The Entombment

The Last Judgment

The Entombment by Paul Delvaux

In “The Pictorial Key To The Tarot”, while an essential pillar in any tarot reader’s book collection, I find Edward Waite’s explanation a bit insufficient and aloof.

Although, that is how the card is. It’s meant to be expansive and, almost, inexplainable.

Edward Waite writes:

“Let the card continue to depict, for those who can see no further, the Last Judgment and resurrection in the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes look and discover therewith.”

Waite himself says “let them figure it out” (basically).

I got questions

Of course I chose The Entombment for the card of Judgment. They look so similar. Skeletons and a tomb in the center.

However, upon further investigation this painting raises for more questions.

Are the skeletons burying another skeleton? If this is a story where skeletons are alive, how does one determine death? Do skeletons lament their own mortality, if they’re already dead?

Skeletons

What I do find interesting is that all skeletons look the same. Not only in the painting, but in real life. Sure, there are ways that scientists can determine whether the bones they pulled from the earth are male or female, but overall it’s all the same.

In my opinion this is a nod to equality. Or perhaps I just really want it to be, but underneath all the skin, and muscles, and breasts, and butts, and hair, and makeup, and clothes, we’re all skeletons. And in the face of death, we are all the same.

Death is the great equalizer

When it comes to matters of lower extremities, every body is equal.

We all shit, we all cum, we all die. So get off your high horse, take a breath, cause nothing is every that serious. So treat women, and trans people with the same respect you hold to a CEO, or a celebrity.

City Landscape

Something that strikes me about this image are the subtle hints to an urban landscape.

We have the power lines conducting electricity. Reminding me of the angel on the Judgment card.

Where’s the electricity going? What is the angel calling us to? The power lines are high up. An electric current buzzing overhead, like the angel’s trumpet honking at us to look up.

Only the skeleton in yellow dares to look up. Does he hear it? Does he finally lament the ways in which we have self destroyed? Only too late.

The manhole right at the center of the painting. I like to believe it’s on purpose.

All around is us, the skeletons, fences dividing us and nature, power lines overhead, and the complexity of life playing out in each character. Only for the entry to a sewer to be right at the center of it all.

Underneath is the rancid smell of shit and decay. Running beneath are rivers of poison, discarded items, flushed pets, and drugs. Every thing we don’t want to see. Everything we deal unclean and unfit for civilization. Out of sight.

Pretend it’s not there. It’s too ugly and gross to think about. It’s too confronting to face the fact that we poisoned our food supplies, our rivers, our skies, and our bodies.

Memento Mori and The Moon

Is that the moon, peeking between the trees? The Great Mother of the night. Bringing her light to illuminate our shadows. The sun would be too harsh, too strong, too honest. In the gentle light of the moon we can start to embrace our shadow.

When we’re all skeletons, then who is Death?

“I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.”

Bible New International Version

The Awakening

The card of Judgment is not about the Biblical end of times and the final judgment, but more about the Great Awakening.

When we are stripped bare. When we’re at our wits end. When we have lost everything. That’s the time of great awakening. This is the crucial moment where we have nowhere else to turn but face ourselves. Face our nakedness and truth of who we are, rather, who we have become, so we can unbecome, and become again who we are meant to be.

This is the make or break point. This is the beginning of manifestation.

In my opinion, this is the flip side to The Tower. Meaning, The Tower was a shakedown and a breakdown to insecure foundations. An upheaval leading us to Judgment, the reckoning. The moment we take account for all things said and done, pay any dues, and settle any debts, before we step into The World.

The tarot, like life, is filled with moments of death and rebirth. That may sound fantastical, but in reality, in the mundaneness of life, these energies still happen but they manifest in everyday frustrations, in daily sighs, when we have to make a decision.

Continue to choose yourself. Continue to choose life. Continue to choose the path of light, love, and self betterment. Together we’ll make The World better.

With much love,

Icaro