Author: Varvara Lutova
December 27, 2021 10:00 am
Tags: visions border of worlds unknowable otherworldly death mysterious photos
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The figure of Death with a scythe and in a black cloak with a hood is present in the legends of many peoples. But almost no mortal can boast that he has seen her in person. But the authors of these pictures claim that they managed to film Death herself, in a traditional guise, appearing among the people. Take a look and decide if they are right.
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Ominous Rock
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At first glance, an ordinary tourist shot, except a little reckless. But if you look closely, you can make out a man in a black raincoat behind the man's back. He stands higher up the slope and seems to hover over the hero of the photo. His head is covered by a hood and his pale face is turned toward the camera. Although there is nothing tragic in the picture, the black silhouette is like a reminder of where recklessness sometimes leads.
For the guys
The members of the stronger sex who have ventured to paint a skeleton sketch on their body in a black hoodie are often characterized by a complex, willful nature and prefer unsafe hobbies. Risk, contemptuous attitude to any danger, challenging everyone and everything - is their attitude in life. Many believe in the veracity of the legend of protection from the grim reaper and use the sketch as a symbol to scare away death, which, when met with its reflection, retreats. It is also a way for men to emphasize their awareness of their existence and their perception of the end of life as a natural and inevitable event. Men's sketches are distinguished by their scale and darker colors.
In the interlude.
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This is another shot from a hospital surveillance camera. It's as if a cloaked shadow had lain down on an empty bed in the hallway. But according to the staff, no one was on the bed at the time! And you can't walk down hospital corridors in a raincoat, either. Could it be that Death is gaining strength after a fight with the doctors, in which the latter won?
Tattoo Meaning
The symbolism of a tattoo depicting death can be, as a generally recognized opinion, and carry a strictly individual meaning. As we have already mentioned above, the choice of such a plan characterizes its owner as a strong and strong-willed person who lives only by his rules, so the application of such a drawing on the body can be a demonstration of the lack of fear, love of risk and situations provoking the release of adrenaline. In many examples, the tattoo acts as a powerful amulet, which, in the opinion of the owner, can protect and guard against all kinds of troubles, diseases or dangers. The symbolism of the sketch can also be influenced by additional details of the drawing.
In a family photo.
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This is a greatly enlarged fragment of a family photo posted online as an admonition to those who think that all the supposed shots of mysterious dark figures are just a play of light and shadow, cleverly captured by the photographer. Here a tall black hooded and faceless figure is clearly visible on a sunny day against a bright wall, and does not allow anyone to doubt its reality.
In the bus window
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Friends of the guy who fell asleep on the bus snapped it for a laugh, but after looking at the photos, they realized that they had taken the clearest and clearest possible picture of Death peeking through the bus window. Presumably, if one could find out how the lives of the passengers had turned out in the days following the trip, one could discover chilling acts.
At the scene of the accident
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This photo was taken at the scene of a major accident in which several people were killed. Some who have seen it claim that the blurred figure in black is Death, who has finished harvesting the harvest and is waiting at the scene of the big reap for new victims. Others, however, argue that this is just a photoshop, and the author of the picture is simply manipulating the tragedy. We'll never know the truth, but the picture does look creepy.
Where to Score
The slash death tattoo can be placed on any part of your body. Those who wish to hide from prying eyes their body decoration can put a tattoo on a part of the body that is almost always under clothing. If you are not embarrassed by the open demonstration of his choice - there are no bans in this case. The most common places among men are the shoulder, forearm, back or shoulder blades area. Ladies draw the tattoo on the hip, abdomen, sides or arm. The final decision when choosing a place for a pattern is always made by the future owner, but to ignore the advice of tattoo masters in our example is not worth it.
On the day of the funeral.
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This picture shows three women who came to their mother's funeral. However, at first glance, it looks like there are not three but four people in the photo. It is just that the fourth person, in a black suit and black headdress, is poorly visible behind the backs of the trio in white. The trick is that the women unanimously assert that there were three of them in the picture, and no one was with them. Could it be that Death, who had taken their mother's soul, had not had time to retreat to her kingdom?
The bony one with the saw versus Jesus with the bell. How Death is depicted in Orthodox icons
This completely atypical icon depicts a woman standing on a coffin. Around her is a sumptuous alcove, the furniture richly decorated with gold, and on the table are jewels. From above, in the clouds, an all-seeing God is keeping a watchful eye on what is happening. Behind the maiden sneaks up on Death, armed with a scythe, and if you look closely, you can see she has other instruments of murder. How typical is this personified character in iconography and where did such an unusual plot come from?
Such images go back genealogically to pictures on the spiritual lubok - printed illustrations with moral captions at the bottom. Some of these images were liked to be redrawn as icons by believers, especially Old Believers. However, it is unlikely that they were prayed in front of - such pieces of art were most likely used for mystical contemplation and reflection on posthumous existence.
The scene was called "The Mortal Life," and its meaning was explained on a sheet of paper in the woman's hand: "Mortal man: fear Him who is above you. Thou shalt not trust that which is before thee. Thou shalt not depart from him that is behind thee. Thou shalt not suffer that which is beneath thee.
In other words, in order to enter the next world as a righteous man and go to heaven, not hell, it was required to serve the Lord (the one painted above the main character) with all diligence, not to hope for earthly riches (silver and gold, crown and orb lying on the table in front of the maiden), not to fear death (which is right behind her) and the tomb (located below the icon).
"The mortal life" is analogous to the Western images called "vanitas." They were edifying images, urging the viewer to think about the eternal. They usually portrayed wealth, power, and beauty, which, like everything else in the world, are perishable and transient.
Death could dance with a bishop or a king, while a beautiful girl was split in two: her young body on the left and her own skeleton, teeming with corpse worms, on the right.
Similar plots appeared in Russia. For example, in cheap popular prints one could often find an image of a skull with a snake crawling through the eye sockets, fading fruit - a kind of still life - in the foreground, and a winged hourglass above. All these symbols of the brief earthly hour allotted to man were attempts to reinterpret European allegories.
In the instructive icon of the Egyptian King Ptolemy Philadelphus with Skull, clearly drawn from an eighteenth-century Western engraving, the ruler rests his hand on what was once his head, with Death himself standing behind him. In front of the ruler are a coffin and a fading bouquet, the usual symbols of the mortality of the mundane in Vanitas. At the bottom is the inscription: "O man, remember the hour of death", followed by the text of the Proclamation for the Separation of the Soul from the Body.
The author of one of the instructive icons on the theme of mortality of life even called the famous iconographer Simon Ushakov. It depicts the same scene as the first version, but a few details have been added: mermaids on furniture - an allegory of temptation, next to the chest of gold lie dice and orders, symbolizing the sins of greed and pride, as well as writing instruments, signs of vanity. A young man stands in the center instead of a woman, and the inscription has shifted from the scroll downward. The young man's outstretched hands point to two paths a man can take: earthly wealth and power - or the spiritual path, leading to the death of a despicable body, but also to rebirth in the heavenly world.
The motif of choosing between earthly and mountainous goods is also borrowed from European painting. Since the 16th century, allegories of the tree of knowledge of good and evil began to appear on altarpieces in France and other countries. To its right was depicted Death chopping the trunk, undermining human existence, a symbol of original sin, which deprived us of eternal life. Behind her in the corner lurked a serpent spewing fire, the devil, who tempted Eve to taste the forbidden fruit. On the opposite side Jesus rings the bell: he warns all Christians of the impending Last Judgment (also eloquently reminded of by the clock at the top) and calls them to lead righteous lives. Behind him is the embodiment of the virtues. On the left side of the tree, the crown is green, and there sits a girl with a halo and in humble clothing, holding wine and food, symbols of prosperity and heavenly blessings. Beside her flies an angel, the embodiment of righteousness, and a young man delights her ears with music and singing.
There are no leaves on the right side of the tree, and the girl seated there is immodestly naked and holding out empty glasses and a plate in the hope of sustenance - a picture of a sinner's life in hell. The demon is aiming his arrows at her, signifying various sins.
Death and the demon assisting him are already chopping down the tree and preparing to bring it down. Jesus, standing on the opposite side, by striking the bell, tries to warn people to deny earthly pleasures and think about their souls.
Exactly the same story appears on a 17th-century church banner in Ukraine - we see all the same elements: Christ ringing the bell, and a demon and Death trying to bring down the tree of human life. In the foreground, the Mother of God is depicted interceding for a layman who turns to her in prayer.
The icon with a similar subject matter was encountered in the Russian North in the XVII-XVIII centuries, after a German mystical poem of the end of the XV century was translated in Novgorod - "The double-headedness of life and death, in other words, the binding of life and death". In the image inspired by this text, we see a scene of dispute: a warrior-young man in a red cloak confronts a bony creature with a box full of torture implements and a scythe, with which it holds captive souls, including nobles (this can be inferred from the crowns), with a sword in his hands. To the left of the central scene is Beauty, mourning the body after death, while on the right we see the righteous feasting and the sinners tormented in the cave of hell. Above them in the clouds is the Savior. The scene described at the bottom of the icon concludes with the victory of Death over the warrior of Life: "And so he was thrown from his horse to the ground, until he surrendered his spirit to God. Thus the warrior ends his life". The image of the brave man who argues with death, was partly borrowed by popular lubok, where it was included in the story of the warrior-Anika.
Where did Death in the last icon get so many different tools and what did they signify? The scythe has been a symbol of the mournful harvest and the death of the human soul since antiquity. However, in Slavic culture, Kostlyava appears with a purse - in it she put additional tools for the torture of sinners.
At least since the XV century the Death is depicted with hammers, axes, saws, spears and arrows, which she sometimes simply shook, and sometimes - stabbed and cut all those who lived unrighteously, after his death.
Strikingly, but in Russian iconography was no less common an image of Death with firearms. It seems to be an anachronism, but such tools of murder appeared much earlier than is commonly thought. The Chinese used prototypes of firearms presumably as early as the 10th century. From the 14th century it spread all over Europe and became a frequent attribute of opponents on sacred images. For example, on the cover of an edition of Abrelius Augustine's On the City of God, a demon with an arquebus is aiming at an angel. The illustration shows the battle between the earthly city and the heavenly city, as well as between their sworn enemies - their founders, the biblical brothers Cain and Abel. In the 15th-century engraving on the cover of The Treasury of Heaven, the angels are also not averse to firing cannons at demons attacking the mountain stronghold. In other words, as soon as people open fire, so do incorporeal beings.
In Russia in some miniatures for the Apocalypse since the XVI century there are images of the fourth horseman with a bow, axe, hunting horn and lancet. This is what the Russian Death looks like.
