I’ve started doing a Tarot card pull per day from my absolute favorite deck, the Tarot of the Greek Magical Papyri. Sometimes, when inspired, I’ll take a deeper dive into the subject of the card over here.
Pour one out for poor Hades. Not only does he always end up getting confused with Thanatos (the actual god of Death), he quite literally pulled the short straw when he, Zeus, and Poseidon were divvying up Reality. Zeus got the Heavens, Poseidon the Oceans, and of course Hades ended up with the Chthonic Realms– anything under the ground. Also, he had to put up with being portrayed by that jerk James Woods.
Clearly he was destined to become associated with Death early on; dead things go underground. But, he was also in charge of underground waters, cave systems, precious stones and metals (which are mined, of course), and buried treasure. His Roman name, “Pluto,” comes from Plouton, or Ploutos (“Weath”), a Greek epithet which not only referred to the riches he governed, but also as a euphemism designed to placate him (like calling the Fey “the Good Folk”).
There were tons of myths about Hades. Heraclitus considered him to be another form of Dionysus. Some of the Orphics apparently considered him the same “person” as Zeus, and mythologically the father of Zagreus. This is Deep Myth so I won’t get too into it here, but suffice to say he was a complicated figure who deserves better than the “stern meanie who lives underground” treatment he usually gets.
The most famous myth concerning Hades is, of course, the Abduction of Kore (Persephone). Many variations of the story exist, but my telling goes like this:
Hades became enamored of Kore, the daughter of Demeter (Goddess of Fertility and Agriculture). She often ventured out into the wildflower fields in the volcanic wilds of central Sicily, where he spied her from the openings into the Underworld near Mt. Etna. They began a tryst; wanting to make it “official,” he asked Zeus (her father) for her hand (yeah super incesty stuff here). Zeus said it would be fine if Demeter was okay with it, but Demeter wanted no part of Hades and certainly didn’t want her daughter abandoning her to take up residence in the Underworld.
So, Hades and Kore made a plan. It wasn’t a super god plan, but love sometimes makes us do irrational things. He would pretend to “abduct” her from the fields in Sicily, and she would join him in the Underworld to become its queen.
Their first mistake was in pissing off a Sicilian mother. Demeter cursed the land, so that nothing would grow. The land became ill; crops stopped growing. Animals couldn’t find food. Fruit withered on the vine. You know, the usual. Word made it to Zeus, who realized something needed to be done, so he sent Hermes to the Underworld to bring back Kore (now Persephone– “Kore” means “virgin” and she wasn’t one anymore).
The problem is that Persephone didn’t want to leave. She was happy there, with her partner and his sweet doggie and their friends (apparently the Erinyes throw a really fun party). She loved her mother, but also loved Hades, and had no intention of returning to her sheltered life in the Above. When Hermes came to let her know she needed to take the escalator back home, she told him they needed to come up with a Plan.
Hermes typically leads people into the Underworld (in his role as psychopomp), but you can’t get out of the place without Hekate. So, they asked the Liminal Goddess if she had any ideas– what kind of things would cause someone being led out of Tartarus (another name for the Underworld) to have to return? Something, perhaps, that even her mother could appreciate and wouldn’t be able to protest?
I know exactly what to do, replied Hekate. Here, eat these. She handed the girl six arils from a pomegranate fruit, which Persephone promptly devoured. Now you’ve eaten food from this place, said the triple-faced goddess, and have no choice but to return.
You likely know the rest; Persephone climbed home to Demeter, who removed her curse from the land, but had to agree to let her daughter return to Hades for a portion of each year. When Persephone was with Hades, the land became barren and nothing would grow (although we associate this period with winter, in the Mediterranean climate of Ancient Greece, it may have been during the hottest days of Summer). When Persephone emerges to return to Demeter, plants grow, fruit ripens, and all is well in the world.
As I mentioned in a different article, myth is ahistorical, but myths as written are trapped in history. The historical myth of the Abduction of Persephone (found, for instance, in the Homeric Hymns) absolutely does state unequivacably that she was abducted and raped. But, myths are stories that give life meaning, so I tell it differently. My telling of this story isn’t intended as revisionism; it’s the way the story makes the most sense to me. However, this idea, that Hades didn’t “rape” Persephone, isn’t something that originates with my telling (even the recent excellent Netflix show KAOS sympathetically presents the relationship between Hades and Persephone as 100% consensual). If you’re doing myths– ANY myths– “literally”/historically, you’re doing them wrong.
This myth carries massive amounts of meaning. It was the foundation for the Eleusinian Mysteries. To me, Kore, as a seed, “descends into the underworld,” is fertilized by Hades, and emerges as Persephone, the corn goddess. And so we can also see that Chthonic Hades plays a role in the vegetal rites of plant life, whether the plants are agricultural or no. In a weird sense, he becomes the womb in which Kore gestates until her eventual rebirth into the Above as Persephone. The dead descend to the Underworld in order to provide a foundation for plant life, without which we wouldn’t exist. After having done so– provided their experiences to Hades in order to “fertilize,” they also reemerge into the Above through the process of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls.
I could go on and on here, but want to circle back to Hades himself. In some depictions, his role is tragic; he didn’t ask to get stuck in the Underworld. He also had a soft side. When Orpheus descended into the Underworld in search of his deceased wife Eurydice, Hades, moved to tears by the musician’s story and song, allowed him the chance to bring his love back to the Above. He allowed Heracles to “borrow” his beloved hound Cerberus so the hero could complete his final Labor. Hades most certainly loves his dog and gives him lots of belly rubs. Hades boops all three of Cerebus’s snoots.
So, how we might interpret his presence on an oracular Tarot card? Clearly the closest analogue with Tarot as we know it would be the Death card; rightly or wrongly the connotations are there. But, Hades isn’t quite Death in the same sense. The old cliche is, of course, the fortune teller flipping over a card showing the Grim Reaper and then counseling their querent that “it’s not a *bad* card, it just means *new beginnings.*”
This is true, but Hades is a little more complicated. He *could* mean “new beginnings,” sure, but could also signify hidden treasure, an unexpected source of fertility, unanticipated gifts. He’s associated with the “cornucopia,” the Horn of Plenty, as the fruits of the Earth spring from his abode. Clearly interpreting any card requires context, but drawing Hades doesn’t have to give a querent the willies.
Oh, and in the beginning of this piece where I say “pour one our for Hades?” That’s actually something that works really well when working with the daimones of Magna Graecia. It’s called a “libation”– a ritual offering of a liquid to a daimon. It never hurts to spill a little bit of what you’re drinking into the soil, where it will inevitably trickle down into the chthonic realms, and Hades will look up in appreciation, and wink at you or something.