, therefore, understanding the suffering that catastrophe brings.

Hence, this story points out that what we call morality, righteousness, and goodness, even what is good or bad, is all relative to the times and culture. What we think is right and wrong change with culture and evolution. So being the "Best you" that you can be today, will most often change to an even "better you" in time and has nothing to do with your culture; just do the best-you that you can today. All the Soul asks of you as a personality, who has journeyed far across the Abyss of the Universal Collective Unconscious to this world of  conscious-material image, is to be as the god Mercury; a personality who carries messages back and forth from Psyche to brain, and brain back to Psyche. But to do this, you must love your being as much as the Soul loves you. Forget fear of not being "good enough", your manifestation proves you are.

Remember, we were never built "perfect", not because God couldn't build us perfect but because Perfection is a state of stasis and a straight line to nowhere- as perfection doesn't allow transformation! Stasis, meaning "non-motion", is not how Energy Moves! Our perfection is rather a relative-state of motion driven by "creating-seeing error in that creation-and correcting it." And we all know, that unless you do it---you are unable to sense the error in it  and thus never correct an errant creation. And all creation has error---because of the Law of Entropy! (....everything proceeds from order, into disorder. --Second Law of Thermodynamics). So by being what we know best today----we'll be able to know more in the future. Thus is the Story of Nun. It is about Spiritual Relativity,i.e. Everything is relative. Everyone sees things based on their life experiences. Often that is why one believes one thing and another believes the opposite to be true.

I've personally have learned not to believe everything I think. Do it---Know it by the constructing and operating of it---not by just taking everyone's word for it or thinking you know because you've read a book or "googled it". Lazy minds, are from sleeping personalities who let others tell them what is right and what is wrong and therefore do not get to continue the work of the Soul .

My Soul is the Skeleton\Foundation of Form, with the Scythe, who continually transforms my personality by "trimming off the wasteful thought" and recycling it into greater action (The fish is a symbol of the First Matter). This is frightful to a personality, this "Soul psycho-dynamic Surgery" of evolutionary thought but as in all things, I get used to it. For instance, I know that "me" is not in-charge of this rodeo we call life----My Soul Persona is, so I respect my "I AM" mentor and creator -psyche and do the best I can---at the moment. As we know, that is subject to change from best to better as I move along in life. I Find that the best surgical device for errant thought is the Qaballah, as it is a step by step procedure into our Great Work, where we come to Know Ourselves and the how and the why God/Goddess (both are States of Energy Conscious-God "Electric State" and Goddess "Magnetic State") spent 14.7 billion years coming to a "conclusion of probabilities" that is "me". Paradox now has a personality and it is Human and our Psyche has emerged from the chaos of the Abyss, to transform being!

This Key 13-is the Twenty-Fourth Path of the Tree of Life and is called the  Imaginative Intelligence, because it gives likeness to all similarities which are created in like manner----thought. In other words, its all relative. Do to another like you wish done to you...is now the highest state of morality. But this is from knowledge that everyone you see is another way of being you. Belief, is subject to exceptions caused by peer pressure because it isn't a "doing" in fact it is a "non-doing" unless acted out in real-life situations, whereas action is not subject to belief, it is knowledge---maybe not the best, but the best you know and that promises to get better by learning from the doing, i.e.experience.

Once again Trust Your Inner Self-(Soul) it built you for Life's purpose . As I like to say, " You were loved into being, Praised into Manifestation and Adored as a Sacred Self-Presence"....from your True Parents--the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine, i.e., The Divine Creative. So, it's okay to be you, and remember that "you" is a continual progressive cycle of renewal, transforming yesterday's into more advanced today's. To change, is exactly why you were built!

I find it helps to see myself as a Fish in an Ocean of Energy Conscious and/or the One Mind; this Ocean built a "fish" and/or entity of self-awareness, completely from itself, so that it could flow through that "entity" and/or a"point in time"  and sense Itself . Oceans can't see, taste, touch, smell or hear themselves, unless they are "within" themselves as a fish. Self Awareness, requires Energy Conscious to become a consciousness (Personal Conscious) in order to be aware of its actions. God/Goddess built it-selves (us) so it could "Above All Things Know Thy Self". Keep up the God (Good) work, for even God/The One Mind doesn't believe everything it thinks, it proves its thought through the actions of creation!

 Once again, in the Hermetic Qabalah, Death-key 13 [part one], is known as the Path of Nun on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. Nun, means, Fish (illustrated on the card) and is also the Hebrew simple letter for Movement. (Thus the running skeleton).

The Path of Nun-key 13-Death,  runs from Netzach (Victory) to Tiphareth (Beauty) on the Qabalah's Tree of Life, and is one of the three aforementioned paths that leads from the Personality to the Higher Self.

The initiate, of which we all are, may experience the Higher Self on any one of these Three Paths, Art (The Path of Samekh), The Devil (The Path of Ayin), and Death, the Path of Nun; but the lessons of all three must be mastered.Therefore, the figures of the Art card, the Devil card and the Death card are all different aspects of the same thing; The Higher Self.

On the Path of Nun, one is literally launching the consciousness into the Dark Collective Unconscious of Universal Origins. This takes courage and determination, for the consciousness, no mater how big it thinks it is, appears to be extinguished in the Universal Unconscious. I liken the consciousness to an Artificial Intelligence, and the Unconscious as the Real Intelligence. This artifice aids me in trusting the dissolution of my consciousness, as a transition towards re-birthing my identity, purified of illusion and deception. In fact, the word meaning of the Path of Nun, Fish, reveals the whole arcane doctrine of the Qabalah, as it is the symbol for the "first matter" that moves within the Infinite Ocean of  Unconscious-------i.e. Thought.

The perspicacious student will note that the Tree of Life has a Path for Death, that of Nun, but seems not to have a Path for Birth: However, The Devil, Path of Ayin, enchains our Personality in Matter as it leaves the Higher Self on its journey down the Tree of Life. Thus the Devil is a card of Birth. Plus there is the fact that both Death and Birth are essentially the same transition. As one is born in visible light and/or "outer World", their "I" sight dies/transforms, to the invisible or "inner world", just as the personality transitions from the outer world back into the inner world at physical death.  The One energy Transforms itself by the process of perspective changes of I AM Me; of energy identity phases. From one phase of I Am to another.

The Personality constructed consciousness, is indeed extinguished in the Unconscious causing a period of "forgetful sleep" before the Personality exits the Higher Self again and produces another operative artifice known as self-consciousness used to operate another material form. The exception to this recycling process, is when the consciousness and Unconscious are in a balanced union of daily communication, where the personality is as the winged messenger of the gods, Mercury, then the experiences of the self- consciousness accompanies are thus carried by the personality back to the Higher Self, without needing physical death to do so. This is done when the consciousness has become discriminatory, and knows the tricks of Matter, i.e. the illusions of senses, that  the Personality experiences on the physical plane.  These illusions or delusions come from the perspective of separateness and survival thinking of the physical form. Thus, the fear of Death, must be conquered by the consciousness "that won't experience the death sleep", that is, the consciousness that knowing transfers from body to body by Personal union with the Awakened Soul. Here then, being alive is a meditation on the Life that creates it.

The Great Work, is Life itself as a Wholeness, not a divisionism of  separates, all trying to prove themselves to a Creator that by the very process of creation, had already approve them into being! Those who are seeking approval, a survival mechanism of the social animal, are what I call "fish in the Ocean, looking for water." and/ or "Wanna-Be's" who forgot that they already Are Spirit.

Life is breath. The Greek word Spiro (Breath), is the root word of Spirit and spiral. Therefore, (logic jump here) you the Spirit, are the spiral breath of the body. You are the Life and the body is alive (Self and Selves). Thus "seeking a life", is analogous to a fish in the ocean seeking water.

The Beauty of Tiphareth, the Psyche of Higher Self, is that once you return to this aspect of Personality, you return to your body knowing that you, as a Personality, are completely accepted and not fearing rejection in the least ( a mask of fear of death)! In other words, you "Know Thyself".

 As stated:The  Thoth Tarot Card- Death-key 13, is called the many texts of the Mysteries,"The Child of the Great Transformers" and also the "Lord of the Gates of  Death"; Implying that  Nun is not the Great Transformers themselves, he is their Child. Thus Nun is not Death itself, rather Nun is the keeper of the Gateway into Transformation. Roughly, this states that the "first matter", thought belongs to the Psyche, which is the Gate keeper of Transformation, which is not too difficult to "wrap your head around" if you understand that how you "perceive yourself" transforms your manifested reality.

After Traveling one of the Three Paths of the "Dark Night of the Soul", where your consciousness is torn down by the Higher Self, relieved of all that is not worthy of you, and then sent back down the Tree into your Malkuth-body transformation. The perspectives of the Personality change from reality to the Real perspectives of the Great Work; to be an aware-sensual-Soul, rather than a socially made personality, is only possible by returning to the Higher Self who Knows you into being. Your brain can't do the job as it is an artificial sense of self;  a simulation of the Life that built it!

The Astrological sign assigned to Key 13-Death is Scorpio. Movement is the primary activity of the Mars force that rules Scorpio. The Emperor-Key 4 , is the Mars force during day-light while Death is the Mars force in the dark of night. Nun, is one of the three paths to the Higher Self (the others are,The Devil, and Temperance) this is again the "Darkness of unknowing",i.e. "The Dark Night of the Soul".

Saint John of the Cross described this journey of Personality in Spirit (applies to all three paths to the Higher Self).." although this happy night brings darkness to the spirit, it does so only to exalt it and to raise it up; and although it impoverishes it and empties it of all natural affection and attachment, it does so only that it may enable it to stretch forward, divinely, and thus to have fruition and experience all things, both above and below...."

It helps to remember that spirit comes from the  Greek root word --Spiro (breath), as does spiral, and in the Thoth card we see the "serpentine" force wrapping around the Fish (Alchemical symbol of "First Matter") weaving its way upward to become the Eagle which soars above all heads. The Scorpion, the serpent and the Eagle are all symbols of Scorpio---its spiral-motion in the Astral Matter (fish) as it soars upward  to make the transition  between Personality and Higher Self. This "First Matter" defies word description and could be best understood as the quanta of quantum physics, and yet even more invisible for it is "thought", "Mind Stuff", although there are even greater mysteries than that in its make up. There are three symbols of Scorpio in the key which represent three stages of transformation and/ or death and rebirth stages:

In an Energy World, all that is involved relates to sexual polarities (Sexual energies to some). Scorpio rules the sexual organs as Mars rules Scorpio. It is the reproductive forces which is consciously directed in practical exercises such as that of the Middle Pillar (Crowley's book-777). The Thoth Deck Key 13-Death, is the card that best indicates this activity.

Dr. Paul Foster Case (creator of B.O.T.A.) wrote in the Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom: The Twenty-fourth Path is the ..."Imaginative Intelligence, and it is so called because it gives a likeness to all the similitudes which are created in like manner similar to its harmonious elegancies".

The mystery of The Path of Nun is also described in the Gnostic Text-The Nag Hammadi Library--(Gospel of Thomas), where Jesus was quoted as saying to his disciples when asked the question:"Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?"

Jesus said to them," When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then you will enter the kingdom."

Since Gnosticism (Jesus was a Gnostic Nazarene) embraces the Qaballah and the Tree of Life....the above quote must be understood before  one can successfully travel the Path of Nun to its conclusion in the High Priestess. On the Tree of life illustration, the Path of Nun is the blue-green path from Netzach (7-Victory) upwards to Tiphareth (6-Beauty) Paul Foster Case (Western Master of Qaballah) wrote: "Key 13 tells the Secret of Secrets...he who knows the secret has in his hands a power which might be used to overturn the world. Yet no person learns it until he is truly prepared, and more than anything else, this means suchethical preparation that no temptation to misuse this power could ever be sufficient to turn the knower from the Path of strictly conservative and beneficial application of the force he is able to control."

It pays to remember that Transformation is how The One energy moves throughout the Universe of Being and that Death, is a seed to grow yet again as it is merely Life transforming itself.

 depicts this journey of life transforming itself, into a natural setting. Here, a large Raven is devouring the left over lean pickings of a dead reindeer. The Raven, was often a pagan symbol of the psychopomp that ushered souls to the "other side". As a guardian of the spirits of the dead, the Ravens unblinking eye, show it is unafraid of transformative life that "eats itself to stay alive".

Due to Christianity's false concepts of damnation, punishment, and condemnation, after death, it has become a feared even, yet irrationally so as it is an inevitable event. We are here, because we want to be here. Our Soul, is the mirror that our self is reflected in. This wise one, our Archetype, is not about to build what it doesn't want as a "self -expression". You are not to be judged, for you already were, and that is why you exist today. Religion doesn't build spirit nor spirituality, for that is what you already are. Rather, religion is how "others" can rule your imagination, so that you become enslaved to the fear of "not being good enough" and therefore, accept the fate the Ruler's deal out for you. 

Death, reminds us that you can't escape transformation, no matter how much you irrationally fear it. To be the best you that you can be, is all you need to do, for there is no such thing as the "perfect person", and therefore, useless to try being so. Just be the best you, for being you, is why you are made to exist by the Soul that is the Life of you.

I have been on the "other-side of the mirror" many times and my soul keeps sending back in to run the communication between  body and soul...The soul doesn't fix what isn't broken. Therefore, if you keep creating, seeing error and correcting it, you, as a self-conscious, will have memories of many past lives...past because you aren't living them today, as they have already been experienced and error corrected, if any. Our Soul, is our "secret lover" and it's communications shall always transform Life into greater and greater experience.

What's to fear?

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