Death

an ending · transformation · letting go · what comes after

Card art: Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, for A. E. Waite. Public domain.

Trump 13

In a few words

an ending
transformation
letting go
what comes after

Something is ending so something else can begin. This card is about change, not about anyone's life ending.

Upright

Everything: Something is ending so something else can begin. This card is about change, not about anyone's life ending.
Love: A chapter closes: a relationship transforms or a phase of it is over. Let it end cleanly.
Work: The old role is finished. A career turn, a resignation, a company changing shape.
Money: An income source ends and another must be built. Do not cling to what has stopped paying.
Myself: The person you were is making way for the person you are becoming. Grieve it, then go.

End, mortality, destruction, corruption; also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor; for a woman, many contrarieties; for a maid, failure of marriage projects.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 284

Reversed

Everything: Refusing an ending that has already happened. Holding on makes the change slower, not smaller.
Love: Staying in what is over. Or fear of change freezing a relationship in place.
Work: Resisting a needed change at work. The old structure will not carry you further.
Money: Clinging to a losing position. Cut it before it costs more.
Myself: Stagnation. You are keeping something alive that wants to rest.

Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism; hope destroyed.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 284

The card, as Waite described it

The veil or mask of life is perpetuated in change, transformation and passage from lower to higher, and this is more fitly represented in the rectified Tarot by one of the apocalyptic visions than by the crude notion of the reaping skeleton. Behind it lies the whole world of ascent in the spirit. The mysterious horseman moves slowly, bearing a black banner emblazoned with the Mystic Rose, which signifies life. Between two pillars on the verge of the horizon there shines the sun of immortality. The horseman carries no visible weapon, but king and child and maiden fall before him, while a prelate with clasped hands awaits his end. There should be no need to point out that the suggestion of death which I have made in connection with the previous card is, of course, to be understood mystically, but this is not the case in the present instance. The natural transit of man to the next stage of his being either is or may be one form of his progress, but the exotic and almost unknown entrance, while still in this life, into the state of mystical death is a change in the form of consciousness and the passage into a state to which ordinary death is neither the path nor gate. The existing occult explanations of the 13th card are, on the whole, better than usual, rebirth, creation, destination, renewal, and the rest.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 120

The plain-word meanings on this page were written for ShreeJyoti and are still under review.

Draw this deck ← The Hanged Man Temperance →Other cards

Upright

Everything

Something is ending so something else can begin. This card is about change, not about anyone's life ending.

Love

A chapter closes: a relationship transforms or a phase of it is over. Let it end cleanly.

Work

The old role is finished. A career turn, a resignation, a company changing shape.

Money

An income source ends and another must be built. Do not cling to what has stopped paying.

Myself

The person you were is making way for the person you are becoming. Grieve it, then go.

End, mortality, destruction, corruption; also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor; for a woman, many contrarieties; for a maid, failure of marriage projects.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 284

Reversed

Everything

Refusing an ending that has already happened. Holding on makes the change slower, not smaller.

Love

Staying in what is over. Or fear of change freezing a relationship in place.

Work

Resisting a needed change at work. The old structure will not carry you further.

Money

Clinging to a losing position. Cut it before it costs more.

Myself

Stagnation. You are keeping something alive that wants to rest.

Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism; hope destroyed.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 284

The card, as Waite described it

The veil or mask of life is perpetuated in change, transformation and passage from lower to higher, and this is more fitly represented in the rectified Tarot by one of the apocalyptic visions than by the crude notion of the reaping skeleton. Behind it lies the whole world of ascent in the spirit. The mysterious horseman moves slowly, bearing a black banner emblazoned with the Mystic Rose, which signifies life. Between two pillars on the verge of the horizon there shines the sun of immortality. The horseman carries no visible weapon, but king and child and maiden fall before him, while a prelate with clasped hands awaits his end. There should be no need to point out that the suggestion of death which I have made in connection with the previous card is, of course, to be understood mystically, but this is not the case in the present instance. The natural transit of man to the next stage of his being either is or may be one form of his progress, but the exotic and almost unknown entrance, while still in this life, into the state of mystical death is a change in the form of consciousness and the passage into a state to which ordinary death is neither the path nor gate. The existing occult explanations of the 13th card are, on the whole, better than usual, rebirth, creation, destination, renewal, and the rest.The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), p. 120

The plain-word meanings on this page were written for ShreeJyoti and are still under review.