Septenaries: Lovers/Death/Apocalypse

[Tarot_scholar]

I'm at Key 6 in the exercises (as per the guide) and I'd love to talk through this particular septenary family (for lack of a better term). I find it quite hard to find the intended (visual) family resemblance that more or less pops out at me in the other groups. At a stretch, Keys 6 and 13 both feature weapons and night skies, while Keys 6 and 20 both have the Tree of Life and a serpent as major parts of their imagery. At a stretch, there s the foregrounding of two figures in those keys as well (the dragon and the phoenix in Key 6, the lion and the flag in Key 20), and a background water element in all three (bodies of water in Keys 13 and 20, the chalice in Key 6).

How else are you looking at these cards?

[Charlie Brown]

I'm not looking at this particular deck but, more abstractly, cards VI-XIII-XX can show the progression of sex - death - resurrection. The connection/progression of sex to death is fairly well established and is usually built into traditional interpretations of the 8th astrological house. The birth of the child implies the death of the parent. The whole family is brought back together on the day of judgement in many/most interpretations of XX. Perhaps some of this is of relevance to the current deck.

[Tarot_scholar]

That is a relevant thought, for sure -- but the impression I get is that there's supposed be an artistic link across septenary families as well in SKT, in addition to a link in meanings. More about that in Benebell's design statement.