THE SUBMERGED

Survival – Resilience
Catastrophe – Invisibility

In the image, three figures float in the water. They are not yet dead, but the line between life and annihilation is as thin as a sigh. This is a difficult card, born from two deep roots: the thought of Primo Levi, Holocaust survivor, who distinguished the “submerged” from the “saved” in his eponymous book, and the ancient papal bull Unam Sanctam Ecclesiam, issued by Pope Boniface VIII in 1302, in which the Church claimed dominion over the world based on biblical accounts, even declaring that since only Noah’s family survived the flood, and being Noah a biblical patriarch, the earth and its inhabitants belonged to the Church. From this claim, which history and archaeology easily disprove, narratives have arisen that—even today—decide who is told and who is forgotten.

This card represents the unwanted, the invisible, those the world would rather never see again, yet who continue to emerge. They are the unchosen who persist. They are the memory that stubbornly refuses to sink. Peoples existed before the flood, and they existed after, everywhere. Voices, cultures, hands, faces: many have been erased from official accounts, but not from reality. The Submerged are all those who survive without recognition, who exist even when they were never granted permission to do so.

This is also the card of silent legacies: the memory of those who are gone but left a mark on the world. Every time history is rewritten by the powerful, the Submerged remind us that there is a submerged humanity asking to be remembered. Those who remain upright—the saved—have the task of giving voice to those pushed beneath the water’s surface.

So my dear one, if your subconscious has chosen this card, it may be trying to tell you that:

If the card speaks of you – Light

You carry an ancient strength within you, the strength of one who has weathered storms unseen by others. Your resilience is not just endurance: it is living memory, the trace of what you have overcome.

Questions for you
– Which part of your story allows you to stay afloat when everything rises dangerously?
– Where do you feel that you survive despite everything?
– What in you refuses to be erased?

If the card speaks of you – Shadow

You may feel that you are fighting for the very right to exist. Sometimes your presence seems like an error to justify, a silent and constant effort. Perhaps you carry within you an ancient condemnation that is not yours.

Questions for you
– When have you felt unseen or voiceless?
– What inner water is rising to your throat?
– From which emotional catastrophe have you not fully recovered?

If the card speaks of the world – Light

Submerged truths are emerging. Collective memory is moving, and that which was repressed rises to the surface. This is a time when what has been silenced can finally be recognized.

Questions for you
– Which forgotten stories are reappearing around you?
– Who is bringing to light what had been submerged?
– What can you take from these returning memories?

If the card speaks of the world – Shadow

We live in a system that constantly decides who may stay afloat and who must disappear beneath the waterline. Grand narratives continue to select, condemn, and redefine the value of lives.

Questions for you
– Who is being made invisible today, almost to the point of disappearance?
– Where do you perceive an injustice that submerges entire existences?
– To whom do you wish to return voice, dignity, presence?