Death

Upright

The reflection of the Wheel: circumstance again, but no longer reversible. Mem's hieroglyph is a woman, and in the tradition Papus draws on that is the letter of generation and of the maternal — so the thirteenth arcanum is transformation rather than annihilation. It is the card that closes a state so another can open, and he is blunt that the closing is not up for negotiation. Divinatory sense: death; transformation.

Reversed

The transformation resisted — a state kept alive past its term at a cost that rises every month it is maintained. Or the change proceeding on schedule while the querent insists nothing has happened, which does not slow it and does remove any say in its shape.

Correspondences

Papus's number

13

Hebrew letter

Mem (מ)

Hieroglyph

A woman — the letter of generation

Septenary

Second septenary (8–14), the world of Man — sixth term, reflecting the Wheel: circumstance become irreversible

Divinatory sense

Death; transformation

In a Spread

At the commencement, the matter begins because something else ended. In opposition, an ending the querent is arguing with. At equilibrium the situation is already dead and is being held upright by habit. As the result Papus means a state closed and another opened — the reading says which state ends, never what replaces it, and it is a mistake to infer that from this card alone.