Amulets by Merlin's Blog

The image of the Tarot Card Death:
the grim reaper with a scythe,
twisted in a way no living person could pose;
scattered before him are the heads of King and Pauper alike.
Shafts of wheat spring up around the body parts;
Death cuts them down as a farmer tending to his crops.

Attributed to this Tarot Card is the Hebrew letter Nun or the Fish.
In Alchemical terms
the “Fish” represents the “First Matter”, “Primary Imagination”.
In Death, what is carried forward is the primary spark of what we are and our power to create.

Scorpio is attributed to the Death Card,
an astrological symbol that is transformation itself.
It is a sign that starts as a scorpion,
transforms into an eagle and then again as a phoenix.
Each time it transforms it “dies” as one thing and is reborn the next.

The Death Amulet

In the creation of this amulet I chose the Threshold of Transition.
Large heavy Gates swing towards you on posts of skulls;
and the letter Nun is spanning the top.
Transition, an initiation,
a rite of passage that leads to something else on the other side.
In the Tarot Garden I developed this concept in the game engine:
you may approach the Virtual Amulet and pass through it,
finding a pit of decay on the other side.
Beyond you find yourself in a field of flowers under a vault of Stars.
This is to illustrate Death as a Process of multiple facets,
a transition rather than a static state with which
you discover more about yourself that you had dreamed possible.

The Death Amulet would be for those in a powerful transition:
a lad who has “become a Man”, a girl’s transition into Womanhood.
One who suffered a major loss and re-forming their lives would find this piece useful:
embrace the break in the pattern and start anew.
Like a tonic, The Death Amulet is for short yet important periods in one’s life.