In honor of Halloween, my post today focuses on the Death card, a Major Arcana card in the tarot. Many people fear drawing the Death card because they think that it forecasts sudden physical death, but that is not the message of the card. The Death card is about endings and beginnings, birth and rebirth, change and transformation. It is an invitation to a time of transformation.
The Death card carries the number thirteen and pictures a skeleton dressed in black armor, holding a black flag, and riding a white horse. In the background, there is a boat floating on the river, which harkens back to the mythological crafts, escorting the dead to the afterlife across the River Styx. On the upper right of the card is a depiction of the setting sun between two pillars, representing the ending of every day that takes us into the Dreamtime. Four figures are represented — a king, a priest, a young woman, and a child. These figures remind us that death strikes everyone — the rich, the poor, the old and young, the wise and the innocent. There is no escape.
The four figures represent different responses to death. The King lies rigidly on the ground, having lost his ego’s battle with death. The priest faces death directly, feeling the power of his spiritual beliefs to support him. The young woman surrenders and kneels before death but looks away, offering herself up but not willing to look at Death consciously. The child, in her innocence, looks directly at Death with curiosity and fearlessness. The card offers these four perspectives, and it could be helpful to explore your ways of dealing with death — your own death or the death of your beloveds – to see what is blocked, needs to be shed, or re-visioned.
The black of the skeleton’s armor is the color of mourning and represents the deep, dark earth from which life grows and to which we all return. The black flag displays a flower with five points. Five represents a portal through which we pass, after which nothing is the same. The horse, the symbol of motion and change, is white, representing purity.
This card puts us on notice that we are in an enteral cycle of birth and death. Death clears away the old, and if we accept death, we can live more fully, with more joy and less fear. It is the beginning of a transformation that is beyond the ego’s control.
Although this card invites us to explore our feelings about Death, its primary message in a tarot reading is not about dying but about a significant life chapter that is ending. To move into the next stage, we must let go of all that no longer serves, including habits, friends, a job, a lifestyle, or even a belief system. Often, we are deeply identified with these aspects of our lives, and letting go may feel like a death. Receiving this card puts us on notice that we have a choice. We can begin to find ways of consciously letting go, or the Universe will find ways to force us to let go.
In our current world of feverish change, the Death card offers essential guidance. It is easy to fall into habits that do not nourish, beliefs that may have served but no longer fit the current situation, and even dreams that come from an earlier time. Everything dies, we included, and by understanding the fleeting nature of life, we can allow joy to fill us during the brief time we journey in these human bodies.
What is the Death card asking you to give up?