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Death Tarot Card

Death is the 13th Major Arcana Tarot card, fittingly the number 13 is often considered unlucky in the West. Although often feared, like all the Tarot cards, the Death card is mainly symbolic. It represents natural endings, cycles of life, death, and rebirth, transformations and transmutations, change, and the growing pains often associated.

It represents something that is ready to die within us, a situation, way of being— meaning death of ego self— a relationship, project, phase in life; whatever it may be, we are in metamorphosis. And just like the caterpillar in the cocoon, the process can be messy and uncomfortable, long and laborious; but on the other side, regeneration, restoration, and renewal await us.

Read on for Death Tarot card meanings and what it can signify when it shows up for you:

Death Card Tarot Meanings

The Death card shows us a story of change, of major shifts, and things coming to an end. Like actual death, life cannot exist without it, both are necessary. It is thanks to the dark that we know light. Composting is a sacred and essential process (think how overrun we’d be without it)!

While it can be difficult and painful, the dawn on the card in the Smith Rider Waite deck reminds us that the sun always rises— even if it is representative of the dusk (which would be more fitting as an ending), the sun will still rise eventually.

Either side of it lie the towers reminiscent of The Moon card, symbol of deep subconscious, wild instinct, and confusion. Similarly, when we are in the midst of change and endings can feel frightened and disorienting, we like to know what comes next. Death is a reminder that in every ending is an inherent new beginning of something else. Matter and energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed.

The figures on the RWS, and many other Tarot decks, also show us the various ways of dealing with death and change. We can totally succumb to it like the de-crowned monarch laying trampled under foot (also a reminder that we are all mere mortals, the final ending awaits us all); we can plead and bargain with it like the cleric; we can look away like the girl; or we can face it with the innocence and openness of the little boy. One is certainly easier than all the others.

Death is also wearing a suit of armour, it is ready for battle, but also a simple civil servant.

The path of least resistance is the way through with Death, like with all other Major Arcana cards, these are themes that are befalling us one way or another, we are being called to learn their lessons, the transition will be smoother if we surrender to it rather than resisting change.

Riding a white horse and carrying a black flag with a white rose, it is also a reminder that there is a purity in the darker sides of life, they are just as natural and necessary as the light.

Astrology of the Death Tarot Card

Astrologically, this card is attributed to Scorpio, the master alchemist. Scorpio is well versed with the taboo, occult, and more mysterious themes of life. It swims into the depths to transmute the jewels it finds in the caverns.

Scorpio is penetrating, intense, and not afraid of going in deep. A Water Sign, the river in the background of the card is reminiscent of these waters of emotion, the realm of relationships, creativity, and intuition.

Scorpio is the only Zodiac Sign to have two other symbols, the snake in its more evolved form, and the eagle or phoenix in its highest elevation. The phoenix is a well-known symbol of transformation and regeneration, rising from its ashes reborn. Just like Death, the phoenix is a reminder that to do so, first we must go up in flames.

All things have a lifespan and something must leave in order to make space for the new, nature abhors a vacuum.

Numerology of the Death Tarot Card

Numerologically, apart from the number 13 having negative superstitious connotations in the West from about the 1890s due to Christianity (the number at the Last Supper), traditionally it has been associated with women and the Moon for roughly their number of periods and cycles a year respectively (in Italy it is lucky, although interestingly the Ancient Italian Tarot deck from the 1800s doesn’t write the word “Death” on this card but “Tredici” which means thirteen).

Thirteen is the number of the witch- a sacred, powerful number to be reclaimed (some say that a coven should be no more than thirteen). It is also a both a Fibonacci and a prime number.

Thirteen reduces to 4, The Emperor. In this, we can see that we always have power and agency in how we choose to lead in the face of change. Four is an elemental number of structure, form, and solidity. It represents boundaries and safety.

As a representation of reality, it is another reminder of the essence of death. Everything is in constant change, we can look to The Emperor for how to find stability within this and seek our power from an internal place, not bound to external circumstances.

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Succeeding The Hanged One, an upright Death card can sometimes even be a welcome change (again, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be easy). Preceding Temperance, we are reminded that there is always peace after the tempest.

The Death Card Reversed

As with other Tarot reversals, Death reversed can indicate a resistance to change and endings. It can symbolise a blockage to the natural flow and cycle of things. We are in constant states of evolution and mutation, life is spiralic. The invitation is to lean into the wisdom and medicine of death, symbolic or otherwise. If you have to grasp on tightly to something, it was never yours to begin with.

Allow for flow, embrace change and the chrysalis phase- a butterfly awaits at the other end, nothing can last forever. The reversed Death meaning can sometimes indicate a lessening of transformation, we may have already been in this cycle a while and now the Death phase itself is ending. It can also be repeating negative patterns in the face of change and endings, a stagnation and refusal for growth and evolution.

The Death Card in a General Reading

In a general reading, the upright meaning can symbolise things coming to an end and a change coming in some area of life, relationship, or personality aspect of ourselves. It is a time of mutating and composting, of allowing for the sanctity of decay and embracing each phase, these are part of the richness and fabric of life. Whatever is transforming, the process will be easier if you lean into it.

The Death Card in a Love Reading

Depending on the context of the situation at hand, the nature of the question being asked, where it has fallen in the spread and the cards surrounding it, as well as your own intuition first and foremost, Death in a love Tarot reading can indicate some facet of the relationship, or your relationship to the relationship, ending or changing.

This can look like an old chapter ending and a new one eventually beginning, but for now there is some kind of dying phase, a need to let go of the past.

The Death Card in a Career Reading

As with other Tarot readings, in a career reading, Death can symbolise the need to let something go, to release an old belief, way of doing things, or partnership. It can be about our role dying and changing within a company, or even if we are going off to start our own business! I pulled the Death card exactly 13 times in 2021 as I was launching mine! It is about one door closing and another opening. Accept and embrace what is dying.

So those are some significations of the Death Tarot card, I hope they’re insightful for you! Let me know in the comments section below if you have anything else to add or any questions.

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