Death

The clouds of the ego have closed in and left the painful impression that the love, truth, and beauty The Hangedman knew are inaccessible.

Fear, doubt, and confusion remain; all the ego-centric suffering remains to some degree or another, while the memory of the revelation remains beneath the suffering shining its light into the psyche.

It is now time to discriminate and eliminate the obstructions. The process of spiritual cleansing begins. The way of denial. Neti-neti.

Since The Hangedman, what we are working for and what we have been seeking is understood directly, not only intellectually. It is understood that we are what is sought.

We are not working for some state of metaphysical power, we are not striving to add something to ourselves or to improve ourselves; we are not attempting to create an immortal vehicle for the ego.

The work is no longer aimed at personal achievement. The work now is to clear the psyche of weeds growing unconsciously in the dark ground.

That is, clear it of misconceptions, fear, false beliefs, and imaginary spiritual goals.

Death represents the removal and the insignificance of all symbols of identity, namely: the personality and the body, thus the heads of kings and queens and body parts lying on the ground.

It is the removal of the belief in the imaginary picture of ourselves. It represents the discarding of all that is spiritually useless.

This card does not have a name. Spiritually speaking, the symbol of not having a name points to the elimination of one’s primary image of self.

The card is telling us: you are not your name, your body, or the person behind the name, abandon all symbols of self and find the Real Self.

As the cleansing process continues, more and more is seen about the unconscious manifestations of duality, and the prison of distorted ideas and fear, which are what prevent a life lived in present peace and spiritual fulfillment.

These unconscious manifestations are represented by The Devil.