Tarot Cards Meanings - Major Arcana - Death - meaning in detail
Death (La Mort) - tarot card meaning in detail
The Child of the Great Transformers; The Lord of the Gate of Death
Card Number: 13
Key Number: 24
Rulership: Scorpio
Hebrew Letter: Nun
Translation: Fish
Numerical Value: 12
Astrological Associations: Aries
Full Meaning
The Death card is often one of the most feared card in a tarot reading, but this has more to do with what is shown in the movies as opposed to the true meaning of the card. In fact the death card very rarely means the death of anyone. The death card signifies change and the end of a cycle, the end of a situation or even the end to a series of events. You need to let go of the past and accept that things are going to change in a major way.
If you are in a relationship it may mean that the relationship is nearing the end of its natural cycle and has run its course, but it can also signify deep change in that relationship. If you are feeling somewhat low at the moment, then do not despair because this card can be likened to the phoenix rising from the ashes.
Although change is sometimes difficult to come to terms with, you will emerge from the whole situation a much stronger and wiser person. Remember that death is not the end it is simply what comes before resurrection or rebirth. When this card appears the advice is to go with the flow accept any change and move on from the past with a new attitude and renewed positivity.
Traditional Symbolism
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 Major Arcana suit.
