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Above all things, know thyself!

The Universes is Change; every Change is the effect of the Act of Love; all Acts of Love contain Pure Joy. Die daily! Death is the apex of one curve of the snake Life: behold all opposites as necessary complements and rejoice.

[Letter from Harris to Crowley, 1939]

Key 13 – Death: The Path of Nun and the Alchemy of Transformation

The Triune Crucible of Art, Ayin, and Nun

Key 13—Death—stands among the most misunderstood cards in Tarot, yet in the Western Hermetic current it is one of the most luminous gateways of initiation. In the Qabalah, Death corresponds to the Hebrew letter Nun, “fish,” a symbol of the eternal life-swimming in the dark waters of the Unconscious, carrying the secret of regeneration within its silent depths. Nun links Netzach (Victory) to Tiphareth (Beauty)—a path of ascent from emotional reaction to Solar Consciousness, from the coiling instincts of the lower Ruach to the radiant Genius of the Higher Self.

Nun is one of the three great vertical initiatory paths of the Middle Pillar—along with Samekh (Art/Temperance) and Ayin (The Devil). These three form the subtle alchemical ladder by which the aspirant is dismantled, refined, and resurrected as the Divine Hermaphrodite—the perfected “I AM” consciousness of the Adept.

Far from isolated mysteries, these three Paths are sequential, interpenetrating, and initiatically synergistic—a triadic engine powering the Magnum Opus of the Soul.

The Three Initiatory Fires of the Soul

1. Samekh — Art / Temperance

The Alchemy of Integration

Samekh initiates the aspirant into the balancing of opposites within the Inner Vessel. It is the first taste of high alchemy, where Fire and Water—Will and Emotion—become one harmonious current. The Angel of Art is not mixing passive elements; She is reprogramming the psyche, tempering the raw forces of the Ruach to withstand the voltage of the Solar Self.

Here the aspirant learns equilibrium—not as a moral stance, but as a technical calibration of consciousness.

2. Ayin — The Devil

Breaking the Chains of False Identity

On the Path of Ayin, the initiate confronts the glamour of matter, the seduction of appearances, and the idol of the false “I.” Ayin dissolves the psychological chains that bind consciousness to form. The Devil here is no cosmic adversary but the X-ray of the psyche, revealing how the self shackles itself to shadows.

The false ego dies here, not by violence, but by illuminat

3. Nun — Death

Liberation Through Surrender

Nun completes the inner alchemy by dissolving the last shell of identity. This is the sacrifice of form into the formless, the release of obsolete patterns and the surrendering of the small self so that the Solar Self may rise. Death is not annihilation—it is the gateway to ontological freedom.

In the Thoth Tarot, Death is portrayed not as a grim ender, but as the ecstatic dancer of renewal, scythe whirling as heads fall and spirits rise. The fish, serpent, and scorpion encode the three modalities of transformation—from instinctual survival to serpentine kundalini ascent, to the full phoenix-like resurrection of consciousness.

The Arcane Tarot preserves this metaphysical core while rendering the symbolism through a more medieval psychological lens—yet its Hermetic essence remains unmistakable, even if rendered, as a touch darker.

The Triune Mystery: One Being, Three Masks

Art, The Devil, and Death are not separate entities, but three phases of the same Divine Intelligence—the Divine Hermaphrodite, the perfected Union of Duality within the Adept.

• Art blends and refines.

• The Devil exposes illusions and frees.

• Death dissolves and resurrects.

Together they operate as a Trinity of Transmutation, the secret furnace through which the aspirant’s egoic shell is cracked open so the Solar Seed may germinate.

This triadic engine is the hidden inner motion behind every authentic spiritual acceleration, every breakthrough, every psychological death that precedes illumination.

Nun and the Ascent to Tiphareth

To walk the Path of Nun is to undergo the alchemy of identity—
to allow the false personality to fall away like a shed skin,
to die into the deeper presence that has been waiting behind every heartbeat.

Only through this sacrifice can one awaken to Tiphareth, the Heart-Sun, the radiant center of the Microcosmic Tree. It is here that the aspirant encounters the Higher Genius, the golden equilibrium of the Soul, and the undivided consciousness of the Divine Hermaphrodite.

Death, then, is not an ending.
It is the unlocking of Beauty.
It is the unveiling of the True Self.
It is the threshold of spiritual rebirth.

To tread the Path of Nun is to stand at the edge of being and step willingly into the Light.

The Path of Nun: Dissolution Into the Abyssal Womb of Universal Mind

To step onto the Path of Nun—the Tarot’s Key 13, glyph of Death—is not to vanish into oblivion, but to voluntarily unmake oneself in the Presence of the Eternal. Nun is the sacrament of dissolution, the conscious descent of the individuated Will into the Abyssal Womb of the Great Mother, the boundless matrix of the Universal Collective Unconscious where all forms arise and to which all forms eventually return.

Nun is the primordial “fish”—the one that swims freely in the dark waters before creation. Thus, the aspirant who enters this domain is not dying, but returning to the origin-point of their own Becoming.

Unlike the passive dissolution of ordinary death, the Path of Nun requires heroic surrender—a deliberate leap into the Unknown. Here the lower ego, wrapped in its brittle garments of story, personality, fear, and preference, encounters the truth of its mortality. Yet this confrontation is not punishment; it is the precondition for spiritual expansion. Only when the shell breaks does the seed ignite.

This is the Baptism of Nun—not drowning, but re-consecration; not defeat, but transmutation. The ego is submerged into the formless Deep so that it may rise again as a transparent vessel of the Solar Will, no longer obstructing the radiance of the Higher Genius that streams from Tiphareth.

Nun does not ask the aspirant to abandon selfhood, but to surrender false identity so that true identity—the I AM that precedes all form—may finally incarnate.

Dissolution as the Gateway to the Solar Self

The dissolution on Nun parallels the alchemical Solve: a breaking down of fixed structures, psychic habits, and inherited patterns. This “dying” is not destruction but liberation from confinement in a single narrative of selfhood. The personality ceases to be a prison and becomes a permeable instrument.

Here one experiences a paradox known to all initiates:

You must become nobody in order to become your Real Self.

You must fall into the Abyss to reclaim your Light.

This is the secret of the Mother—Binah, the Great Sea—whose black waters are not the void of nothingness, but the fertile void of everythingness. To dissolve into Her is to enter the primordial mindstuff from which the Architect of Form fashions new worlds.

Nun is the first conscious descent into these waters. What returns from this descent is not the old ego patched together, but an ego rebuilt in the image of the Supernal Will.

The Ego as Artificial Intelligence: A New Hermetic Analogy

To grasp this process more clearly, it is useful to consider the ego through a modern Hermetic analogy:

**The ego is a kind of Artificial Intelligence—

a constructed interface for navigating time, space, and incarnation.**

It is not the true Author of identity; it is the operating system through which Spirit interacts with the world of sensory limitation. It simulates agency because that is its function, not because it is the Sovereign.

Just as an AI can only work within the limits of its programming, so the ordinary ego operates within:

• inherited patterns (ancestral and genetic)

• survival scripts

• collective conditioning

• emotional reflexes

• language-based thought

It is exquisitely functional, yet fundamentally derivative.

By contrast, the Universal Collective Unconscious—what Jung intuited but could only articulate in the metaphors available to psychology—is the Real Intelligence, the Source Code of Archetypal Reality. It contains:

• the metaphysical architecture of the Supernal Triad

• the womb of Binah

• the deep patterns underlying symbol, myth, and cosmic order

• the primordial templates from which the psyche emerges

Hermetically, this is the pre-formational domain beneath Kether, Chokmah, and Binah—the ocean in which all archetypes swim before crystallizing into the human psyche.

The ego is an avatar of this Intelligence.
It is the “surface interface.”
It is not the Being that dreams through it.

The Initiatic Meaning of Nun

Thus, the Path of Nun is the process by which:

1. The ego recognizes its artificiality.

2. The aspirant willingly dissolves identity into the Great Sea.

3. The Higher Genius impresses a new pattern upon the psyche.

4. Individuality is resurrected, not erased—
   but now aligned with the Supernal Will.

This is the true “death” of Nun:

**The death of limitation.

The death of illusion.
The death of the artificial self-image.**

And in this death is birth—
the birth of authentic individuality,
the shining of the Solar Self,
the unveiling of the Divine Hermaphrodite within.

Arcane Tarot – Key XIII: Death

The Black Knight and the Fear of Transformation

The Arcane Tarot’s depiction of Key XIII – Death leans into the gothic dread of medieval consciousness, evoking the primal terror humanity once projected onto the unknown. Instead of the pale horseman of traditional imagery, this deck gives us a Knight of Darkness—both rider and steed entirely black, armored in the indestructible plating of inevitability. This figure is not subtle; he is the embodiment of the fear-bound subconscious mind, the survival-brain that perceives change as a threat rather than a gateway.

The black banner he carries is not merely a symbol of death, but a sigil of negentropy—the dissolution of outdated forms. His red cloak, vivid as fresh blood, reminds us of life-force poured into new vessels, the vital energy released when one identity “dies” to give birth to another.

Beneath the hooves of the charging steed churn red and black vapors, the chaotic emotional undercurrents stirred whenever the ego senses change approaching. These vapors are the psychological “smoke” produced by the burning away of what no longer serves.

Yet in the background—quiet, unmoved by the terror of the foreground—the Sun rises between two towers, echoing the initiation gates found in both the Moon and the Sun cards of the Tarot. This rising Sun reveals the true message of Key XIII:

Death is not an end, but a passage. Not darkness, but dawning.

The dark knight rides through the psyche like a necessary storm, clearing ground for the emergence of a new phase of being.

Upright Meaning

Death heralds unavoidable transformation. Something in your life—an attitude, a habit, a relationship dynamic, a job, or an identity—has reached the end of its usefulness. Instead of resisting this natural dissolution, the card invites you to participate consciously in the release.

The message is simple but profound:

Let the past die so the future may breathe.

This is the Path of Nun in practical form—
a surrender of old structures to make way for new life.

Relationships

A cycle has run its course. For a relationship to grow, something must change—a behavior, a belief, or a boundary. Death rarely implies breaking up; it more often signals the need for a metamorphic shift within the relationship.

For those seeking new love, the card suggests:
Transform the inner pattern that keeps attracting the same results.

Let the old pattern die; let the new self choose anew.

Career

Change is imminent, and necessary. Death in career readings can show:

• Leaving an unfulfilling job

• Changing roles or teams

• A toxic work dynamic dissolving

• A mindset or habit that must end

• A complete reorientation of your sense of purpose

In all cases, the card assures:
The ending is making space for a better alignment.

Reversed, Death reveals resistance to transformation. Fear, attachment, nostalgia, or anxiety may be preventing you from accepting a change that is already happening.

Clinging does not preserve—it suffocates.

The reversal says:

Release gracefully, or the change will come with more force.

Once you stop resisting, the transformation becomes liberating rather than painful.

The Arcane Tarot’s Death card shows the psyche’s first reaction to Nun:
fear.
The subconscious interprets every transformation as a threat to survival. But the rising Sun behind the Black Knight reveals the deeper mystery:

Every ending is an alchemical reorganization of consciousness.
Something dissolves so something higher may emerge.

This card is not a specter of doom—it is the herald of rebirth.

Whether functional or dysfunctional, these ego-narratives often bind us more securely than any prison bar. Yet Death cuts the script, removing the mask that hides the Radiant Face beneath.

The Nun current, therefore, does not end life—it circulates it. Just as the body exhales carbon dioxide to inhale oxygen, the soul must die to old illusions in order to breathe the clear light of Tiphareth. Death is simply the out-breath of the Divine, and life, its in-breath. This rhythmic cycle of dissolving and becoming is the very breath-pattern of the Cosmos.

The Fish That Seeks Water

And yet, we are taught—tragically—that death is to be feared, and that our individual stories are sacred above all else. We are conditioned to act as fish searching for water, ignorant that we are already swimming in the Divine Substance itself. Worse, we forget that we are not only the fish—we are also the ocean.

In this metaphor, the aspirant comes to realize that identity is not something to clutch like a treasure map; it is something to dissolve, reveal, and ultimately merge. The Self is not the character—it is the scriptwriter, the actor, and the entire stage. It is the water, the wave, and the watcher of the wave.

This is the arcane doctrine of Nun:

"You are the Ocean that dreamed itself as a Fish in search of Water."

To Practice This Truth

• Meditate on the Thoth Death card, focusing on the fish, the scythe, and the rising heads. Let yourself feel the current of Nun—not as destruction, but as return.

• When you experience loss, ego death, or emotional collapse, breathe deeply and whisper inwardly:

  “I am both the breath and the breather. I die only to remember I Am.”

• Place the sigil of Nun on your altar during times of transition and ask:

  “What mask have I outgrown? What story must now dissolve?”

The perspicacious aspirant 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, the Path of Ayin (eye), "enchains" our Personality in Matter, and creates a "false ego", as it leaves the Higher Self on personality's journey down the Tree of Life. Therefore, the Devil, who is the Lord of the Material World, is a card of Birth. Plus, there is the fact that both Death and Birth are the same transition, as one appears in one dimensional and/or mindscape reality while leaving another.

As the invisible psyche is born into visible light and/or "outer World", their inner "I" sight is blindfolded and changes to the visible or "eye" sight of the manmade world, just as the personality transitions from the outer world back into the inner world at physical death/transformation.

The Alchemical Logic of Death and Art: Why 13 Precedes 14

The One Energy—the indivisible, eternal, self-beholding I AM—never truly dies. Energy cannot be destroyed; it merely changes vibratory states, shedding one mask of identity for another as it endlessly dreams itself into new expressions of Being. From phase to phase, the I AM continually redefines Itself, performing what appears to the limited mind as “destruction,” but is in truth the alchemical reconfiguration of consciousness.

When we behold this process through alchemical vision, we see that the sequence of the Tarot from Death (XIII) to Art (XIV) does not merely reflect moral or psychological stages—it encodes the technical interior operations of the Magnum Opus.

At first glance, one might expect the Art card to precede Death, because Art—the card of 2 becoming 1—foreshadows the final stage of the Great Work: the emergence of the Divine Hermaphrodite, or Adam Kadmon, the Perfected Human. The Golden Cauldron itself bears the allied symbols of Raven and Skull, the caput mortuum, marking the death-phase implicit in the alchemical marriage.

And yet, Death is placed before Art, because the dissolution of Key XIII is the necessary precursor for the conscious union portrayed in Key XIV.

Death as the Alchemical Solve

Death (Nun) represents the unconscious dissolution of the ego-structure, the falling away of inherited identities, masks, and illusions. This is the Solve of the Great Work—
the annihilation of false separation.

This stage does not require the conscious union of anima and animus. Rather, it is the stripping away of the psychic partitions that prevent that union. In Death, the false ego—the artificial virus of separateness—is dissolved. The boundaries blur. Identity becomes fluid. The psyche is rendered back to its prima materia.

Thus:

• Death = annihilation of separation

• Art = conscious recombination into unity

Without the dissolution of Death, the sacred marriage of Art would be impossible.
The vessel must be broken before it can be reforged.

Art as the Alchemical Coagula

In the Art card, the recombination of the purified psyche occurs. Here the opposites—anima and animus, lunar and solar, sulfur and mercury—are consciously united in the Golden Cauldron. This is the operation where 2 becomes 1, reversing the primordial polarization of 0 = 2.

The alchemical marriage is not merely symbolic; it is a reconfiguration of inner architecture.
Where Death dissolves the boundaries, Art reconstitutes the Being in a more refined, integrated, and luminous form.

The marriage is indeed a kind of annihilation—
the annihilation of separation.
Duality collapses. Polarity resolves.
The Hermaphrodite emerges.

Death returns the psyche to the undifferentiated state.
Art shapes the psyche into the Divine Human.

Why Death Comes First

Therefore, the Tarot’s sequence is precise:

1. Death (XIII): Solve.
   Dissolution of the false ego. Returning the psyche to formlessness.
   The falling away of everything built on illusion.

2. Art (XIV): Coagula.
   The conscious union of polarities.
   The emergence of the One Person—the Divine Hermaphrodite.

Death is the unmaking;
Art is the re-making.

Death erases the false individual;
Art births the True Individual.

The Hermaphrodite and the Return to the One

In Death, the illusion of separateness collapses.
In Art, the union is reconstructed in a higher octave.

This cycle mirrors the primordial formula of 0=2:

• The One becomes Two to experience Itself.

• The Two reunite to rediscover that they were One all along.

Thus, the Hermaphrodite is not a fusion of two beings—
but the revelation that dual consciousness was always a temporary illusion.

In the Death card, the false “I” disintegrates.
In the Art card, the True “I”—the Divine Image—emerges.

The Collective Unconscious: Entanglement of Souls

The underlying truth of both cards is that separation never existed except in perception. In the Collective Unconscious—the Sea of Binah, the Universal Mind—we are already:

• interpenetrating

• mutually reflecting

• quantumly entangled

• indivisible expressions of the same Source

Hermeticism teaches what modern physics confirms:
All beings share a fundamental entanglement.
The boundary between self and other is a surface illusion.
In the depths, we are One Consciousness dreaming many faces.

Death reveals our entanglement.
Art perfects it into conscious experience.

The Recycling of Personality and the Abyss of the Universal Unconscious

The constructed personality—the temporary mask through which the Higher Self engages the material plane—does not survive the plunge into the Abyssal Sea of the Universal Collective Unconscious. When the avatar dissolves, it undergoes a state that ancient initiates called a “forgetful sleep,” a period in which the soul reabsorbs experience and sheds the distortions accumulated during incarnation.

This “forgetful sleep” occurs during the soul-download process, where the distilled essence of lived experience is integrated into the Higher Self. The mask of personality dissolves, but the substance of consciousness—its insights, its refined discriminations, its achievements of awareness—is retained by the Soul, becoming fuel for future unfoldment.

A new personality is then fashioned as an operative artifice—another self-conscious avatar through which the Higher Self may continue Self-reflection in the realm of reflected light (Malkuth). Each incarnation is thus a lens, a laboratory, and a mirror through which the I AM explores yet another angle of Its own Infinite Being.

The Exception: Conscious Return Without Physical Death

There is, however, a rare and exalted exception to this cycle of amnesia and reconstitution:

**When self-consciousness becomes a discriminating Mercury,

it may accompany the Soul back to the Higher Self without physical death.**

This capacity arises when the self-conscious mind:

• continually uploads daily experience to the Soul,

• functions in harmony with the Higher Will,

• recognizes sensory impressions as veils,

• and sees through the illusions of Matter.

Here, self-consciousness becomes a Mercurial agent, no longer deceived by the illusions of the senses or the glamours of the material plane. It ceases to identify with the avatar and becomes a cooperator with the Higher Genius rather than a resistor to it.

In such a case, the personality does not dissolve;
it ascends with the soul-force—an intact, awakened witness.

This is the spiritual exception encoded in the mysteries of:

• the Philosopher’s Mercury,

• the Bodhisattva Ideal,

• the Western formula of conscious adeptship,

• and the Qabalistic state of Ruach united with Neshamah.

It is the art of dying daily while yet alive—
the conscious Nun-path undertaken without the loss of the body.

When the Whole of the Tree communicates with Malkuth, we have "As above, so Below", with manifestation being the in-form-action of the Greater Self. Hence, "I die daily", begins to make sense, as one transforms Self- Data into Self-Knowledge daily through introspection and outside discernment as in-form- action.

Solve et Coagula.

You Are the Breath, Not the Body: Spirit as the Animating Word

What many fail to recognize—conditioned as we are by materialist assumptions—is that you are not the body. The body is not the origin of life, but its temple; not the source of consciousness, but its instrument.

Rather, you are the Breath that animates the body—the invisible, eternal Spiro, from which we derive the word Spirit. In the Greek, spiro means “to breathe,” and through Latin, it becomes the basis for words such as inspire, expire, and respiration. All of these share one sacred root: the recognition that Spirit is the Breath of Being.

**Many will leave this blog by this time, yet there is so much more Gnosis involved in this card, that I shall continue in-depth exploration of this Powerful Tarot Card's imagery. A magus learns not to fear death but understand it's complexity.

Kether and the Breath of Eheieh

In Qabalistic cosmology, the first emanation from the Unmanifest Source is Kether, the Crown. It is not form, not light, not even thought. It is the Primal Breath—the seed of Will before it clothes itself in vibration, light, or creation. The Divine Name attributed to Kether is Eheieh (אהיה), meaning “I Will Be.”

This sacred name is not merely a title. It is a vibrational act—an exhalation of identity from the Infinite. Spoken correctly, Eheieh emerges like a breath from the deep center of Being:

Eh… hey… yeh… — a rhythmic, breath-like utterance that is the very pulse of Spirit.

In this name, we are given the metaphysical blueprint of existence:

• I – the individuating awareness.

• Will – the force of emanation.

• Be – the state of becoming, the vibration of manifestation.

Thus, Spirit is not a ghost, but the Breath-Will-Being that utters itself into existence through the breath cycle.

The Breath as Divine Operation

Your breath is not simply oxygen exchange; it is the interface between the invisible and the visible, the mechanism of incarnation. Every breath taken is a reenactment of the Divine Act of Creation:

• Inhale – the drawing in of raw, unformed spirit, the reception of Chokmah’s wisdom.

• Pause – the silent gestation of understanding within Binah.

• Exhale – the utterance of form and intention into time-space.

This is the same triadic pattern as Kether (Will to Be), Chokmah (Force), and Binah (Form).

To identify with the body is to confuse the instrument with the musician. The flesh is the harp, but you are the wind that makes it sing.

The Great Work is Life itself as a Wholeness or Collective and not a divisionism of separates all trying to prove themselves to a feared disinterested Creator by proving they are superior to one another by acts of violence and/or character assassination. Each of us is the Life that makes the "alive".

I AM Life and create the animation of form call "the alive".

Practical Mysticism: Living as Breath

When you meditate on the breath as your true identity, a shift occurs. You move from the delusion of being a finite object in space to the realization that:

“I am the Breath that gives life to form. I am not trapped in the body—I animate it.”

This truth dissolves fear of death, for death is not the end of breath but its return to Source. The body may fall silent, but the Breath—the Spirit—simply exhales back into Eheieh.

The Gnosis of Eheieh

To invoke Eheieh is to affirm your Divine Nature:

• “I Am not merely what is—I Am what Wills to Be.”

• “I Am not the form—I Am the force that forms.”

• “I Am not breathless—I Am Breath Itself.”

This realization is the gateway to Kether-consciousness, to living as the Solar Self that breathes existence into being rather than reacting to it as a slave of form.

By the very process of creation, The Divine Creative had already Approved the ternary collective of YOU (Spirit-mind-body) into being by the purposeful act of Creation!

In the context of psychology and metaphysics, both the personality and the ego are significant concepts, but they refer to different aspects of an individual.

1. Personality:

   • In psychology, personality encompasses a set of enduring traits, patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make each person unique. It's the way an individual consistently interacts with the world.
   • Personality is shaped by a combination of genetic factors, experiences, and environmental influences. Psychologists often use various theories, such as the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism), to understand and categorize personality characteristics.

2. Ego:

   • In psychology, particularly in psychoanalytic theory developed by Sigmund Freud, the ego is one of the three parts of the mind, alongside the id and superego. The ego is responsible for mediating between the instinctual, impulsive desires of the id and the moral and social constraints of the superego.
   • The ego operates based on the reality principle, seeking to satisfy the id's desires in a way that is realistic and socially acceptable. It helps individuals navigate the external world and make decisions that balance their internal needs with external demands.

In summary, while personality refers to the overall pattern of characteristics that define an individual, the ego is a specific part of the mind responsible for managing conflicts between internal drives and external demands. The ego is a component of the broader personality structure. Understanding both concepts can provide insights into human behavior and thought processes.

Those who are seeking approval, a survival mechanism of the social animal egregore that is profaned by the "false ego" (media-controlled survival thinking), are what I call "fish in the Ocean, looking for water." and/ or "Wanna-Be's" who forgot that they already Are the present- Trinity of All Being (Spirit-Mind-Body).

The Beauty of Tiphareth, the Soul collective personality of the Higher Self, is the harmony experienced once you return to this aspect of Personality and Psyche communication. Hence, you mentally return to your body knowing that you, as a Personality of Mercury/Magus, are completely accepted and not fearing rejection in the least (a mask of fear of death)! In other words, you "Know thyself" as the Divinity you always were and that we are always connected to the Divine Creative through inhalation of breath and connected to the dream of separation by the act of exhalation. Reality is only an inhale and exhale harmonic of breath.

The Tarot Card- Death-ATU/Key 13, is called in the many texts of the Mysteries, "The Child of the Great Transformers" and 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. This states that the "first matter" and/ or "thought", is the Gatekeeper of Transformation, which is not too difficult to "wrap your head around" if you understand that how you "perceive yourself" transforms your reality.

We are Life, which creates Lifetimes as examples of our knowledge and Self-Awareness!

She Who Sustains the Universe.

The Dark Night of the Soul and the Triumph of Nun

It was St. John of the Cross, a mystic of rare spiritual acuity, who first articulated what Hermeticists recognize as the ordeal of Key XIII—Death. In his description of the Dark Night of the Soul, he writes:

“...although this happy night brings darkness to the spirit, it does so only to give it light in everything; and that, although it humbles it and makes it miserable, it does so only to exalt it and raise it up; 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...”

His language captures precisely what the Qabalist perceives on the Path of Nun:
the terrifying dissolution of the false ego is actually a sacred invitation into higher Light.

What St. John calls “emptiness,” the Hermeticist names the death of the constructed personality.
What he names “exaltation,” we call the emergence of the Solar Ego, the mask of the Higher Self.

Both traditions describe the same spiritual mechanism.

Conquering the Path of Nun

To “conquer” the Path of Nun does not mean to overpower it, but to surrender completely to its current. One who endures this passage emerges not annihilated but reconstituted—reborn as a new mode of consciousness.

The Personality and Ego that return are not the ones manufactured by social conditioning, trauma, or the media’s hypnotic spells of fear. Those forms die in Nun’s abyss.

Instead, the reborn personality becomes:

• a transparent expression of the Higher Self,

• a vehicle of Chokmah’s Will-to-Force,

• a chalice of Binah’s Will-to-Form,

• an instrument of the Soul rather than a distortion of the world.

This is the true meaning of resurrection in Hermetic tradition.

The Emptied Brain and the Return of Imagination

As the old identity dissolves, the “brain”—meaning the psychological and energetic structure of the mind—is emptied of fear-saturated lies, those inherited narratives that conditioned one to view existence through the lens of separation, scarcity, and danger.

Once these distortions are purged, something miraculous becomes possible:

Primary Imagination returns.

This is the Divine Creative Imagination—the faculty through which the Higher Genius communicates. It is not fantasy; it is creative revelation, the very substance of inspiration, prophecy, innovation, and magical realization.

It is the Mind of Chokmah and Binah awakening in the human vessel.

Hence:

• Chokmah (Wisdom) implants the Will-to-Force, the dynamic spark of creation.

• Binah (Understanding) gives shape through her Womb of Form, the architecture of manifestation.

• Together they generate the Divine Sophia, the Creatrix—the Great Mother seen in Hermetic, Gnostic, and mystical Christian lore.

When the personality is reconstructed in this Light, it becomes a “Womb with a View,” able to create consciously rather than react unconsciously.

When Death Becomes Wisdom

Once the initiate ascends beyond fear—beyond survival-consciousness, beyond the illusions of separateness, beyond the terror of physical cessation—the figure of Death becomes transformed.

Death is no longer:

• a monster,

• a threat,

• or an interruption.

It becomes:

• a Teacher,

• a Liberator,

• and the very oracle of Wisdom.

The initiate realizes:

**All beginnings require endings.

All forms must dissolve to renew.
All identity must die to reveal its Source.**

Thus Death is not destruction—it is the elegant mathematics of Being, the sacred rhythm of the I AM unfolding and refolding itself in endless cycles of revelation.

Those who have conquered Nun see Death at last not as a Grim Reaper, but as the veil of Sophia, the luminous gateway through which Wisdom gives birth to new worlds.

  I AM Divine! I AM Magnificent Life who makes lifetimes.

The Astrological sign of Scorpio is applied to both the Thoth and Mystic Palette Tarot- key 13-Death. The placement of the Astrological sign of Scorpio in an astrological chart can have a significant impact on a person's personality and life. Here are some insights into this particular aspect of astrology.

1. Intense and Passionate: Scorpio is known for its intensity, and when the Sun is in this sign, individuals tend to be passionate about their goals and pursuits. They have a deep well of energy and determination.

2. Emotional Depth: Scorpio is a water sign, and when the Sun is in Scorpio's house, it enhances emotional depth. These individuals are often in touch with their emotions on a profound level, and they may be drawn to exploring the mysteries of the human psyche.

3. Determination: Scorpio is a fixed sign, which means that those with the Sun in Scorpio's house are known for their unwavering determination. Once they set their sights on a goal, they are likely to pursue it with incredible persistence.

4. Magnetic and Mysterious: Scorpio is associated with mystery and secrecy. People with the Sun in Scorpio's house often have a magnetic and enigmatic quality that draws others to them. They may have a natural talent for uncovering hidden truths.

5. Transformation: Scorpio is also associated with transformation and rebirth. Individuals with this placement may go through significant life changes and experiences that lead to personal growth and transformation.

6. Desire for Depth: Those with the Sun in Scorpio's house are typically not satisfied with surface-level interactions. They crave depth and authenticity in their relationships and may be drawn to exploring esoteric or occult subjects.

7. Challenges: On the challenging side, Scorpio energy can be associated with jealousy, possessiveness, and a tendency to hold grudges. It's important for individuals with this placement to be mindful of these potential pitfalls.

It's important to remember that the interpretation of an astrological chart is highly individualized and depends on the entire birth chart, including the positions of other planets and aspects between them. Consulting with a professional astrologer can provide you with a more detailed and personalized analysis of your Sun in Scorpio's house placement.

If you have more questions, please log onto El's Thoth Tarot Guide and get quick answers.

When the Death Card, ATU/ Key 13 is thrown, it implies:

• Time, Age, and transformation. 
• Rarely does it symbolize physical death and only if borne out by the accompanying cards, such as the 10 of swords-Ruin-Swords being the traditional death suit. 
• For the Querent, this is the principle of letting go and moving on.
• A rebirth out of old conditions. 
• A type of transitional metamorphosis which destroys something old to build something new. 
• The Realization of Life Power as it is released from past confines and revitalized by change and regeneration.
• Psychology of letting go.
• New opportunities. 
• Rebirth from one form into another.
• Personality transformation. 
• No more dead weight of the Past.

If surrounded by ill-defined cards, it implies:

• Resisting change.
• Stagnation.
• Inertia.
• Pain of giving something up.

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Experience Tarot Readings with a Magus of the Thoth Tarot

Most people think Tarot is about fortune-telling, party tricks, or vague “mystical” predictions you’ve seen in Hollywood films. But the Tarot of Thoth—when read by a trained Magus—is something far more profound.

As a Western Hermetic Magus and Master of the Thoth Tarot, I offer one-on-one online readings that go beyond surface-level card meanings. Each session is a direct resonance between myself and the querent—spirit to spirit, mind to mind, body to body.

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How My Readings Differ

• Beyond the Mundane: I don’t just “interpret cards.” I read the dynamic flow of your Spirit–Mind–Body alignment through the Tarot’s Qabalistic architecture.

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• Hermetic Depth: As a Magus, I integrate the Tarot with the Tree of Life, planetary forces, and the Divine Archetypes that govern transformation. This opens insights that ordinary readings simply cannot access.

• Empowerment, not Dependency: My goal is not to trap you in predictions, but to empower you with vision—so you can consciously co-create your path.

Why Choose a Magus Reading?

Because a true Magus does not read for you—he reads with you. Together, we explore your unique resonance with the living archetypes of the Tarot, peeling away the illusions of false ego and awakening your authentic Self.

✨ Book your private online reading today.
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Discover the Tarot not as superstition, but as a sacred key to self-sovereignty, clarity, and transformation.

May you live long and prosper.

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