Today I consulted the oracle, so if you're the kind of person who thinks that oracles, astrology, reading the auspices, etc., is nothing but a bunch of foolish superstition, please stop reading now and go to another site. I have no wish to annoy you.
The consultation was a little startling. Any draw which includes both Death and The Devil is bound to be, especially if it's only a three-card draw. However, there's nothing here to be afraid of. Unlike the knight in the picture, death is behind me, and that's certainly a true reflection of the actual state of affairs. My mother's death, the death of my marriage, and the disappearance of my old life are all in the past now. Time to ride on.
Also unlike Dürer's knight, who has the devil behind him and now confronts death, I have the devil in front of me. I look forward to wrestling with him. Struggling with the devil calls forth a lot of energy, and my adversary, while clever, is incapable of creating anything; he can only destroy.
In Dürer's 1513 woodcut, which he called Der Reuther (The Runner), an aging knight rides easily past a pig-snouted and horned devil, whose single most prominent, crescent-shaped horn is suggestive of Islam. Mounted securely atop a muscular and vigorous stallion and accompanied by his faithful dog, the knight appears confident and invincible, but death, astride his pale and gaunt horse, waits alongside the road in front of an ominously eroded wall of earth, holding up his hourglass for the knight to see. But does he see it, or the pale rider accosting him?
Click on the image above to get a larger view. This is the first of a series of three of the artist's greatest woodcuts, called collectively Meisterstiche. The other two are St. Jerome in his Study (1514) and Melancolia I (1514).
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