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Death Note Tarot Tales V: Kira's Magician Versus the Wammy's Magi - Divine Wisdom and Poetic Justice in Death Note

8/5/2016

1 Comment

 

Every epic journey must begin
with a step upon its routes, roads and Ryuk directed by-ways.

Every great destiny must have a destination.

Explored against
the back-drop of Death Note,
the Major Arcana Tarot cards
feature the realm of The Magician

~ written by our guide into
all things esoteric
Tarot Mikami

Death Note Tarot Tales on Death Note News
Welcome seekers after sama, kana and qi!  You won't be the first to want to reverse your life's fortunes; otherwise embrace words to change the world; take steps to transform yourself into a hero; divert humanity away from its current perverse course; perfect its core that all may sing together - refraining from discordance, aligned in peace and harmony; gain insight into the working of the universe; realize your dreams; reach for the stars; sail across the cosmos and converse with the divine; enchant and charm Kannon at the gates of wisdom; seize manna from the Gods; invoke matter from the kether; traverse the mysteries and become God of this New World.

It's not unknown.

But no matter what foolish idea inflames your passion and ignites your will.  Before you take your first steps onto the path of making it real, you will need some guidance.  Sound the intro, maestro!  And enter The Magician.

The Many Roles of the Tarot Magician

The Magician Tarot Card
The second card of the Major Arcana starts the story proper.  It stands at number one, as The Fool is zero.  Without meeting or becoming The Magician, the Fool is merely a broiling mess of notions, running around like a headless chicken with no direction in which to pursue them. 

If nothing else, the Magician is a doorkeeper - providing access to another (or the wider) world, opening a gateway onto an appropriate path, or acting as a way-marker signing the route to take.  Usually this role contextualizes the bigger picture and sets out the destination.  The Wise Man is concerned with destiny.  Though the advice should be taken indiscriminately.

The Magician isn't necessarily on your side.  The guidance given or the way forward illuminated might be a service provided in all innocence and altruism. Nevertheless, he/she has an agenda of their own and the knowledge to manipulate others too. 

They may play a dual role - making Mafia profits sky-rocket, whilst diverting its resources into capturing a Death Note - and could as easily be trickster instead of consigliere. 

Or a charlatan.  This all-knowing being may present themselves as God, then turn out to merely be a man and a murderer at that.  Worse still, a serial killer implicating you in the guise of the great detective L. 

But the differentiation isn't always that clear cut either.  Nothing so black and white.

The Magician juggles many roles, generally playing all the same time; multi-tasking meaning depending upon who is being addressed.  One person's terrorist being another's freedom fighter and all that, while the manipulation might be to save yourself from yourself, or to aid a greater cause.

Either way, The Magician will certainly give our hero something to ponder and a route (or twelve) to take next.  There's the potential for destiny-laden adventure and opportunities lessons to be learned here, if only never to be that gullible again.

The Meaning of Magician in the Major Arcana

Christians are most familiar with The Magician as the Magi - Three Wise Men in modern versions of the Bible; twelve Pharisee priests in the closest we have to the original - who visited the newborn Christ with gifts. 

For everyone else, the name has largely denigrated to the level of sleight-of-hand illusionists and tricksters on stage, or grown fantastical in figures from stage or literature like Gandalf, Merlin and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

It used to mean so much more.  The hints of it permeate our lexicon.  We glimpse their greatness in words sharing the same root, like magnate, mega, magnitude, magnus, magus and majesty.  That last also containing a hint of their skill as spokespeople, mediators, lecturers, teachers and orators - 'gest', as in 'jester', 'gesticulate', 'gesture' and the 'gist' of a story.  It comes from Middle English 'to recite a tale', originating in Latin 'geste' or 'gesta' 'to perform deeds; to act'.  By the time it hit 13th century France, 'geste' meant to 'narrate an heroic tale'.

Stories could (and often still do) command the will of a people.  Which is why governments today are so keen to pressure the press into toeing the party line.  In Medieval Italy and France, which is where our earliest extant tarot cards were made, the majesty of magicians led to them adjudicating in delicate matters, acting as counsellors or speaking on behalf of less learned individuals.

The Magicians as magisters, in fact, or magistrates.  That 'gist' sometimes turning into its other form of 'iurare' to bring us to jury, and conjurer; or 'joculate' as joker or juggler.  Wise counsellor or trickster indeed.  Furthermore, the French word grammairien referred to 'learned men; magicians', whose ability to know the power and perfect usage of words gave us 'grammar'.

But akin to magician is also master, maestro, mahatma, maharaji, maharishi, yogi, guru, the one who knows.  The Japanese would call them dai-sensai, or O-sensai, doshi, Rōshi, or know them as sifi.  In addition to great wisdom and skill, The Magician brings into play the tools that the Fool might need t0 embark upon their journey.
Major Arcana Magician card
In ancient Persia, the Magos were the learned members of the priestly caste, adept at astrology.  They could give you the overview of your life and destiny, as it was written in the stars, taking in the knowledge of what constellation was on the ascendency or ruling within a certain house. It was up to you what you did with that information and how you let it guide your lives.

Over the centuries, their spiritual descendants have been known as the adepts in a variety of other fortune-telling, mind expanding, soul perfecting or perception enhancing skills.  For example, those magnificent seekers delving into the Kabbalah/Cabala/Qabala as scholars, scryers, practitioners, occultists, alchemists, diviners, philosophers, Hermetic code-breakers and ceremonial magicians.

Enlightened beings who know The Way and what it might mean for you.  But if it's shared - and done so entirely, selectively or else strewn with misinformation - and how that translates into relevancy for your own life's destiny, only a Fool can know in passing through the realm of the Magi.

The Magi In All Their Guises: Major Arcana Death Note's The Magician Card

Death Note: The Magician Tarot Card
Tarot Magician Death Note Rules
Death Note Enlightenment The Magican
The Death Note itself can be seen as falling right into the realm of The Magician.  In fact, it's practically the Three Magi represented here in the notebook, as its role is considered in relation to Light Yagami.

Firstly Light has to find the shinigami's notebook, which serves the dual purpose of opening his eyes to the existence of a world beyond his own and highlighting its possibilities. Hitherto unconsidered (or disbelieved) realities are presented as a pathway upon which to forge his own destiny.  It's the Tarot Magician as gatekeeper, signpost and luminary of higher knowledge.

However, its also the Trickster, or Charlatan, insofar as the falling Death Note serves Ryuk's agenda first and foremost. Its presence on Earth is set to alleviate the shinigami's boredom.  Light will pick it up and, primarily believing it an elaborate prank, use it to the detriment of his own future.  Not only will it curse his living years, but condemn his eternal being into the dissolution of Mu.  This ultimate destination for Death Note users means that a destiny is foisted upon Light Yagami, manipulated by ignorance and curiosity into foolishly using it without fully translating all of the rules beforehand.

The Death Note wasn't on his side, nor against him.  It's an item; a thing without judgement nor partiality.  It serves an agenda encapsulated by itself.  ('I am that I am' is the So'ham Sanskrit manta; also viewed as the Word of God in Christian mysticism; or 'As above, so below; so below, as above' in Hermetic teachings.  All very much part of The Magician's inner knowledge, and here beautifully descriptive of the Death Note too.)

Secondly, Light actually reads the rules written inside the Death Note.  Here the shinigami notebook becomes The Magician as a teacher; illuminating the arcane knowledge needed to utilize this supernatural tool.  The rules themselves inspire possible ways in which Light may now traverse in order to fulfil his projected destiny.

Even more dramatically comes that third moment of the notebook of death as The Magician in Death Note.  That's when the touch of it allows Light's mind to access his memories, previously locked away through rejection of the artefact.  Perhaps it's not quite what the ancient Magos would view as accessing the higher self, but it serves the same purpose within the storyline.  In an instant, Light Yagami's ignorance is dissolved, when the doors of perception are well and truly opened upon his past.  His destination now reached, just as planned.

The Magician as Death Note's Gatekeepers and Arbiters of Destiny

Ryuk as The Magician Death Note Tarot
Ryuk is another obvious contender for The Magician's Death Note tarot representative.  His appearance directs the plot in a myriad of ways, not least because it clarifies Light Yagami's overview and destiny.

Just like his notebook, the shinigami confirms the existence of previously unknown layers to reality, broadening Light's horizons and information base. 

Ryuk stands as guide and gatekeeper to the shinigami realm.  Not only can he speak for and translate the Gods, he is one.

Whilst denying Light access to any such services, unless the whim of the moment takes him.  Because he can.

The shinigami also acts as arbiter of knowledge concerning eternity and deals available to human users of Death Notes, which he does deign to share.  Albeit selective in his choice of snippets to pass on, and deliberately obtuse in the timing of all such communication.

It's too amusing for him not to cause maximum frustration in thus trolling his human Death Note user. 

Which all fits in completely with the reason for him being there, performing his role as Earthly sage and sometime mentor. Openly not on anyone's side - but that of his own amusement - Ryuk is the Trickster Mage personified. 

His entire performance is dedicated to his own agenda, aligning with those of others only where each party's motives/tactics run in tandem. Or he's persuaded that the potential for entertainment is strong.

The Death God is, after all, quite bored and he's here to alleviate said tedium. Everything that occurs must factor that in first, as top priority, because it's certainly the only reason Ryuk is acting in any capacity right now.

L's Messenger Mage Watari: Herald, Spokesperson and Point of Contact

Tarot Death Note Watari as The Magician

As gatekeeper to L, Watari's intervention at the Interpol meeting is pure Magician territory.

Not only does it alert all present to the avenue of inquiry now opening up due to the detective's interest in the Kira case, but it allows Matsuda - thus us too - to discover L's existence in the first place.

Thus the Fool takes the first step out of innocence, ignorance and a lack of context for the world.

For the veteran law enforcement agents there, Watari represents destiny in a very practical sense.  They don't need to discuss the way forward in their investigation now, because L is involved.   He IS the way forward; an option for the situation to be passed up to a higher authority. 

(Sneak preview for a later major arcana card - The Hierophant describes L for those with knowledge and experience of his work.)

For Soichiro and Matsuda, Watari's position is doorkeeper to destiny in a much more ethereal way.

To one it will prove downright Fateful, while the other will reach the proposed destination (catching Kira) changed beyond recall.

Destiny's Magister: Roger Ruvie, The Wammy House Ringmaster Tolls Part Two

Roger Ruvie as the Magician in Death Note tarot
One day, Wammy House warden Roger Ruvie will be Watari too.  His role will encapsulate The Magician in just the same way as Quillsh Wammy, as described above.

Nevertheless, in that Fateful moment imaged as tarot arcana (left), Roger already illustrates several aspects of The Magican card.  Each face or facet exhibited simultaneously.

For a start, he's a messenger, delivering the news that the children's idol and surrogate father are both dead.  Divining correctly the information received from a transmission's ending.  Liaison, wisdom, enlightenment, all wrapped up in that single act.

He's doing so as Wammy's House administrator - which has its root in 'ministry/minister' and from there becomes entrenched in symbolism linked with The Magician.  Minister meaning to 'act on behalf of a higher authority', hence a minister of the state in politics or the church (it literally meant 'priest' in Medieval Latin). It gets its secretarial sense from the French, where it became 'servant; overseer; watcher; manager'.

But may also relate to inspiration of a more tuneful note, hence minstrel and musician are both cognitive words. Each obviously pertaining to The Fool, yet The Magician too, as the latter can be former in receipt of self-awareness, context or knowledge, thus driving their own actions.

It all becomes much more blatant, when another cognate is brought into the mix - magistrate or magister.  One who directs or adjudicates; making decisions; laying down the law.

Roger is authorized to tell a twelve and fourteen year old that their idolized foster sibling and beloved guardian are dead. Yet nothing of sentimentality here. His job is to collect children from around the world, bring them to The Wammy House and train them as potential successors to L.

His results are majestic. After coldly dismissing Mello's emotional outburst, the first question asked was which of them was chosen as heir. No querying the fact that kids are about to be sent into an arena which killed two adults, one purportedly the world's most genius detective.  No options considered.

This Wammy Ringmaster magisterially sends both kids to fight round two; their destination seeming less destined than Fated, with such news extolled like passing bells, louder than ever tonight.

Mello the Consigliere: Death Note Mafia Mage with a Dual Agenda

Mello exemplifies The Magician with a dual agenda, while acting as consigliere within the Mafia family headed by Rod Ross.

It's similar to the previously examined outlook of that other magnate Ryuk, but Mello's motivational duality holds some important differences.

The Magician acts by manipulating an individual's lack of essential knowledge or wisdom.  However this doesn't necessary occur every time, only when it suits our canny counsellor's alternate agenda to do so.

Sometimes the concerns will align for both advisor and their directed individual; sometimes not. Regardless, the interests of the latter do not factor into the guidance given by this Mage - whether in counsellor mode, or as councillor representing their client's views and speech to others.

Consigliere (or consigliori) - Mello's position in the Mafia - meant both by the way.  Though technically describing solely the counsel given to the Don, consiglieri (in manga and in life) also fulfil many other roles ruled by The Magician.  Including, but not limited to, mediating in conflict; liaising on the Don's behalf with important contacts and/or authority figures (judges, police etc.); and keeper/archivist of secrets for the entire Family's, so to retain an overview and warn if trouble may be caused, for example, by a capo acting rashly through ignorance of matters concerning another.

Mello seems to be a good consigliere.  At one point Rod Ross is moved to comment that the genius teen has never been wrong in any decision made since joining their Family.

However, no-one should lose sight of reality. Mello was just using the Mafia to achieve his own goals.  

The wisdom imparted by Mello as consigliere causes Rod Ross's profits to sky-rocket.  Yet those and all other available resources are soon diverted into serving Mello's ambition to secure a Death Note. 

After Mello achieves his goal, thus placing a shinigami notebook in the hands of his Mafia family, all agendas probably fell in line, shared and indivisible. For a moment, indeed it seemed to Ross et al that they had absolute power.

And then, in the next moment, they ended up dead.  Mello using the lives of the last ones standing to make good his own escape.
Mafia Mello Death Note Magician

Sakura TV as the Charlatan: Showmanship Masquerading as Wisdom

Death Note Tarot The Magician Sakura TV Charlatan
When Sakura TV appoints itself as the voice of Kira, it's an attempt to appear as The Divinely Ordained or Enlightened Magician.  

As studio boss and anchor-man, Demegawa's overall aim is to trick unsuspecting individuals into believing the station has some conferred higher knowledge. Therefore attempting to gain the same trust or power given to The Magician.

Or in this case, boost ratings.

The Magician can well act as spokesperson for the people/individuals in dealings with authority, or magistrate dilemmas and/or direct juries.  They can certainly translate the divine for those less versed in the sacred mysteries.  However, its beholden upon us all to beware false prophets.

In its more negative (or domineering/pompous) aspect, our spokesperson Mage might not say what we wished them to convey.  

Think politicians declaiming sentiments which make us cringe or cry, all in our name; or the journalist who twists your words, yet 'quotes' you all the same, in pursuit of a sensational story bearing no relation to what actually occurs; or the parent/guardian/teacher expressing their own views as if they were automatically shared by yourself, ignoring or over-riding any attempt at dissent.

While Kira may experience Sakura TV's antics (in the persona of Demegawa) as the above, every other viewer is watching a charlatan or mountebank in action.  A pseudo-priest or trickster mantis preying upon the gullibility of their television audience turned congregation.

On the flip side, even the False Magician may inadvertently act as teacher.  The lesson today from Sakura being not to believe everything you hear on TV.  

(Particularly when tabled as a Trump; donkey imagery warns us off, as seen below The Magician's board in some ancient tarot decks.  Mistake the babbling showmanship of this charlatan for wisdom, and your only sure destiny is to be made feel like an ass.)

Kiyomi Takada: Enlightened Divine Messenger of Death Note

I don't remember who said it, but the quotation snagged in my mind.

Someone was told that David Icke - the footballer turned commentator and write - was now telling all and sundry that he was the Son of God.  There was a pause in which the informant gleefully awaited  the witty put-down that was sure to follow concerning the subject of their gossip.

"Well?" The other slowly asked.  "Has anyone checked if he is?"

And therein lies the rub.  How does one verify such a claim?  And if we can't, then how do we know for sure whether they're a mounteback babbling lies, or insane, or someone Cassandra cursed to be disbelieved in all the divine truth they tell?

The Magi would know.   It tends to be them. Whether reading the portents in divination; searching arcane knowledge to uncover higher truths; or acting as intermediaries between the Gods and us, as the priestly caste or ministering on career paths.

Just occasionally, we get the real thing.  Magos aglow with the numen nod - enchanters, prophets, seers, the chosen and invokers; attuned to the Great Music and entrancing with utterances lifted from source; merely mediums through which the universe flows.

Or television anchor woman/newscaster, who just happens to be the right person, at the right time, with a matching warped sense of morality and all the right contacts to be the Messiah. 

The divine intermediary aspect of The Magician is represented quite literally by Death Note's Kiyomi Takada, twofold.

She performs her role as Messenger of the God(s) in that Takada is the actual, publicly appointed spokesperson for Kira; while also being the conduit that allows both Kiras - Light Yagami and Teru Mikami - to communicate in open conversation.

No charlatan this.  Blessed Takada performs with gravitas; notably refined before this even began.  Now perceived by the ever-growing faithful as gentle, radiant, the real thing and absolutely full of grace. Buying into and believing all Light says; mind mired and amazed beyond all rationality. 

But then it was always thus:
Death Note Tarot The Magician Takada
Quem Deus perdere vult, dementat prius; quem di diligunt, adolescens moritu.
Those the Gods will destroy, they first make mad; and whom the Gods love dies young.

Le Bateleur Matsuda: Sleight of Hand Illusionist in Death Note

The Magician Matsuda - Death Note's Le Bateleur
Le Bateleur is the aspect of The Magician most familiar to us in the modern world; give or take a few fantasy movie mages, and their counterpart skills offered as an option for gamers.

This is the stage magician; the conjurer; the sleight-of-hand trickster; the illusionist; the abracadabra, now you see it, now you don't, bateleur drawing in crowds and thrilling them with misdirection, misinformation, smoke and mirrors distraction, before delivering all enrapt and gasping with awe to that climatic moment of The Prestige.

Le Bateleur - and its cognates Il Bagatto, El Bagatella, Bateleuse - refers to this tarot figure's stick, rod or, ta-daaaa, wand.

This aspect of The Magician appears throughout the Death Note series. There's even a whole chapter, in Death Note 13: How to Read, devoted to explaining all of the tricks inserted into the storyline by Tsugumi Ohba.

The Death Note Magician tarot card we've chosen to depict Il Bagatto in action features Matsuda faking his own death.  Before a stunned crowd of Yotsuba corporate executives, he pulls off The Prestige in garnering their belief that the dressed up Aiber far below on the ground is Matsuda's mangled corpse.  Meanwhile, Touta sits safely on a mattress a mere one floor below.

However, we could just as easily picked any of the dozens of scenarios, whereby Death Note's conjurers wash over truth with a new reality, attested by witnesses swearing on oath that they watched throughout.

Like when Light becomes aware he is being watched by surveillance cameras. He quickly acts to manipulate the evidence by a tricky sleight-of-hand illusion.

To the onlooker, it would appear as though he was only studying, while taking those potato chips and eating them. The reality being that Kira was killing criminals with a piece of the Death Note hidden, alongside a miniature TV, inside the chip bag.

Even L was fooled by that one.

So what's your favourite showing for the tarot Death Note Bagatella?   Just to check that you kept observing, through all there was to see.

The Three Wise Men (Wam-Magi?)

Picture
Picture
Picture
In the time of Watari, after Kira was born in Japan, wise men from the Wammy's House in Winchester came to Kanto, asking, "Where is the murderer who has been born God of the New World? For we observed his kill count at its rising, and have come to take him down."

When Takimura heard this, he was frightened and all world leaders with him; and calling together all the Kira Task Force and NPA public relations officers, he inquired of them when the Kira was to be arrested. They told him, "In the Yellow Box Warehouse; for so it has been written by Near: 'And you, Takimura, in the land of Japan, are by no means going to know a thing about it, because Mello would have got you killed by then.'"

Then US President David Hoope secretly called - via Watari - for the wise men and begged each in turn to stop threatening to control him into doing worse than Kira, whenever any of them get hold of a Death Note. Then he sent them to Kanto, saying, "Go and search diligently for Kira; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."

When they had heard the POTUS, they got him killed and replaced with George Sairas; and there, ahead of them, went the star Misa Amane that they had seen rising as Second Kira, until she stopped because L had her tortured. When they saw that the Japanese idol had started begging to have her life ended, they were overwhelmed with joy.

On entering the Warehouse, they saw the megalomaniac with Mikami his worshipper; and Near knelt down (the other two forced to too, as they were now dead and puppets). Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of cake, Transformers, and chocolate.

And having painted a vivid picture for Ryuk warning of a future bound to a Death Note now stuck in Near's vault - while Light languished in a prison for the criminally insane for life - Near successfully manipulated the Death God into taking out Light before returning to the shinigami realm.  Then the Three Wise Wammys left for their own country, where verily two returned to the toy box and Near took L's Code for himself.  And probably Mello's too.
Hold on!  One missing from this listing of The Wam-Magi as read from the Book of God's New World: 

Bored out of his mind, Il Matto stayed put in Winchester, playing SuperMario and thanking the Gods of the Internet that Kira never came with cyber-terrorism on-line.  Else he'd never have been able to get away with hiding behind his lazy, mad, wise Fool routine; playing Tetris instead of getting himself killed in someone else's war.  So wise he only ever ranked third and remained forever Il Matto.  He probably wouldn't have amounted to much anyway.  Beep, beep, lulwut, nub?
Matt Death Note Il Matto tarot
Ok, I've stopped now.
As if by Magic - More Death Note Tarot Tales

Posted as Part of

Month of Death Note Wammy
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Death Note Tarot Tales IV: Touta Matsuda - Brave Fool on a Journey

4/4/2016

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Tarot Death Note News column banner
A regular column looking at Death Note
through the symbolic medium of tarot cards,and their actual usage in canon
by Tarot Mikami

Exploring the Royal Road - or Fool's Journey - as told in the Death Note story.  Though not, as you may expect, featuring Light Yagami. 

He lost at the penultimate hurdle.


From the mouths
of babes and fools
comes great wisdom.

~ Old adage
(fool sage variants dating
from the 12th century)
"Matsuda! Don't be silly! We're not fooling around here!"
Soichiro Yagami, Death Note manga, Chapter 14: Temptation

"Matsuda, you idiot!"
~ Various NPA officers throughout the series, notably Light Yagami at the end

"You drove your own father to his death, and now you are saying that we are the fools?!"
~ Touta Matsuda, Death Note anime, Episode 37: New World
Today we'll be looking at one of the greatest examples of the Fool in manga storytelling - Death Note's Touta Matsuda, NPA agent and one of the courageous few in Japan's Anti-Kira Task Force.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Touta Matsuda is the most archetypal Fool in Death Note - not Ryuk, Light, nor any of the Wammy cohort, as would otherwise be the most obvious choices, though all are the Fools in their own story-lines and some take the role through other avenues.  In the most common iteration of tarot storytelling, the Fool needs to begin the tale in ignorance; commit to the quest; learn incrementally; then finish with their overview of the world complete and often unparalleled, ergo in possession of said World.

Throughout Death Note's epic story, the World is up for grabs. The opening theme tune check-lists it.  L is introduced against the background of a globe. Light famously declares himself 'God of this new world'.  But ultimately Light loses his grip upon said world, and his life too.  L and Mello equally slip from this world to the next. Near can be said to both understand and articulate the Finis Death Note world, but he wasn't there at the beginning,  nor did he start in all innocence of the facts. Ryuk is fabulously Foolish; however, he fulfils the characterisation in the Jester/Joker sense - a Wise Fool indeed. Only one character can be seen to fully embrace the tenets of the Royal Road protagonist tarot Fool and that is Touta Matsuda.

Which makes Death Note fundamentally the story of Matsuda's Fool's Journey.
Death Note's Matsuda in anime, tv drama and manga

Three Faces of Matsuda, as seen in the anime; played by Maeda Goki in the tv drama; and the manga
Regardless of whether you concur with such a emphasis on the young police officer - placing him above even Light Yagami and his main protagonist L in terms of importance to the storyline - Matsuda's brave journey is arguably the thing that binds both arcs (and sub-arcs) together, creating a coherent whole of Death Note's overall narrative, while encapsulating most of its themes.

Moreover, he takes us - the reader/viewer - with him, delivering us back to the beginning with our world utterly changed, ready to strike out again into the unknown.  Our outlook wiser; ourselves more accomplished; experience discerning so much now in what we survey; and our skill-sets honed to perfection within this narrow realm.

No more the Fool, but the Master of this now known domain. Which always makes us much more stupid.  Poised to become the Fool again, or else stagnate without stimulus within an overly familiar terrain.

What is the Fool's Journey Through the Tarot?

The Fool - card 0 of the Major Arcana
The Royal Road, or Fool's Journey is one of the oldest, most commonly told tales of all.  You don't have to be a tarot card reader, or know a thing about them, in order to find highly familiar this sequence of events surrounding a certain kind of individual.

Ninety percent of all Hollywood blockbusters and best-selling novels are telling - and retelling in the sequel, then again for the third in the trilogy - the story of a Fool, who embarks upon a great adventure, which changes them and their world(view) forever.   A great many of them also do so by touching upon a series of meetings or circumstances, each relayed in a precise order, which matches that of the Major Arcana in tarot.

It's not that the movie or literary worlds are swamped with secret tarot readers inserting some vast and dodgy agenda.  It's that the Fool's tale mirrors the span of human life itself, therefore has a commonality across all cultures, globally or historically.

Everyone can relate to a plot with such basic building blocks as 'the hero knew nothing, learned some stuff, grew up (physically/mentally/spiritually/whatever fits best), put such learning to the test and/or applied it practically, then the hero knew everything'.   Or at least 'something', often with a reward - if only survival - when retold via celluloid or the printed page.  We all like a happy ending, or failing that, some satisfaction at witnessing just desserts occur.

Those markers set out along the path of the Major Arcana tend to be used by writers and directors for no particularly mystical reason either.  It's because they also represent the most intuitively efficient plot devices to get the Fool from the beginning to the end.

Touta Matsuda on the Royal Road - Death Note's Fool's Journey

The hero who knows nothing meets someone who opens up their world-view to possibilities (Magician); something/someone occurs to make the hero emotionally connect with what the Magician showed him/her (High Priestess), thus they commit to the journey/quest (Empress).  In order to set out, or survive the trip, they must take on provisions and see to their physical needs (still Empress).  They also need information about the delineation of the quest's boundaries, limits, rules, what it will take to succeed (Emperor), which usually involves finding or inviting in an expert (Yoda... I mean Hierophant).

See what I mean about intuitive, commonplace and common sense storytelling?   That's effectively the end of the first arc in the Major Arcana.
Death Note Soichiro Yagami and Touta Matsuda - first appearance

0 - The Fool
Matsuda begins never even having heard of L. Plus only just hearing that serial killing of global proportions going on - his introduction to the concept of Kira.
Watari's first appearance in Death Note

I - The Magician
Broadening Matsuda's awareness occurs in a combination of Soichiro, Watari and L. But it's Watari who opens up a gateway into the eventual quest.
Death Note police officers sacrifice ultimatum

II - The High Priestess
Until Kira started killing FBI and police officers, the hunt for him was just part of the job. Afterwards, it became personal; a matter of life and death. Matsuda would be forced to consider it on an emotional level, with all due regard to family feeling and other ethereal/spiritual/sentimental concerns, as well as the physical.
Death Note Anti-Kira Task Force - Five men, life on the line

III - The Empress
Matsuda is one of only five men willing to put their lives on the line to combat Kira. He's committed to the quest.
Death Note L and the Anti-Kira Task Force

IV - The Emperor
Perched upon his armchair like a throne, L spells out the details in the search for Kira, and what it will take to catch him. L even has Matsuda et al to meet him at his residence - The Imperial Hotel. Imperial means belonging/ pertaining to/of the emperor or empire.
Death Note Naomi Misora and Kira

V - The Hierophant
Naomi Misora used to be a brilliant FBI agent, but has been hiding away at home for no good reason since becoming engaged. Her return and subsequent disappearance provides key clues to the NPA Kira Task Force. Though L, by his very nature, also doubles in this informative role.
The next tranche of cards deal with the learning process.  In movies, books and manga, this is often learning by adversary, as that adds more dramatic tension than watching the hero sitting in a library and/or writing essays.  Unless it's the movie Karate Kid, wherein the 'wax on, wax off' part gloriously shows us how the Fool learns through practice, revision and sheer hard work.  But back to the Major Arcana.

Having learned all they can about what the journey is, why they should undertake it, committing to it, getting in supplies and information, then perusing the full game-plan, our hero has a choice to make.  Do or do not, there is no try.  Take the quest on, or go home now, there is no time for dithering  (The Lovers).

Alternatively, it can mean what it says on the packet.  The introduction of a love interest and/or partner is beloved of film-makers and book authors both. The inherent dualism usually strengthens or otherwise propels the plot forward, while the will of the individual to stay the course is generally now a foregone conclusion (The Lovers).

Any one of the below could feature as The Lovers moment in the Fool's Journey of Matsuda, and they all happen in quick succession.
Death Note NPA protest L's unorthodox tactics

VI - The Lovers
Everyone protests L's unorthodox (and later shady) tactics in the Kira case, but their compliance indicates their decision to accept anything to win the Kira case. Matsuda is among those continuing his Fool's Journey at the cost of his moral integrity and sense of right or wrong.
Death Note tennis match L and Kira

VI - The Lovers
The meeting between L and Light, escalating their duel of wits and ultimately bringing Light onto the Kira Task Force all have profound effects for Matsuda's position. Not least because it deepens everyone's involvement and makes events much more dangerous.
Death Note Misa and Light change the world

VI - The Lovers
The emergence of Second Kira, with Misa and Light quite literally becoming lovers, complicates the case immensely and causes the Fool's Journey to become yet more perilous. More moral dilemmas occur to Matsuda, as L breaks Japanese (and international) law to torture Misa and Light.
The hero then needs to set out their own personal strategy for success (The Chariot), before putting it into action and applying stamina, trust, skill or sheer brute force to see it through (Strength).

Afterwards, there must be a period for reflection, evaluation of the tactics employed, tinkering with them etc, or recovery, depending on what the strategy actually cost in its application (The Hermit).  Otherwise it's time to bring in another expert, usually - again for dramatic tension - the one who won't come out to play for anyone else, but who the Fool charmed with their earnestness and/or passion for the quest (also The Hermit).

End of part two in the Major Arcana's basic story-telling plot touchstones.
Matsuda supporting L

VII The Chariot
Despite feeling unsettled by L's methodology in a dangerous, potentially deadly investigation, Matsuda makes the personal decision to throw in his lot with the Wammy detective. It seems like the quickest way to catch Kira.
Death Note Misa tortured

VIII Strength
Matsuda's stamina in loyalty and compliance is soon put to the test, when Misa and Light are incarcerated indefinitely without charge. L doesn't balk from torture in an attempt to force a confession, with Matsuda in uneasy witness.
Matsuda on police work

IX The Hermit
Along with the rest of the dwindling Task Force members, Matsuda quits his job at the NPA. Fundamentally putting his career on the line, and devoting his life to the Kira case.
Part three in the Fool's journey begins with our hero discovering that you can learn it all and become as skilled and experienced as may be.  But luck will always play its part, for good or ill.  No-one can predict every move nor aspect of their lives.  (Wheel of Fortune)  Either that or our hero gets a kick which momentarily puts them out of the game, or the converse, a boost which raises them in it.  (All still the Wheel of Fortune.) 

However, all being well, everyone should get their just desserts.  The hard worker should bring home a decent pay.  The victimised should see recompense in whatever way is most appropriate.  The baddie should get their comeuppance.  Real life doesn't work like that, but neither is it totally devoid of the same. Just as with fortune and luck, justice is more often served than the cynical could admit. (Justice.)   (NB Some modern, and all earlier, tarot decks placed Justice after The Chariot.  The Golden Dawn switched it around in the 1920s, and most decks since have copied them.)

With all of the elements known and/or in place, the Foolish hero enters a formative stage in their lives.  A time of willing sacrifice for the greater good and/or in exchange for greater insight - Odin in Yggdrasil or Christ on the cross; Light submitting to tortuous detention under the auspices of L; the average student sitting down to write their dissertation.  (The Hanged Man.)  Which, all being well, results in a transformation in being; a sudden escalation of understanding; or something else which sees our Fool shed all past ignorance and grow in whichever way is relevant to their journey.  (Death)
Matsuda sneaks into Yotsuba

X The Wheel of Fortune
In an attempt to prove his value within the Kira Task Force, Matsuda tries his luck with infiltrating the Yotsuba Group headquarters in search of a lead on possible Death Note usage.
Matsuda eavesdropping on Yotsuba

XI Justice
Matsuda's daring is rewarded with overhearing a snippet of information linking the Yotsuba Group with Kira.
Matsuda caught on a mattress in Death Note

XII The Hanged Man
With his life already on the line - in immediate danger of execution by the unscrupulous executives - Matsuda undertakes a terrifying and foolhardy escape from a hotel balcony, free-falling onto on a mattress held into the air below.
Death Note Rem dies
Death Note task force react to Wammy's death
Death Note L dies manga
XIII Death
It's not so much the physical deaths per se of Rem, Watari and L, which makes this a transformative period for Matsuda.  It's the changes wrought upon his life caused by their demise. Including the impact of their loss on the investigation, with dire implications for Matsuda's own continued well-being.

Beyond that, all stabilizes again into a steady work-a-day rhythm.  All fine-tuned skills need time to be applied; all heavy graft requires a period of relaxation to follow.  After all that excitement comes the novelty of boredom, or else an uncoiling to still all jangling sensibilities in a quieter life (Temperance).  Which is nice at first, but soon becomes a tad too hum-drum, familiar and finally downright soul-destroying.

Our hero looks for diversion - any diversion - something to break up the day and/or a life. Temptation hums everywhere (The Devil).  And not every diversion is entirely sensible.  After all that hard work building up to whatever the quest required of its Foolish hero, frustration or the sheer monotony of being did its steady job of erosion.  A mistake which can see the whole edifice falling down (The Tower).  It's time for our hero to learn the lessons of destruction, and how to accept it as the necessary (and often welcome) flip side of creation.  Or, as Kipling put it in the poem If, 'meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same'.
Death Note Kira task force post-L

XIV Temperance
Once L is dead, the group are nominally leaderless, though Light as Second L fills the void. For Matsuda, this is a time of waiting to see what will happen without the genius detective guiding things.
Death Note Sayu kidnapped

XV The Devil
When the Kira case moves forward its with a shocking suddenness, dynamic in its action. Matsuda always prefers that to steady, routine work and waiting, but not when it involves the abduction of Sayu, and her father in danger. Mello brings temptation, while upping the stakes considerably.
Death Note death of Soichiro Yagami

XVI The Tower
Matsuda's whole world collapses in on itself with the death of his mentor Soichiro Yagami.
Ide and Matsuda eavesdropping
XVII The Star
But for most of us, it would take the grace of the Dalai Lama to put such sentiments into actuality, when disappointment, panic and stress abound.  So, being human, we rely upon the second best boon afforded us - hope  (The Star) - and enter a necessary time of sifting through the ruins of a life, shattered dreams or fatally disrupted plans.  A moment of reflection as to what went wrong and what can make it all right again.  Giving ourselves time to mourn, regroup and go on (The Moon).

If our once Foolish hero is able to rise up again from the collapse of everything, then he/she/it can rebound from anything.  Theirs is the confidence come from knowing nothing can hurt nor touch them again, at least nothing from which they can't recover (The Sun).  Then comes the hardest moment of all - the ability to look at oneself, and others, as they truly are.  Without excuses, prejudice, projection nor bias, and gain the final insights available through comparison, acceptance or rejection.  In short, making a judgement call fuelled by all that's been met, learned, experienced and practised on the journey thus far (Judgement).

And if all went according to plan, with no lessons skipped nor learning shirked as irrelevant, the Fool has the wisdom necessary to complete their quest.  They have mastery in this universe.  They own The World.

Death Note Matsuda doesn't think Kira evil

XVIII The Moon
In the dark night of the soul, all considerations are on the table. Matsuda seems ready to run with the crowd here, supporting Kira.
Death Note finis stupid fools

XIX - The Sun
A moment of true enlightment for Matsuda, as Light Yagami admits to being Kira. The young police officer no longer has uncertainty in whatever thought or action may come.
Matsuda shoots Light Yagami

XX - Judgement
No longer a Fool per se, this close to the end of his Journey, Matsuda knows enough to make a judgement call in full understanding of its consequences.
Picture

XXI - The World
By the end of Death Note, Matsuda has the widest possible overview of his World. It might not thrill him, but he has insight enough to understand that rejecting L doesn't mean he has to accept Near.

Death Note's Fool's Journey Tarot Imagery Could Be Deliberate

Given the Death Note creators' propensity to play around with tarot imagery, it's probably no accident that Matsuda's shining moment of heroism, and true enlightenment in grasping the entirety of the story so far, comes in an anime episode called New World.  The final card of tarot's major arcana is The World.

In the manga, this chapter is entitled Curtain, as 'black curtain' (which additionally describes the aesthetics of these pages' black frame) suggests someone orchestrating events behind the scenes, in how the words sound in Japanese.  This according to Tsugumi Ohba, who revealed his reasoning behind the choice of title in Death Note 13: How to Read.  He just skipped the 'black' because there already was a chapter with that in the title, and he didn't want to imply a new character was about to emerge.  His Fool (and therefore unwitting focus for his audience) was already there, hidden in plain view, amongst so many other contenders for the role.

One doesn't have to deliberately, or even knowingly, move events along in order to be the force behind their momentum. Fools, in many a popular epic, tend towards being a catalyst rather than an instigator. Right up until their moment of fruition, when they become the best placed individual to confront whatever rocks their world.  Thus the journey is brought to a climatic end and the Fool is momentarily a Fool no more.  They have gained The World and its secrets have all been revealed.

To which there is no point.  Every story ever has been about the quest. The ending is just the precursor to the credits starting to roll.

Posted as Part of

Matsu Month Death Note News
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Death Note Tarot Tales 3: The Fool in Death Note Major Arcana

3/3/2016

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Teaching us the tarot's Major Arcana
with reference to Death Note -
its story-telling, plot and the symbolism
therein - here is
Death Note News columnist
Tarot Mikami

~ This time zeroing in on
the Trumps though Death Note
and The Fool tarot card

Death Note Tarot Tales Banner - Death Note News
The Fool is possibly the most interesting card of the Major Arcana (aka Trump cards). It's certainly unique - integral to all tarot based story-telling to follow, whilst simultaneously standing alone.

For a start, it is the only card to bear a Hindu-Arabic number - zero - if it carries one at all. The rest of the Trump cards are counted in Roman Numerals: I, II, III, IV and so forth. This remains true regardless of where it sits in the tarot deck - for The Fool has been known to wander from the prequel to the end of the Major Arcana (no. 22); or else in between.  Sometimes even drifting over into the minor arcana, where it sits outside any of the suits too.

The Fool is not numbered in Roman numerals with the other Major Arcana, because it doesn't really matter where it's positioned.  It's omnipresent; fitting in everywhere, and nowhere.

Even while seen as something apart, The Fool tends to play a part in proceedings, and can take a myriad of forms. This includes the environments, situations or states of mind that are nominally governed by any other card in the Tarot deck, but is especially true where the Major Arcana are concerned.

Many of which are found with Death Note's narrative.  But first...

What are Tarot Cards? What Do They Signify? Whom Do They Serve?

Words like 'arcana' and 'tarot' have been thrown around without me once delving into what they mean.  Thus you have no context for the folly to follow.  Let me fill in the blanks with explanation to define this world for you.

'Arcana' means 'secrets' or 'mysteries'.  It's plural.  One secret, one mystery, would be arcanum.  The Major Arcana are the big ones, known only to a select few.  The Minor Arcana is where the humdrum of ordinary things are hidden; far more accessible by the masses in society.  The latter make up the suits in common playing cards, which anyone can use.

This is where you'll find the minutiae of minor mysteries and everyday miracles - birth, death, love, hate, money, loss, friendship, family, long-time sickness, health, happiness, fear and all those other small things that may be found on any urban community sprawl.  They  make up reality, but they don't make it.

The former aren't in your average poker pack.  You can't use them to deal a hand in Blackjack or Snap.  They aren't a game for just anyone to play. 
That concealed in the Major Arcana is the domain of privilege - which means 'private law' - the preserve of rulers and the elite.  Their secrets and mysteries describe the process by which reality is formed; the building blocks for the creation and definition of a new world order.

For example, the commoners may have all the babies they like, and learn the arcana of childbirth. But it is their priests, law-makers, and leaders of the moral majority who tell them whether having that baby was alright.  Stepping out of line can mean social ostracisation, imprisonment, that infant taken from you or anything else which asserts control by those who have dominion over this particular realty; who own the domain or real estate.

Who shape this realm's reality. 

'Tarot' means 'colour' or 'illustration'.  Collectively, these cards paint a picture of the human world in which we live, its society, hierarchy and all the rest. While the minor arcana tells the story, the context is made from the major.  That's the arcana to illuminate the blocking blocks; point out the strings to pull; and fill in the fine detail with colour.  Those privy to the ways of the Major Arcana get to become Gods of the New World - or at least try.

Which is pretty much the story at the heart of Death Note too.

New God Challenges the Death Note World's Current Arbitrator of Reality

However, there is one to transcend arcana - one of the Trump cards, but also present in an ordinary deck of playing cards.  The wild card going wherever it will; difficult to pin down, yet with the potential to bring about the downfall of emperors and saints.  The hidden force behind it all.  The alpha and omega of any given tale - jester to some; joker to others; and in tarot, The Fool.
The Fool in Death Note Tarot card frame

The Fool and the Fall in Death Note

The story begins and ends with the fall.  Or Fool. It's the same word really to describe a similar state of being.

To know that we are ignorant, we first need to topple from our lofty ideals; our sense of understanding all the world about us has to shatter, or be shaken enough to make us grasp for more. Otherwise, we'd simply continue in our comfort zone,  never seeking to fundamentally alter reality and not once straying from our safe, secure domain into the great unknown.

We create Fools of ourselves.

Stepping out to seek our fortunes (even if it's simply starting on our first day at work); striving to educate ourselves (though that may merely be attending classes at school), in acceptance of the fact that we don't yet know what we don't know, and things once learned cannot be unlearned, they will change the way we view that sphere of universe forever; searching for truth, or enlightenment, or definition, or the results of lab experiments, whatever we research or seek to find out might change the nature of reality, not only for ourselves but all others too. 

As Newton discovered, when he foolishly pondered the meaning of that falling apple.  Do you know Gods of Death love apples?

We choose to become the Fool, blindly stepping off the cliff-edge precipice into the discovery abyss, whenever we willingly risk the changing of our reality.  We fall asleep; we fall in love; we fall for temptation; make landfall; fall out of line; fall down the rabbit-hole into a land where everything seems crazy.

And that takes courage; it makes us fool-hardy ('hardi' from the old French meaning 'bold').

The Fool at the beginning of the tale knows nothing, but bravely walks turns away from the mastered and familiar anyway, though it means the loss of his (or her) world.  The Fool at the end of the tale does the same, but this time with a smile.

It was worth the tomfoolery enough to do it all again.

There's No Fool Like an Old Fool

L hearing that shinigami are real

Too clever to ever be called a Fool, nevertheless L knew nothing
about the existence of shinigami, until he did and fell
from his chair in the shock of having to broaden his world view
Death Note Ryuk and the portal to the human world

Ryuk at least had the overview, but in boredom sought out something new; he let the Death Note fall, determined to follow wherever it may land - trusting to random chance that it would divert him at least, if not actually teach

Death Note's Royal Road Tarot Journey

The most famous part played by The Fool is as the subject in The Fool's Journey Through the Major Arcana, also known as The Royal Road.

This is a theme, or plot device that is so ubiquitous in popular culture - Death Note included - that it will need be tackled separately next time. The Fool's Journey fuels most major block-busters (plus sequels, and trilogies; rinse and repeat for a series). It certainly warrants a whole article devoted to it here! 

Yet in synopsis, it may be read like this:  a person ignorant of the world, or at least the bigger picture affecting their lives, encounters somebody/something which broadens their horizons, or else knocks them out of their comfort zone.  Forced to face that reality changing thing, our protagonist embarks upon some kind of quest, journey, mission and probably a steep learning curve as well.  Their story touches those states of being or realms governed by each of the other Major Arcana cards in succession. They arrive at the end changed utterly.  No longer unknowing, nor innocent, and certainly not ignorant, they are likely to be the masters/mistresses of this new world.  The one great expert to whom everyone else refers.

We're all looking at you, Luke Skywalker.  Frodo Braggins.  Harry Potter.  Light Yagami.  Mello.  Matsuda.  And a dozen other Death Note characters.

Every time an individual in the manga is shaken from their foundations, made to alter their perception of reality and/or diverted from their ordinary lives, they have stepped upon The Royal Road of the Fool.  They are entering the unknown and everyone they meet will have a profound effect upon changing them in some way - teaching, empowering, feeding, directing or sending them into untold danger.

Some, like Near, take the path laid out before them to cover the eventuality that they may one day have to take it.  That's still a Fool's Journey of sorts, but its purest essence is more fully concentrated in those who forge new paths.  Not only not taken by others before, but pathways which previously never even existed.

The true Fools are those who disdain the known to step out over the cliff's edge into uncharted territory. That first step is how they ultimately gain mastery over this domain, becoming its foremost authority with that single first cry of doing this 'my own way'.
Death Note Tarot Mello - The Fool's Journey Through the Major Arcana

Light Yagami and the Fool's Descent into Unreality

Death Note Light and Ryuk - didn't think the Shinigami's Notebook was real
Death Note Kira can act with certainty
The most obvious Royal Road undertaken in Death Note is that by Light Yagami.  When he first picked up the fallen notebook of death, he had no idea what it was nor what it might mean.  He was curious enough to find out. 

His ignorance was blunted with a perusal of the rules written inside.  After about three seconds worth of dismissing it all as a foolish prank, he decided to be that Fool.  Testing out the pages to see if someone really would die.  I mean, what's the worst that might happen?  Yep, what it said on the packet, or in this case, fly-sheet.  So Light continued using it, stepping foolhardily into the dark unknown, though he had no idea what it might mean for himself personally.

In fact, his best guess was that the shinigami would come for his soul, like the Death Note's usage was some Faustian pact.  Not at all literally - though it might as well be - Light was willing to sign a contract with the Devil, in order to journey yet further into the reality shaking conventions of this strange new book.

Did it send him insane?  That's another reading of The Fool - the madness inherent in losing all sense of that otherwise universal conviction that all share the same reality.  We don't.  Nurture, nature, the quicks of physicality and all those myriad personal influences, not to mention perspective, mean that none of us receive the same data, nor interpret it simultaneously and in the same way.   Nontheless, pretending that there's one dominion of the real (or royal) shared by all keeps us from straying onto such foolish pathways.

Light Yagami typifies the Fate of those who do.  With no-one to bounce his new reality off, but a semi-divine being who previously had no data to exist, Kira slips ever further into unreality.  Until he can't even see what everyone else judges to be real.  In his arrogance, he over-reaches his own domain and the resultant mistakes lead Mello and Near right to him, lending proof to their case.
Light Yagami - The Fool

The Foolish Light Yagami reacts to being outed with evidence that he is Kira

Until finally, ranting without sight of any objective reality, Light attempts  a secondary fall - this time from grace, as espoused by his task force, and from secrecy, in letting his veil of truth slip.   As he made his confession - I am Kira! And also God of this New World! - he sparked a seismic shift in the perceptions of most there present.  Confirming not only the reality of the Death Note, shinigami and all, but also his prolonged part its usage.

No wonder they shot him.  Thus precipitating his third and final fall, from existence and being into Mu.

The Fool in the sense of 'an empty-headed Fool' now embodied nothingness.  Back to the beginning again.
Death Note Tarot - Sayu The Fool as l'Excuse

The Fool as L'Excuse or Reason - Tricking Reality as a Game Changer in Death Note

There's a state of play involving the Fool which only turns up in the French Tarot.  It's called l'excuse - the excuse, the reason or the trick.  Herein the usage of the Fool forces a move to be made (or a previous move to be cancelled out).

This Fool exerts momentous influence over the contours of the game, or the shape of its reality; causing major players to act or else nullifying whatever the powerful just inserted into play.  Rendering their move meaningless; nothing.  Yet personal power remains elusive for The Fool in l'excuse.  They don't have to be ignorant, wise, mad, sane or anything.  The force they impose emanates from the mere fact of their existence.

Think Sayu Yagami in the desert.  Taken and held by the Mafia, her stance as the helpless Fool causes Soichiro to relinquish the Death Note, thus nullifying power in its possession for the Japanese Task Force.  It forces Kira to have to contend with Mello - recognizing him as a challenger for a start - whilst giving Mello more in his hand to play.

Yet Sayu herself never has a say in this.  She is played as the foolish excuse, her presence shifting the balance of power, thus opening up the potential/actuality of a new reality.  But she personally - as with The Fool card in French Tarot - never gains dominion over her world.  She remains the property of whomever holds her.  First herself/her family/Japan; then Mello and his Mafia family; before returning to her father's custody, a traumatized shell of the lady she was before.

Sayu as l'excuse becomes the Mad Fool - or in her case shell-shocked fool - by the end.  Yet ironically, that puts her beyond the reach of influence.  She's too catatonic to take any media on, thus cannot be swayed into any reality by those who would delineate it for her.

By becoming lost inside her own head, Sayu finally controls her own reality, but not that of others.  Excepting her Mother, for whom Sayu continues as l'excuse - the powerful Fool's tricks recreating Sachiko's life as one wherein she has to now care for a mute and unresponsive daughter.

Death Note and The Fool's Unreal Road

There's an inverse Fool's Journey in the tarot too.  A shadow path equally prevalent in stories around the world, yet rarely recognized as such.

The Fool should be silly, ignorant, innocent or insane in Western perception today.   Though we talk blithely of the Wise Fool, and pass about adages concerning the 'wisdom of babes and fools', the mainsteam imagination shrinks from what that might imply for the Journey. 

All-knowing Fools become sinister in our stories instead. The horror movie clown, or the supernatural smiling thing, no longer allowed to simply be.

In a typical Tarot deck, The Fool is usually depicted as a young man or a jester, walking near the precipice of a cliff with a dog alongside.

Frequently he is holding a haversack over a shoulder with one hand while the other holding a rose aloft.

The haversack is a symbol of the Wise Fool. It  represents wisdom acquired in a past life or on a previous journey, which are carried along to new experiences.

The Wise Fool can be viewed as an underlying driver of a narrative. In this aspect, he would not be considered the protagonist or main character. Instead, the role played is one which knowingly impacts one or more of the other 21 roles represented by the Trump cards as he encounters them.

Ergo the sage, old Fool has more control over the direction a narrative takes than might be readily apparent.

In Death Note, The Wise Fool is represented by Ryuk. The only reason we have this story told is because Ryuk was bored. Without much logic, planning or reasoning, Ryuk decided to follow his desire - represented by the rose held by the tarot card Fool - just to be entertained.

He was along for the ride, and for him, everyone else involved were incidental.  
Death Note Tarot - Ryuk the Wise Fool
Death Note Tarot The Fools in the Yellow Box

Jester in a Pack of Cards; The Fool One Step Removed

Some old tarot packs still refer to The Fool as The Jester.

Ordinary playing card decks certainly do - The Fool in the guise of The Jester being the only trump card to make it into an otherwise clean sweep of just the minor arcana.

Jester may incur visions of a silly man in dual coloured clothing, prancing around a medieval court with a bladder on a stick, and bells.  That's how he's presented in most playing cards, and often how The Fool of the Major Arcana dresses too.

Tarot cards tend to be based on those images fixed during the medieval period.  That's what jesters had become.  But it wasn't always thus.

Jester means 'to tell a story'; one who 'recites'.  Earlier medieval definitions matched the minstrels or troubadours more closely.  A jester then was just another name for someone who travelled about singing the epics and romances.  Informing the people of their history; reminding the mighty of their past.

The noun form is 'gesten' - 'recite a tale' - or 'geste' - 'exploit, inspire action'.  Suddenly he seems less innocuous, doesn't he?  Good job he was reduced merely to telling jokes.

Oh yeah!  The alternative name for The Jester or The Fool is The Joker.  Often the name that sticks in poker packs and other such gaming decks.

Joker is a shortened version of 'joculator', aka a professional jester or minstrel.  And 'joke' originally meant 'to speak, utter or express'; it gained its later connotation via satirical songs, those which ridiculed powerful individuals. People laughed in derision and that veneer of power was dented. The laughter stuck, and so did the danger, though no longer necessarily in the hands of professionals alone.

The Jester/Joker card in the minor arcana teaches us that we can all be Fools now.  We too get to tell the story and judge the mighty.  Why so serious?  Because we can.

The Role of The Fool in Tarot, Life and in Death Note

The Fool is the thorn in the side of reality; ergo those who own its real estate too. 

As wild card, it has partial immunity to the wiles and ways of the Major Arcana. Standing aside, yet also part of the minor arcana, so unable to be dismissed out of hand.  Despite the fact that the Fool will not, can not, or else alone decides when and where to, view the world as written by its creators of reality.  And that is dangerous insofar as it places a crack in the veneer of the real, which could fracture the picture entirely. Or else may breed revolution or dissent.

It has always been the province of kids and Fools to tell the Emperor that he wears no clothes.

Unwittingly or not, the Fool commands the story.  Acting as its fail-safe, in madness, ridicule, wit or slap-stick, this card can bring about the fall of all pretenders to power.  Worse still, the Fool could simply walk away, consigning the disregarded erstwhile God to nothingness.  Dissolving into the essential arcana that which allowed him/her/it to arise.
Any tale or testimony needs two fundamental elements to stick - someone or thing to tell it; another to hear and take it on board.

The Fool may be both, sometimes simultaneously.  In one guise story-teller; in another an audience member to be convinced to enter this new reality; buy into its vision and scope, then keep coming back for more.  To embrace a novel (or manga) universe, as if it was real and what happens within it matters.  And that, in itself, may be the story too, as Death Note proves.

Can Light Yagami regale those worldly Fools with enough bravado, soaring rhetoric and righteous judgement, for them to accept him as their God? 

Or will the natural river flow of his listeners decree, 'no, you're just a murderer' instead?

Thus sounding a death knoll on all credibility and demolishing Kira as no arbitrator of reality.  The denunciation far more fatal than a mere gunshot fired from Matsuda's gun.  That act itself a Judgement, signifying that Near's vision of what's really going on now trumps that of Light Yagami.

Finally, Ryuk as Death God steps forward in his secondary position as Wise Fool within the limitations of this world.  Here to trigger the fail-safe on Light's folly, and to initiate his Fall.

Wiping the slate clean for a new contender to come and fill the power vacuum.  To turn the cards and begin their bid to rewrite reality according to their own lights.  A new chapter, with a new Fool setting out to traverse the Royal Road, erecting a brand, new house of cards. 

An old story, retold in endless repetition, as so many movies, books and real life tales attest, for the hope of world dominion always lures the foolish onto a journey through the Major Arcana.

While The Fool as Joker watches from the audience masses of the minor arcana; and awaits the penultimate moment, wherein Judgement lies in the whim of those fools still paying attention.  Anyone can lead, but without those prepared to follow, their pretensions fade to Mu.
Light Yagami reality speech Death Note Manga
And the great cosmic joke seems ever historically to be that the watchful masses follow more gladly those with the power to entertain. They will dismiss any who leave them bored.

Why else do you think US presidential candidates spend $40m and more on their campaigns?  Those spellbound foolish Americans demand their spectacle, just like everybody else, and those seeking to impress them need to pay enough entertainers to ensure that everybody sing their song.

Never Trust the Story-teller, Only the Story: Fools from the Bardic Tradition

Death Note Sakura TV Kira's Kingdom

Kira's Kingdom on Sakura TV - Showmanship to raise or reduce a ruler
Of course back in the day, no millions were needed to make rulers stand tall before their reality's subjects.  Only a good deal of generous hospitality, or a tame bard or two.

Tarot cards arose in their modern from the medieval period, when Jesters and Joculators (Jokers) represented all that remained of the once proud Bardic System.   A branch of Druidry subsumed under Christianity; the staple of the old, crushed, Celtic courts.  Much of this tradition - tarot and bardic alike - came from France, where the groves of the Bretons and Gauls once dotted the land, and the great Romances bloomed.

An elite then who knew the dangers inherent in bards - who wove better stories then them in songs and recited tales, who could speak on behalf of people and spread dissent - hence doing all to reduce their power.  Edward I, for example, had over 500 Welsh bards killed, when they refused to sign praise-songs to him on their harps.   Others across the old Celtic lands of Europe followed his lead, if not his scale.

Most simply froze them out.  Not giving them a platform to sing at their hearth.  Give or take those who could be trusted to toe the line.  The rest wandered about as minstrels, denounced from throne and pulpit alike, and the foolish congregations by and large turned against them.

Skip forward a century or so, and the drip-drip of reduction in stature has allowed courts to keep 'jesters', who tell 'jokes' that are simply ridiculous instead of pointing ridicule at their sire.  Thus the Fool became silly, idiotic, without the power to sting.  Sort of.  The harp of my country survived - how about yours?

And this, I think, is the final point about the Fool.  He exists everywhere because he is legion.  He's included in the tarot, because he - or the idea of him - is still a threat.  All who tell and hear stories are the Fools, and that power could never be reduced.  All hail the story-tellers.  Bards and Fools all.

The True Fools of Death Note

They were there at the beginning.   They remain irretrievably linked at the end.  We feel their influence in every nuance of the story, and reference them whenever any other version is told.  They were there every step of the way, yet never once appear in it at all.

Of course, the Fools we talk of here are the story-tellers:  Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata; and those who heard their tale:  you, me and the whole Death Note fandom.  We fell for it big-time and wouldn't let them fail.  Within the confines of this story, we judged them Gods of this manga universe; instigators and arbitrators of canon. In our minds and imaginations at least, their Death Note domain became real; its creators had (re)written reality.
Death Note Tarot Tsugumi Ohba The Fool

Ohba

Death Note Tarot 0 - The Fool Takeshi Obata

Obata

Death Note Fans - The Fool Tarot

Us

Yet even the author and artist of Death Note, widely acclaimed and heralded as the best in their genre, could fail in the final judgement.  Even there, the fandom retained the potential to walk away as bored Fools lured into watching the spectacle elsewhere.

For evidence, just see the widespread rejection of the belated canon-directed colouring for Matt.  He's got brown eyes and brown hair, Death Note fans were informed, a decade after the fanon colouring had been fixed.  You're wrong, a few louder Fools yelled back at the Mangaka Gods.  But most simply said nothing at all.  Just pretended they hadn't heard a thing, and continued to colour Matt with blue/green eyes and bright red hair.  The shift denoted nothing and faded into nothingness. 

But on balance, the reality Ohba-sensei and Obata-sensei wrought remained.  It was enough to win them The World.

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Death Note Tarot Tales II: Near's Tarot in the Death Note One-Shot Special

16/1/2016

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A continuing look at tarot cards, archetypes
and symbolism in Death Note
with Death Note News columnist
Tarot Mikami


~ This time exploring how
Near uses tarot
in the manga one-shot
to represent all that is going on

Tarot Mikami Death Note News columnist banner
The Death Note One-Shot Special was published in Weekly Shonen Jump's February 2008 edition. Created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, this 46 page stand alone chapter acted as a sequel to the events in the main Death Note manga.
When it seems a new Kira has emerged from the ether, former SPK agents Hal Lidner and Anthony Rester approach Near to see what he's going to do about it. After all, he is the new L now and everyone knows that L takes on Kira.  Or does he? 

Well, yeah, as long as he accepts that his opponent really is Kira.  If not, then why take a Fool's Journey along the same old pathway, as directed by an imitator. Near's already taken those steps and learned those lessons. He's already in possession of that world.  As underscored and illustrated throughout this one-shot Death Note manga sequel by use of tarot imagery.

L's successor - now L - quite literally occupies The World in tarot.  He's created a whole world from the cards!

Near's Position in the Death Note Manga One-Shot

As Matsuda makes clear before we even glimpse Near, the current L is in a position of considerable power in this new post-Kira world.  Especially as regards understanding and information. 

The story takes place nine years after Light Yagami received a Death Note from the Shinigami Ryuk, and three years since his serial killing persona Kira was killed by the same. All of which was not only orchestrated and witnessed by Near, but he also obtained custody of said Death Note AND calls the shots on what details enter the public sphere.  There is some intelligence known for certain only to Near - like the whereabouts/Fate of that deadly notebook - which he expects others simply to take his word on trust.

Near not only has the keenest overview of this world as far as Kira concerns it, but he is able to determine all future aspects of Kira within it.  Light Yagami might once have thought himself God of This New World. But in reality, it turned out to be Near.

He and/or the Death Note creators - Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata - choose to express that with use of the tarot, tarot cards and the Fool's Journey through the Major Arcana (though the latter is largely implied).   And by 'Near's world in tarot cards', I mean that quite explicitly.

Our First View of Near in Death Note One-Shot

Hal Lidner and Anthony Rester Death Note one-shot
When Hal Lidner and Anthony Rester enter Near's hub, it's to find themselves confronted by a wall of cards.  Superimposed against a view of the city, representing the world outside.

We see this urban sprawl first. It's a telescoping within from tower, as context and location, to room as specific spot wherein lurks the current L. But it also emphasizes the fact that we're seeing their environment/territory/universe.  At its centre, there's Near; architect and creator of the cityscape in cards.
Near inside a tarot world Death Note One-Shot

Death Note's Near tarot card world
In truth, these could be any old cards (though the minor arcana in tarot is the four suits of playing cards anyway).  However, it's made overt in the next clutch of panels that Near chose tarot with which to build his card tower's massive expanse.
Death Note One Shot Near's Tarot card tower
After underscoring again that that Near knows everything (the panel after this states that he's 100% certain that a Death Note is involved in the latest killing spree by one labelled Kira via those denizens of the world wide web), he goes on to prioritize in importance the safety of his 'tarot card tower'.

The world he's constructed in the wake of the previous Kira tops that being introduced by this new one.

The World in Near's Tarot Card Tower

I have repeatedly used 'The World' in conjunction with Near in this Death Note manga special. This is no accidental over-usage of the words. The World is the last card of the tarot's major arcana. It's the final trump to play.  It's what there is to play for.

The World's meaning is to return to the beginning but, as the poet says, see it again for the first time.  Those in control of The World, or in a World state, recognize the signs for an environment in which they originally tramped through in all ignorance. Only this time they have the overview; experience from lesson's learned and teachers along the way; and incorporate within their own personalities the archetypes enacted by the previous arcana.

To enter The World is to complete the circle, thus finish the story.  Typically, the possessor of The World will ape the stance of The Fool from card zero. Only instead of blithely heading straight towards an unseen cliff-edge, they will note the abyss before them, smile knowingly and step right over it.  Then they fly.

It achieves a bird's eye view of everything below in manageable, surmountable, graspable miniature. All they survey, they know.  The World is their oyster; it belongs to them entirely.

Thus is Near situated here.  Warning Lidner and Rester not to 'knock over his tarot card tower' - The World he holds; built of all he mastered in the journey towards its construction - because that would indicate a brand, new world for the making.  But first, he has to double check.  Only then can he soar over his cliff-edge in complete (intellectual) ownership of all he surveys.

Contemplating L - Original Wammy Fool of the Death Note Universe

Tarot Near thinking of L in Death Note One-Shot Special

Near uses tarot cards to think about L in Death Note One-Shot Special
It has to be assumed that Near understands the symbolism and archetypes inherent in the tarot. At least, insofar as that's all we ever see from his decks, those of the major arcana.  Assuming that he hasn't just got a pack arranged precisely beside him at all times, then Near is seen picking a card at random in order to begin his contemplation of L.

As his Wammy predecessor on the original Kira case, L may be viewed as the original Fool.  The first one to undertake this journey, which Near then inherited. Therefore all cards in the tarot would pertain to L.

And to Near too, upon the same journey.  He and L together may take an overview through the way-makers and ponder the states learned, mastered and/or understood.  His insight isn't into one specific point, but them all.  If Near knew less about the tarot, then he might have opted for a single card, one which he knew intimately and/or triggered the pensive subject.

Moreover, because he inherited this case from L the original Fool, it's to L's mindset Near must return to identify the start.  There to recognize it most fully when it's viewed again from the end.  'What would L do?' pretty much delineates the boundaries of this quest; the rules of the game, determining failure or success; and what Near must consider most important of all in concluding the same right now.

If you like, L drew the lines in the sand to begin the battle.  Now Near has to return to where that was, in order to draw a line under the Kira case, so to end it.

Death card in Death Note One-Shot Special

The Death Card and Light Yagami

We never see the card which Near pulled out to muse upon with, and about, L.

However we are privy to that which followed, pertaining to Light Yagami as the original Kira. It was the major arcana tarot card Death.

Usually I sigh when this turns up in fictional media, as it invariably means something other than is obvious to the non-tarot reading viewer.  Death indicates more of a transformation than actual base and physical death. Though that can factor, insofar as it is a transformative state.

However, this does mean here what the dialogue requires Death to mean.

It's never stated what Kira did (any Death Note fan reading by now will already know), only that his actions brought about a transformation in crime rate and war.  Both for the better, as the tarot's Death state is wont to achieve too.

In Near's personal life, Kira represented something of a watershed too. Before Kira, he was a jigsaw puzzling student at Wammy's House. During  Kira, he became a world-class detective, putting his life and liberty on the line in order to solve the case.

In that regard, the Death tarot card is a perfect representation for Kira here.

The Foolish C-Kira of Death Note's Aftermath World - a Cheap Copy Kira

In contrast to the game-changing transforming qualities of encountering Light Yagami's Kira, we have Near's condemnation of this new Kira.

The tarot card he chooses to represent this interloper is The Fool.

Numbered zero in the major arcana, The Fool is the signifier, or subject, of the whole story to follow.  The protagonist of the plot.  But that case journey undertaken by L, then Near, already had one of those in the form of Light Yagami's Kira.

Therefore Near identifies this new Kira not as Light's successor, but the instigator of a whole new tale.  It's not the quest he (nor L or Mello) was on. It's incitement to enter into another Fool's Journey; a separate quest entirely.

By 'identifies', I mean that Near quite literally pins this one down.  Spearing straight through the hidden cards indicating the rest of this Fool's story.

He uses a dart to do so - the prop of his own Foolish days.  As when Near first appeared in the Death Note manga as a contender for the L Code on the Kira case, his only 'toy' was a single dart.  The rest - tarot cards, transformers, puppets etc - all came later.

Near is stating symbolically, as well as verbally, that he's been here before. This is a different story, with all the lessons already learned from the first, therefore why should he be interested in it at all?
Near Death Note CKira idiot posing as Kira
Death Note One-Shot Special C-Kira The Fool in Tarot
The new Kira as a Fool setting out on a different journey from the first is reiterated in Near's conclusion, wherein he labels the killer 'some idiot'.

Fool, in one of its earliest connotations, was 'an idiot' - the folly of which still overhangs some modern usages of the term.

Thereon to label the imposter as C-Kira - a cheap copy of the original - and therefore nothing to do with Near at this stage, unless he chooses to accept the case as something new in its entirety.

The Other Tarot Cards on the Floor in Near's Tarot Musings

It may be of interest to contemplate the other cards spread out around Near's Death (Light Yagami) and Fool (C-Kira) cards.  They don't actually seem all that random, when placed in conjunction with Near's known history; and the card he surveyed whilst holding the L puppet aloft might be surmised. 

First there's Strength, which is pretty much what it says on the packet.  That's the sheer endurance and brute force intellect required to survive The Wammy House for Gifted and Talented Orphans.  Followed by The Priestess - the inspiration for entering the quest, or reason to be upon that great Fool's Journey - aka Roger telling Near and Mello that L was dead and Kira was reigning unchecked. 

Both are already on the floor by the time Near picks out a card to contemplate with L.  Later panels show that to be The Hermit - the isolated light in the darkness, which both Near and Mello would have represented at that time.  In short, Near's own instance of inheriting L's Fool's quest, and bringing himself up to speed in following the clues rippling out from L's investigation. 

This is followed by The Star, which could be summarized as 'hope', i.e. when Near sourced the means to fully integrate himself into the Kira case.  Then Death - Kira - and The Fool - C-Kira. 

It could be that Near is merely hunting through a tarot deck looking for the two that will illustrate his mind-set and direct his musing, discarding all others along the way.  Or it could be that he's spelling out the story thus far, in order to reach his conclusion.  Revisiting major markers on his own journey to this moment, so to recognize the reality of the situation in which he now finds himself.

Seeing The World for the cliff-edge it is, thus finding the courage to soar above it.

Toppling Near's Tarot World - Clearing The Decks with the Analytical Hermit?

Near tarot card tower falls
It's difficult to see which card acts as a catalyst for chaos; signifying such a lapse in Near's concentration that it begins to collapse the self-imposed prison barricade of his tarot card tower.

However, it seems significant that its with the fingers adorned with puppets of himself and Mello that Near swoops in to redeem its placement, whilst holding L in a watchful aside from his other hand.

Particularly since both panels give clues as to the nature of the card itself.

The first depicting it practically glowing with a halo of light against the darkness. The second affording a glimpse of what appears to be a staff, or torch held high and similarly glowing.  Both representing aspects of The Hermit then; the same card previously associated in Near's view with L.

The Hermit is a great card for Near now. An indicator of what is to come.

There are times when we have to step back, reflect and meditate upon our progress so far. This analytical retreat is necessary to shine a light upon those dark, overlooked, sometimes secret corners of the mind. Cleaning out the cobwebs and seeing things much more clearly than ever before, simply by stopping in order to see them.
Near building his tarot card tower in Death Note one-shot special
Death Note One Shot Near's Tarot tower falls

However, The Hermit also symbolizes a solitary time, when the thinker is at their most anti-social.

After all, you need space and silence in which to effectively contemplate the past and all its clues; to sift through the rubble of self and experience to find context for the present; to peer into those half-forgotten places of the mind in recollection of lived memory, enlivened by passing insights from retrospect and other people's points of view.

This is not a state in which to take on board the perspective of third parties, unless as recollection sparking previously unexamined aspects for meditation.

Thus the insertion of Mello and L, as finger-puppets causes some measure of chaos for Near in his tarot world. Despite them being figures from the past.

Unless, of course, Near purposefully degrades his tarot card tower with this introduction of Mello as a puppet - the chaos ran rife during his rivalry with his Wammy House peer in life too. Given that Near has expertly and precisely placed every other card in a vast and intricate tower to date, this seems likely.

For Near as The Hermit, Hal and Rester's continued presence is a distraction. Knocking down his own tarot tower serves to momentarily shut them up, and provides him with a reasonable excuse to send them away.   Albeit delivered in Near's own brusque, polite-but-rude manner.
Near's tarot tower in Death Note one shot special

This is Near's World, not for anyone to direct in either order nor chaos but himself

Death Note One-Shot Special: Near Claims The World in Tarot

It is the prerogative of the enlightened Fool, at the end of their Journey, with all their lessons learned, situations enacted and archetypal states fully realised to return to the beginning and see it again with its truths revealed.  The Wise Fool in possession of The World gets to soar beyond with a smile on their faces, enjoying a bird's eye view of all the components which make up reality. 

In mastery of their dominion, those claiming The World in tarot cards may even dictate its reality to others (though such elevated, returning Fools in symbolic reality generally feel no need to; displays of power play like that not only appear trifling but meaningless too in the face of other Fools and other realities). 

Thus Near finishes his contemplation of The World by opting out of it.  But not before he's seen pronouncing his conclusion through an overview of everything, as represented by a whole wall of tarot cards, each carrying their own component towards the whole picture.
Tarot Near You Abonimable Murderer from Death Note One-Shot Special

Near stepping outside The World to proclaim its truth from his lofty perspective
Viewed close up, Near seems to be symbolically revisiting a similar point on his own 'true' journey; contrasting this apparently easy conclusion with one which wasn't so simple to conclude.  Compare this frame with Near's previous derogation of Light Yagami's Kira.
Death Note Near 'Just a Murderer'
Death Note Near Crazy mass murderer
There are elements in the latter which recall the former - Near's finger twisting around a lock of hair; proxies in props for the real thing (puppet; tarot cards); his utter bluntness in calling the murders for what they were, stripping away all intrigue, justification and quasi-divine mystique - yet all is changed utterly.

Three years before, Near was smug, but also uncertain in his smugness. He peered down to speak, still thinking it through, before sneaking a look at Kira to see how his words had been received. Then felt the need to reiterate a point, this time a little more flowery, therefore losing some of its stark impact.

This time, Near's pronouncement is unfettered and direct. His gaze straight and sure. His confidence in the latter no doubt stemming from his living through the precedent set by the former.

In some ways, publicly giving clues to how the 'real' Kira was diminished by this public re-enactment, though only he and a select few will ever know that.

His world-view viewed through The World, as a wall of tarot cards.
Then we pull away for the long shot and know that Near truly has returned to the beginning and seen it for the first time. That he really has seen and accepted his truth in The World; that he is no mere successor to L, but L himself.  With the power to disdain lesser distractions that would teach him nothing new; to reject imprisonment inside an arena begun and delineated by some other Fool; to step away from The World, over the cliff top, and into new journeys bespoke to himself.

The Hermit's illumination, with Mello in hand (literally) to spark the courage for chaotic dismantlement, quickly escalated into Near knowing to pull down his own tarot card tower, and build the whole thing anew.  After all, Near now owned The World.
Death Note Near tarot L

Near gets to rebuild L anew from a world of tarot cards
Incidentally, this gets quite poignant when you realise whom Near is addressing here.  That speech bubble for his unseen partner in discussion is L.  It's the style used whenever L speaks through a monitor - over a television screen or computer - alongside a letter upon a white background. Throughout this Death Note One-Shot Special, that was Near himself speaking publicly as L.

Or put another way, this is Nate River conversing with Near right at the point when he mentally and emotionally accepts that he is L.  When he steps free of The World as delineated by L. Lawliet and embarks upon new worlds of his own discovery, and journeys of his own destiny.

From Sun to World: Near Steps Out of L's Shadow via Tarot Symbolism

A final world compares the images of Near from the beginning and end of this Death Note One-Shot Special. The front cover artwork depicts him still very much a successor to L, continuing the ways of his idol until completion of that particular journey.  Near's own voice is overtly silenced, subsumed beneath a finger-puppet of L. Himself acting entirely as L's proxy.

We travel through the story, witnessing Near's final leap from Wammy heir to the L Code to one actually in possession of it, mentally as well as physically.  There is no Lawliet by the final depiction of Near, in the manga's closing artwork.  Though Near now looks more like L than ever before, and sits confidentially beneath a shining tag proclaiming the same - backwards, forwards and in black and white.
Near cover of Death Note One-Shot Special
Near final artwork Death Note One-Shot Special
In terms of tarot, there are characteristics in the former which suggest that of The Sun tarot card.  Blazing far more keenly than The Hermit ever could, The Sun indicates those seeing their own being, environment and all anew.  They aren't necessarily illuminated, but ARE the illumination.  "Who are you?", asked The Fool of the Sun.  "I am you." The Sun replied.

It's the final stage before Judgement calls and, beyond that, The World.

There are fewer indicators that the last piece of artwork in Death Note's canon series depicts Near as archetype of The World.  Nor can we totally dismiss it.  There are no symbol creatures in each corner, but that central topmost circle could pass for a globe, and Near himself - L-esque as he appears - could arguably be perched with his back against a cliff-top; or at least the dark unknown.

Nevertheless it's a stretch, so we'll leave this here.

Next time we'll begin our journey through the Death Note major arcana proper, looking at the Fool tarot card
~ Tarot Mikami

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Death Note Tarot Tales I: Near & the Use of Tarot in Death Note

23/11/2015

 
Setting foot on a Fool's Journey through Death Note in a new column by Tarot card reader, Tarot Mikami
Death Note News column: Death Note Tarot Tales with Tarot Mikami
Many dramas, books and films make use of tarot cards to symbolic effect.  Death Note is no exception. There's no doubt that the cards were chosen for shock value. Yet remarkably, Death Note's tarot usage is often - and perhaps inadvertently - correct.
The appearance of tarot cards in Death Note is heralded by Near's shopping list, presented to Anthony Rester, of things that he requires in order to investigate the Kira case. Amid items such as 'plastic models', 'inflatable pool', 'secret base set', 'radio controlled rubber duck' and a 'Christmas tree', Near asked for 'Tarot cards... $250'. That's a pretty expensive deck of tarot!

It's to Near we return, time and again, to see how tarot is used in Death Note.

Death Note Near's Tarot Deck

Death Note Near's Tarot Cards

Near's tarot cards in Death Note Episode 30 (anime)
The deck of tarot cards used by Near in Death Note appears to have been invented by Takeshi Obata (or prompted for him to draw by writer Tsugumi Ohba). At least it's not one that I've ever seen outside the Death Note universe, nor have any fans apparently found a real world set.  Surely a marketing opportunity lost right there.

Anthony Rester's tarot purchase on behalf on Near was first revealed in the manga: Death Note Chapter 78 Prediction.  Those scenes later appeared in the anime: Death Note Episode 30 Justice.
Death Note tarot Near's deck

Back of Near's Tarot in Death Note
Death Note The Devil tarot card

Death and The Devil in Near's Death Note Tarot

Near's Tarot Spread in Death Note Manga and Anime

In both the Death Note anime and manga, Near lays his tarot cards out in a very specific way.  They are arrayed in a circle around himself, with most of the cards used in this manner, while a small pile remains to sit inside with him.

While I can't claim to know every single tarot card spread in existence, this one is a new configuration on me. It's difficult to know how it would - or indeed could - be read in a predictive context.
Death Note Near tarot spread

Near's tarot spread in Death Note - Prediction manga chapter 78
There are roughly 40-44 tarot cards precisely placed in a circle around Near.  As there are seventy-eight cards in most packs, this constitutes the majority of them.   They appear even more densely packed in version shown in the anime of how Near lays out his tarot cards.
Near tarot spread Death Note anime

Near's tarot spread in Death Note anime episode Justice
Circular tarot spreads tend to use far fewer cards. The most I've encountered are sixteen piles, with thirteen or twelve (or zodiacal spreads of tarot) being more common.  This isn't to say that Near hasn't invented his own, or else knows a way that I haven't seen before.  Just that it's rather surprising and probably for visual effect only.

The question being - for whose?

Themes and Motifs in Death Note's Tarot Scene

Death Note Episode 30 Justice title page
Death Note Episode 30: Justice
The titles of the Death Note scenes where tarot cards are featured contain hints of their usage.

In the manga, this is Chapter 78 - there are usually 78 cards in a tarot deck.  The chapter is entitled Prediction. Fortune telling is how tarot is most famously employed, though by no means the only way in which they might be used.

Moreover, in Death Note 13: How to Read, author Tsugumi Ohba claimed that he chose the title based upon the predictions given by Near and Light respectively.  Namely that there is a fake rule (Near) and that Mello would contact the Japanese Kira Task Force (Light).  No mention of tarot in this context at all, though it would seem the obvious source.

In the anime, the scenes in which Near reads tarot cards occur in Episode 30: Justice.  There's nothing particularly meaningful about the number 30 in tarot, but there is a card usually labelled Justice.

Death Note Chapter 78 Prediction Near and tarot

The opening panels of Death Note: Chapter 78 Prediction
depicting Near reading the tarot

Death Note Near's Tarot Card Reading - Death

Absolutely the most clichéd use of a tarot card in popular culture comes with the misuse of the Death card.  The problem is that viewers, or readers, think they know what it means. You don't have to be a tarot reader to interpret that Death is bound to translate into a fatality. It doesn't look good for the person whose fortune is being told, which is why it works so well for dramatic effect.

Unfortunately for the storytelling plot, the Death card in tarot rarely means actual, physical death for any individual uncovering it.

As an aside, a group of us tarot readers once challenged ourselves to come up with a configuration of cards which would genuinely denote an imminent loss of life. As in unequivocally could not be read in any other way.  It was hard work, with much toing and froing and debate, but we eventually arrived at something. Every card was one of the minor arcana.  They did not feature the major arcana card Death.

So how did Death Note do with its use of the tarot Death card?
Death Note Death tarot card - Near plans to kill Mello

With the Death card on view, Near offers to kill Mello
At first glance, quite badly.  Near waves the Death card about whilst discussing Shinigami, rules of the Death Note and finally focuses upon it as he tells Light and the Japanese Task Force that he plans to murder Mello. None of which are particularly covered by that card's tarot meaning.

At least not in isolation.

Though, of course, Near could just be using the Death tarot card as a symbolic prop and not reading it at all. In which case, it very nicely indicates a Death God, an instrument of death and a vigilante brand of enacting capital punishment upon his erstwhile foster brother.

However, that's not precisely how and when Near links events with his Death card.
Death Note anime episode 30 Death card tarot

Near flips the Death card to conclude that the 13 day rule in Death Note is fake
In tarot, the Death card signifies an ending of something - usually a situation or circumstance, rather than a life. It might just as well have been called a breakthrough card or closure of a chapter, than the more evocative Death.

Near doesn't turn over  his card until the moment when he's found a rule which can't be proven true given the known facts of the Kira case.  Unless, of course, Light Yagami really was innocent, which Near doesn't believe.

Therefore the appearance of the Death card in Death Note marks a watershed moment whereby Near's investigation genuinely threatens Kira's security, and Light's previously watertight alibi.  It's also the first fruits from the beginning of a new arc, in which Mello and Near (not entirely willingly) work together to defeat their mutual adversary.

Death Note's creators may have employed this tarot card in a purely symbolic way or not, but it also fits the plot.

Death Note Near's Tarot Reading - The Devil

A second card gets flicked over, as Near realises that the second L - à la Kira - can see and speak with a shinigami. Bringing another of the major arcana into play seems to denote that some progress has been made.  Two cards to signify that they've taken a step forward.

It could also be seen very symbolically without recourse to knowledge of tarot cards.  If Kira is Death, then he was tempted into it by a supernatural force, i.e. the Death God.  (Who was no doubt seen as demonic anyway, especially in the Western mind, amid all that Christian imagery dotted throughout Death Note.)  Who better then to represent Ryuk in tarot than The Devil?
Death Note Near with The Devil and Death tarot cards

Near storytelling via tarot illustrations in Death Note
However, as it happens, The Devil in tarot is exactly the right card for Ryuk, particularly in this situation.

If you're reading from an Abrahamic background (Jew, Christian, Muslim etc.), then please put aside all you know of The Devil/Satan. This tarot card skirts about the edges of that persona, but it isn't an exact fit. For that you need to reach further into the inspiration for the modern Devil - Pan, Bacchus/Dionysus etc.  This is a deity/demi-god who exists for hedonistic pleasure. He will grant your every desire and give you tools to satisfy your greatest craving.  Thus teaching the individual the meaning of the old adage: be careful what you wish for, it might come true.

You only have to see the addict in thrall to their next hit, or those crushed beneath debt because they really couldn't afford all those things that they bought, in order to see how instant gratification and receiving all that you wanted might go badly wrong.

In the case of Kira, it was that Ryuk presented him with power usually beyond the scope of any mere human. Light Yagami's wish for a better world made him reach for the Death Note.  His use of it ultimately controlled him, rather than the other way around.  Ryuk has frequently stated that he's on nobody's side.  He's there for the lulz, as it were. But here he is providing Light/Kira/2nd L with the lie required to continue satisfying his need to remain in power.

That is The Devil of the tarot, and the Death God of the manga/anime alike.  At any time, Light could have stopped. Ryuk doesn't force him into this course of action.  He just facilitates it.

That Near turns over The Devil card at the point whereby Ryuk lies on Kira's behalf is exactly right. That was the moment of facilitation, not merely that of being present. 
Death Note Ryuk, Light and Ide Chapter 78

Ryuk and Light exemplify The Devil in Death Note Chapter 78

How Near Uses Tarot Cards in Death Note

In both the manga and anime, Death Note's tarot scenes with Near aren't so much fortune-telling - nor the Prediction of its chapter title - as seeing the cards used as commentary upon what's already occurring.  Near isn't 'reading' tarot cards per se.  He's providing illustrations to highlight the important clues unfolding.

If he'd merely picked those cards at random from the tarot pack, then they really were worth the $250 in precision, and Near is undoubtedly the most intuitive character in manga history.

But he didn't pick either of them at random.

Look again at how the sequence with The Devil tarot card in the Death Note anime plays out to witness how Near selects his tarot cards quite purposefully.

Psychological Profiling with Near's Tarot Deck in Death Note

Near shuffles tarot cards in Death Note episode 30
Step One:  Near sits in the midst of his circle of tarot cards. He's selected just a handful - five or six at most - and flicks through them overlooked by Hal Lidner and Anthony Rester.  As his conversation with Light Yagami goes on, Near's index finger pauses upon a single card among the tarot in his hand.  His fingertip strokes back and forth along its rim.

Analysis:  Near hasn't yet reached a firm conclusion upon what's occurring with the Second L (Light/Kira). Each tarot card in his hand represents a possibility.
Death Note Near with The Devil tarot card ready Episode 30
Step Two:  Near suddenly whips the card free of those in his hand. But he holds it away from himself, with its picture aspect concealed from his own view.  His gaze is actually upon the Death card upturned on the carpet before him.  Meanwhile, Near tells Light that he knows there is a fake rule in the Death Note and asks his opinion upon which it is.  Light - in the guise of (second) L - answers that it's the 13 day rule.

Analysis:  Until now, The Devil card has symbolized one of a final handful of strong contenders for what's going on. Near has promoted it to most likely scenario, but cannot acknowledge it as fact until he's tested his theory.
Death Note Near smiles over his tarot card (The Devil)
Step Three:  As Light asks Ryuk to confirm whether or not there is a fake rule in the Death Note, Near smiles and turns The Devil card towards himself.  He does so at the moment that Ryuk asserts that there are no fake rules, thus lying to maintain Light Yagami's prior alibi against accusations of being Kira.

In that pose, Near clarifies that there is indeed a shinigami present, and confirms that the answer was that all Death Note rules are truly stated.

Analysis:  Near has already deduced that there should be a shinigami present, as he suspects that Light Yagami is Kira.  What he was testing was whether the relationship between Kira and Ryuk is akin to that state of affairs governed in tarot by The Devil card.  Near knows there is a fake rule, so Ryuk's denial of the fact confirms Near's favoured theory.  

From a pack of 78 tarot cards, Near has now homed in on one - The Devil - to describe Kira's inner sanctum and mindset, and Ryuk's position within the scenario too.  This sets the tempo for what will later play out in the Yellow Box warehouse.  In short, Near just nailed Light Yagami's psychology; Ryuk's facilitative indifference; and his own end game.  All with a single tarot card to provide context.
Near smiles from a tarot circle, clutching The Devil card to himself
Step Four: Near might hold his card close to his heart, but only physically.  In actuality, he's crowing his victory - repeating to Light precisely what just happened.  That the confirmation wasn't that the Death Note rules aren't fake, but that a shinigami will lie in capitulation to Kira's will.

Whilst speaking, Near throws down The Devil card, so it lands upturned upon the Death card.
Death Note anime Near turns over The Devil card
Analysis:  Thus Near is able to finally play his card - The Devil previously selected - whilst spelling out to all listening (the remaining SPK, plus the entire Japanese Task Force, in addition to Light and Ryuk) that the shinigami's presence confirms Kira's presence too.

Moreover, Near's just shown that the Death God will lie for Kira, inserting fake rules to provide him with an alibi. Therefore Light Yagami's innocence is no longer proven.  He could still be, and almost certainly is, Kira.

He never once mentions The Devil, though Hal, Anthony and the unseen Stephen would be able to see Near deal his tarot card.  Nevertheless, Near has tripped Light up by triggering the weakness inherent to all in that state of being highlighted by The Devil in tarot.

Conclusion:  Near uses the tarot in Death Note as psychological profiling tools.  Not fortune-telling at all, just props for his own thought processes and theory categorization.
Death Note Near surrounded by Tarot cards

Surrounded by his tarot, Near contemplates The World to attain in Death Note
 I hope you enjoyed the first editorial in my Tarot column for Death Note News.  Next time I'll be looking at the way Near uses tarot in the Death Note One Shot manga.
~ Tarot Mikami

Three New Feature Writers for Death Note News

26/10/2015

1 Comment

 
A trio of Death Note News columnists are about to come on board, with the first being posted later on today.  Yep, that's right. You wait two years for one, and three of them turn up at once!  It's all very exciting.

So who have we got for you?

Nathaniel Overthinks Death Note

Death Note News: Nathaniel overthinks Death Note Philosophy column banner
The first monthly column will be penned by New Zealander Nathaniel Brown - a man who subscribes to several Schools of Thought.  At least when he's applying them to Death Note.

A thinker and a philosopher, Nathaniel will be leading us through some of the great theories and worldly perspectives across the range of human experience.  But doing it all through the lens of Death Note characters, plot-lines and whatever else from manga, anime or live action might illuminate the angle taken.

It might be Aristotle, Descartes, Confucius or whomever, depending upon the month, but what I can guarantee is that it'll be enjoyable. 

No Philosophy degree needed to read and contribute to the debate. Just a willingness to join with Nathaniel as he over thinks Death Note, all in the name of fun.

Look for his inaugural column in an hour or two from now.

Death Note Musical References with Lucas King

No idea if that's what the column will ultimately be called, as this welcome to the team is very fresh, and we're yet to fine tune the details.

Yet Lucas King himself is no stranger to Death Note News.  He's guest blogged before and orchestrated for himself an instant fan-base, when he composed those missing Death Note themes for Matt.
Lucas will be taking a wider view of the musical array in Death Note tunes - from soundtracks to tributes, across the spectrum of canon, fanon and all the rest. Probably.  Like I said, it's early days yet and anything still is possible.

An original composer of Death Note music himself - albeit from the fandom community - Lucas King's occasional column for Death Note News promises to be insightful, expert and downright entertaining.  Find it in the future and enjoy.

Death Note Tarot Tales with Tarot Mikami

Death Note Near with Tarot Cards
Near makes up stuff
with a tarot deck
Talking about looking to the future, do you recall that moment in the Death Note anime when Near laid out his tarot deck and turned them over to shocking symbolism? 

There was Death staring straight back at us. Chilling in any context but one which habitually has a Shinigami prancing about in full view upon our screens.

Also utterly erroneous in its reading, according to long-time connoisseur of these cards and Death Note fan, Tarot Mikami.  Loving the play on words in that pseudonym there!

'Probably monthly',  her Death Note News column will explore the genre and story through the literary device of the Fool's Journey. Along the way, you'll learn how to read tarot cards, not only with reference to Death Note - though that's how we'll come to understand it - but using any deck you care to handle.

We'll also find out why Near's tarot scene was all about the imagery and nothing to do with the reading (well, who would have thought...?).  Sneaky boy.

Death Note Tarot Tales with Tarot Mikami will appear anon, almost certainly within the next couple of weeks.  Another fabulous new insight into our favourite manga universe.

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