The 13 Tarot
Introduction: On the Nature of the Thirteen
This is not a Tarot of ascent.
There is no path laid from innocence to enlightenment, no promise that the final card will reconcile the first. The Thirteen do not describe a journey. They describe a condition.
Each card is a force already at work in the world. Not a lesson, not a virtue, not a warning. A pressure. A hand on the back. A system that continues whether believed in or not. They do not appear in sequence. They coincide.
Pain does not wait its turn. Mercy does not arrive last. Salvation and oblivion often share the same doorway and differ only by timing. Choice is never singular. Exit is not always escape. Transcendence is not always upward.
Within the deck, every figure wears a human face, but none are human in function. History has lent them bodies so that they might be misunderstood. Architects, heralds, healers, levellers, groundbreakers. Their disguises are intentional. Humanity listens more closely to mirrors than to gods.
This deck does not predict the future. It documents the present under pressure.
To draw a card is not to learn what will happen, but to notice what is already happening and has been, quietly, for a long time.
The Thirteen do not ask what you hope for.
They ask what your nature will accept.
0 — THE WARDEN
The 13 character – The Pied Piper
Knowing the way out does not grant the right to lead.
Upright
The Warden stands at the threshold.
He knows every path, every detour, every ending.
He hears the music of exit but does not play it for others.
This card speaks of awareness without intervention.
Of doors that exist but are not opened on your behalf.
The Warden does not deceive, command, or rescue.
He simply remains where choices become irreversible.
Here, freedom is visible.
Guidance is withheld.
Reversed
Knowledge becomes temptation.
Silence turns manipulative.
The Warden’s restraint curdles into cruelty.
In reversal, the keeper of paths begins to enjoy watching others wander.
Distance hardens into superiority.
The threshold becomes a spectacle.
What was once neutrality starts to resemble abandonment.
Keynote
An exit shown is not necessarily an exit to be taken.
I — THE ARCHITECT
The 13 character – The Host
Freedom exists only where limits are designed.
Upright
The Architect designs the system in which all others move.
He does not rule, instruct, or intervene.
He calibrates conditions and allows choice to arise within them.
This card speaks of structure, authorship, and responsibility without guidance.
The Architect makes exits possible by making systems intelligible.
Time is aligned. Awareness is seeded.
What follows is not his concern.
Here, authority is invisible but absolute.
The world functions because it was designed to.
The Architect is an indicted worker of miracles on parole.
Reversed
Design hardens into detachment.
Precision forgets consequence.
The Architect mistakes neutrality for innocence.
In reversal, structure becomes excuse.
The system is allowed to harm because it is correct.
Awareness is granted, but compassion is withheld.
Here, creation refuses accountability.
Keynote
You may choose freely, but only within what was designed.
II — THE APPEASER
The 13 character – Augustin
Time does not arrive. It is invited.
Upright
Augustin is the bearer of kairos, the moment that cannot be forced.
He gathers the fragments of humanity’s tragi-comedy and lays them gently in the open.
Through ritual, story, humour, and care, he creates the conditions for revelation.
He pours water onto the Egg of Zeal, not to awaken it by power, but to acknowledge that it is ready.
In doing so, he ushers the Fifth Element into being and triggers the return of The 13.
Augustin does not command.
He recognises.
He is the teddy bear and the chief, the witness and the storyteller, the living memory of the world.
He reveals the Exit by showing that it has always been there.
Here, gentleness becomes ignition.
Reversed
Kairos is delayed.
Ritual becomes repetition.
Story becomes distraction.
In reversal, Augustin comforts without consequence.
The moment passes unmarked.
The Egg remains balanced, untouched, and history continues to loop.
Here, revelation is postponed by nostalgia.
Keynote
The moment arrives when the world is finally ready to see it.
III – THE APOLOGIST
The 13 character – Homer
Now that it is too late, let me explain.
Upright
The Apologist speaks after the damage is done.
Blind to the spectacle yet fluent in its aftermath, he orders catastrophe into coherence.
He witnesses Humanity being led away and does not follow.
Unable to hear the call, unable to see the path, he remains behind and narrates what others refuse to remember.
He condemns Humanity not for ignorance, but for its rejection of hindsight and its betrayal of foresight.
This card speaks of explanation without intervention, of reason offered too late to matter.
The Apologist reveals the Gate and names it inevitable.
He knows it is not the Exit.
And still, he allows Humanity to pass through.
Here, clarity replaces courage.
Understanding arrives only once choice has expired.
Reversed
Explanation becomes absolution.
Language softens guilt.
The story excuses the failure it records.
In reversal, the Apologist mistakes articulation for responsibility.
The Gate is mistaken for salvation.
The Exit is forgotten entirely.
Here, intelligence collaborates with ruin.
Keynote
Only Grace will lead us home.
IV — THE CLEANSER
The 13 character – The Trickster
Salvation is never forced. It is only made available.
Upright
The Cleanser stands at a voluntary threshold.
He offers a procedure, not a promise.
Entry is permitted. Exit is possible. Explanation is withheld.
This card speaks of preparation, exposure, and consent.
The Cleanser frames salvation without defining it.
He demonstrates that escape can occur, but conceals the method so that belief is never coerced.
Here, cleansing is not moral.
It is procedural.
Nothing enters unchanged, and nothing is compelled to enter at all.
Freedom remains intact because the choice is real.
Reversed
Procedure becomes performance.
Cleansing becomes spectacle.
Invitation hardens into pressure.
In reversal, the Cleanser begins to enjoy the threshold.
The mystery becomes manipulation.
Those who refuse are judged, and those who enter are watched.
Here, salvation curdles into control.
Keynote
An open door is not a command.
V — THE HEALER
The 13 character – The Priest
That which eases the pain may also deepen the wound.
Upright
The Healer arrives when suffering demands a witness.
He binds flesh, steadies faith, and offers relief where hope has thinned to a thread.
His remedies work because people believe, and belief itself becomes medicine.
In his presence, pain pauses, chaos quiets, and the afflicted feel seen.
This card speaks of restoration, persuasion, and the strange power of touch, word, and ritual aligned.
Reversed
The cure becomes dependency.
What was offered as balm turns into leverage, indulgence, or control.
Healing is no longer about wholeness but about obedience, reverence, or escape.
Here, relief delays reckoning, and mercy masks corruption.
The Healer reversed warns that not all salvation seeks your freedom.
Keynote
Relief is not redemption.
VI — THE HARMONIZER
The 13 character – The Farmer’s Wife
Pain can be softened without ever being cured.
Upright
The Harmonizer endures what cannot be escaped.
She balances toil with solace, suffering with song, labour with small mercies that make life bearable.
Through rhythm, ritual, exchange, and voice, she restores enough equilibrium for the world to continue turning.
This card speaks of survival, adaptation, and the grace of making peace with what cannot yet be changed.
Harmony here is not perfection, but continuance.
Reversed
Balance becomes dependency.
Relief turns habitual, and endurance dulls into the quiet surrender of regret.
What once sustained now sedates, and suffering is managed rather than confronted.
Here, harmony masks exhaustion, and coping replaces hope.
The Harmonizer reversed warns of losing oneself to the very methods meant to keep one whole.
Keynote
Not all balance is healing.
VII — THE HERALD
The 13 character – Sisyphus
The bell has rung. What remains is choice.
Upright
Revelation without comfort.
The Herald announces that Kairos has arrived — not tomorrow, not gradually, but now.
The burden pauses. The cycle stutters.
What once felt endless is exposed as maintained.
Completion is glimpsed, not granted.
The question is no longer whether change is possible,
but whether you will act without guarantees.
The coin is in the air.
The ground has not yet agreed to receive it.
Meaning appears briefly, like altitude.
Enough to see the system.
Not enough to escape it.
Reversed
Denial of the moment.
The bell is heard and disregarded.
The coin is flipped again and again, never allowed to land.
Old labours resume out of habit, fear, or curated memory.
Warning signs are postponed, aestheticised, reframed as virtues.
The burden returns — not as fate, but as refusal.
What once protected now preserves.
What once nurtured now monitors.
Care becomes conditional.
Staying is praised. Leaving is moralised.
Safety closes in.
Growth is redefined as loyalty.
The loop tightens, politely.
Escape from change animates apathy.
Keynote
This is never-ending and you know it.
VIII — THE LIBERATOR
The 13 character – George Washington
When the sentence is universal, mercy is irrelevant.
Upright
The Liberator carries out the end without hesitation.
He does not judge, persuade, or inflame.
He executes what has already been decided by history’s exhaustion.
This card speaks of finality without cruelty, of authority reduced to function.
Liberation here is not rescue but release.
The blade falls because continuation has lost its claim.
The Liberator does not hate Humanity.
He is indifferent to it.
Cycles end because someone must end them.
Here, freedom is absolute because nothing follows.
Reversed
Execution masquerades as justice.
Finality is dressed as necessity.
Ending becomes a performance of righteousness.
In reversal, the Liberator forgets his indifference.
The act acquires meaning, and meaning demands repetition.
Oblivion becomes ideology.
Here, the end is delayed by belief.
Keynote
Completion is not compassion.
IX — THE SAVANT
The 13 character – The Doctor
Not everything revealed is meant to be held.
Upright
The Savant withdraws from the world in order to understand it.
She studies what others endure, naming forces that were once invisible.
Her light clarifies, measures, and explains, advancing knowledge beyond comfort or consent.
This card speaks of discovery, insight, and the courage to see what cannot be unseen.
Progress is made not through belief or desire, but through attention sharpened to a blade.
Reversed
Insight hardens into obsession.
Knowledge is pursued without regard for consequence, humility, or cost.
Illumination becomes contamination; certainty eclipses care.
Here, truth is severed from responsibility, and harm is justified as inevitability.
The Savant reversed warns that understanding alone does not absolve what follows.
Keynote
Light reveals. Light burns.
X — THE LEVELLER
The 13 character – Jade
Equality arrives when difference can no longer be sustained.
Upright
The Leveller reduces all things to the same plane.
Not through violence or ideology, but through circumstance.
She appears where suffering is indiscriminate and outcomes are final.
Rank, innocence, blame, and virtue collapse into need.
Here, life is weighed without narrative, and survival becomes procedural.
This card speaks of fairness stripped of mercy, of care that does not choose,
and of the peace that comes when nothing is privileged enough to be spared.
The Leveller does not judge.
She applies the same measure to all.
Reversed
Levelling becomes erasure.
Difference is not merely neutralised, but denied.
In reversal, meaning flattens into numbness.
Loss is normalised. Love is made equivalent to absence.
What was once fair becomes empty, and endurance replaces dignity.
Here, equality costs too much.
Keynote
When everything is equal, nothing can be chosen.
XI — THE GROUNDBREAKER
The 13 character – Ruben
What breaks the ground is not strength, but return.
Upright
The Groundbreaker enters the world unknowing, unarmoured.
He begins as the Page: observing, learning, unchosen.
He becomes the Knave: loving without mastery, losing without leverage.
He endures as the Jack: diminished in body, enlarged in witness.
This card speaks of a life lived in stages of becoming and undoing.
He is present at moments he does not control.
He witnesses kairos before he understands it.
He stands among those marked as incomplete, and survives long enough to be called necessary.
The Groundbreaker does not conquer fate.
He answers it repeatedly.
Creation follows rupture.
Meaning is rebuilt after it collapses.
Here, progress is not speed.
It is persistence with memory.
Reversed
Innovation hardens into legacy.
Witness turns into grievance.
The groundbreaker forgets that he was once only watching.
In reversal, the bell is struck for validation, not time.
What once opened futures begins to seal them.
The Page refuses humility.
The Jack mistakes endurance for entitlement.
Keynote
Those who endure are not chosen because they are whole.
XII — THE ENCHANTRESS
The 13 character – The Mother
Love can bind as tightly as chains.
Upright
The Enchantress offers safety, beauty, and belonging.
She nurtures, shelters, reassures.
As a queen she champions grace, care, and moral warmth, she draws others close and makes the world feel survivable.
This card speaks of protection, devotion, and the seductive comfort of being held.
Order is maintained not by force, but by affection.
Here, love feels like refuge.
Reversed
Care becomes control. Affection closes in, and protection denies growth.
What was given freely now demands obedience, gratitude, or purity in return.
The Enchantress reversed reveals love used as leverage.
Safety becomes enclosure.
Nurture becomes expectation.
Leaving feels like betrayal.
Keynote
Not all love sets you free.
XIII — THE VITALIZER
The 13 character – The Village Idiot
Life does not require wisdom to persist.
Upright
The Vitalizer survives where meaning collapses.
As a king he reigns without insight, advances without understanding, and continues long after reason has failed.
This card speaks of brute persistence, the terrible energy of life that refuses to stop simply because it should.
Here, vitality is not noble. It is loud, repetitive, and contagious.
The world keeps moving, not because it is right, but because something still breathes.
The Vitalizer reminds us that survival alone is not virtue.
Life can continue without growth, without reflection, without restraint.
Reversed
Vitality curdles into destruction.
Persistence becomes domination.
Energy demands obedience, and motion replaces thought.
In reversal, the Vitalizer mistakes endurance for entitlement.
Life asserts itself as law.
Noise drowns out doubt.
Continuance justifies cruelty.
Here, survival insists on being crowned.
Keynote
Raw energy must be harnessed.
The 13 Tarot Card Readings
Just for fun or more seriously, you are invited to have a go at one or more of the tarot arrangements outlined below. All you have to do is print out the figureheads and stick them onto card. Likewise for the dominion narrative. The Tarot cards do not follow their character’s chronological appearance in The Story. However, they are all in their rightful position as Tarot cards. If you have a pressing dilemma, just ask The 13 and you may be given an uplifting response or the opposite or nothing at all. Each card displays an epigraph, an upright reading, a reversed reading as well as a keynote. The querent must not pay lip service to the epigraph and keynote as they are central to the interpretation. To decide which card or cards are to be upright or reversed just flip a coin, use a dice or play carrot in the box.
Happy reading folks and you may just find an answer to your query. Let intuition be your guide…
1. The Constellation Draw
Mechanic
Draw 3 cards, laid in a triangle.
No past–present–future. Instead:
What presses
What resists
What breaks or bends
The Thirteen act at once.
Futures emerge from collision, not sequence.
Players must interpret force dynamics, not timelines.
Pronunciation element
After the reading, the querent must speak one sentence beginning with:
“Given this pressure, I will…”
The future is not foretold. It is declared under constraint.
2. The Verdict Spread
Mechanic
Draw 4 cards, laid like a tribunal.
The System – what structure governs the situation
The Cost – what it extracts
The Justification – what it claims to protect
The Sentence – what inevitably follows
Why it fits
Salvation vs oblivion becomes ambiguous and uncomfortable.
The future is not good or bad. It is consistent.
Pronunciation element
The reader must end with:
“Under this system, the outcome will be considered acceptable.”
Even if it isn’t.
3. The Exit Test
This spread determines whether a situation has an exit, a loop, or a false transcendence.
Mechanic
Draw 3 cards in a line, but read them out of order.
Middle card first: The Clock (what time demands)
Left card: The Door (what appears to be an exit)
Right card: The Price (what leaving actually costs)
Why it fits
Time is not neutral in your deck.
Kairos interrupts. Chronos punishes delay.
Exit is not always escape.
Pronunciation element
The future is spoken conditionally:
“If the door is taken, then…”
The deck never answers “Should I?”
4. The Dominion Casting
This is ideal for groups or storytelling games.
Mechanic
Deal 5 cards face up.
These represent forces currently governing a city, relationship, institution, or era.
Players argue which force is dominant and which is suppressed.
Why it fits
Treats cards as operating systems, not moods.
Encourages debate, interpretation, and myth-building.
Allows the same spread to evolve over time without redrawing.
Pronunciation element
The group must agree on one sentence:
“Under these dominions, this world will become…”
Consensus is part of the prophecy.
5. The Querent’s Hand Rule
Method
Cards are shuffled normally.
Draw one card, the querent flips a coin.
The coin landing is binding.
Meaning
Upright: the force is accepted, enacted, or aligned with
Reversed: the force is resisted, misapplied, denied, or delayed
Why it fits
The future is pronounced, not revealed.
Reversal becomes a moral posture, not a blockage.
Pronunciation element
The force binds me to…
You didn’t draw badly. You prompted yourself badly.
It's a kinder magic !
They searched the edges for a way out.
The walls, the roads, the farthest fields.No one thought to stop in the middle.
The centre was never a prize or a throne.
It was the place where nothing was being justified.That is the exit.
That is where the cycles collapse.
That is where infinity awaits.
That is where Bodie first ignited the maze.