THE RUINS

In the Tarot of Mantegna, we see: A WALL IN RUINS IN THE BACKGROUND.

In his description of Arcanum 22, which corresponds to Pluto, C.C.Zain writes:

"It is figured by a blind man carrying bags on his left shoulder. He leans on a black staff and walks toward a fallen obelisk behind which a crocodile with open mouth awaits to devour him. "

And:

"The fallen obelisk symbolizes the final overthrow of all temporal work and power."

   I think it would also be possible to see this "fallen obelisk" as a shattered boundary stone, indicating that in the Plutonic realm, boundaries and borders are shattered - that there are no frontiers, that defining spacial territory has come to an end. Consciousness, in itself, is a state of labels - to be unconscious, is to be beyond that which is defined. This deep, and extremely dark state, may again refer to the alchemical term nigredo. It is black in the nihilistic sense. It represents the terminal states of unconsciousness.

The ‘Fallen Obelisk’ is clearly shown in an early emblem book, A Theatre for Worldings, by Van der Noodt.

Van der Noodt, A Theatre for Worlding s In: Daly, Peter M. Toronto.

VAN DER NOODT, Theatre of the World, (left) Mantegna Tarocchi (centre)  and ARCANUM 22 (right)

I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight:  I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places . . .
Isaiah 45:2