Death (tarot card)

Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck

Death (XIII) is the 13th

, and when used for divination is often interpreted as signifying major changes in a person's life.

Description

Some decks, such as the

omit the name from the card, calling it "The Card with No Name", often with the implication of a broader meaning than literal death. There are other decks that title Death as "Rebirth" or "Death-Rebirth."

The Death card usually depicts the

In the background are two towers and a rising sun.

Examples

• 
  Charles VI (or Gringonneur) (15th century)
• 
  Cary-Yale Visconti

  (15th century)
• 
  Pierpont Morgan Bergamo

  (15th century)
• 
  Jean Dodal Marseilles (1701-1715)
• 
  Rauch Troccas (1831–1838)
• 
  Florence Minchiate (1860–1890)
• 
  Solesio Piedmontese (1865)
• 
  Lequart Marseilles (1890)
• 
  Grimaud Etteilla (1890)
• 
  Papus

  (1909)

Interpretation

According to Eden Gray and other authors on the subject, it is uncommon that this card actually represents a physical death, rather it typically implies an end, possibly of a relationship or interest, and therefore an increased sense of self-awareness.^[1][2]

In fact, Gray interprets this card as a change of thinking from an old way into a new way. The horse Death is riding is stepping over a prone king, which symbolizes that not even royalty can stop change.^[3]

The card, drawn in reverse, can be interpreted as stagnation and the inability to move or change, according to Gray.^[4]

According to A. E. Waite's 1910 book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the Death card carries several divinatory associations:^[5]

13. DEATH.—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. Reversed: Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism; hope destroyed.

In

Other versions

• In the Mythic tarot deck, Death is depicted by Hades.
• In the Sun and Moon tarot deck, Death is depicted as a woman bathed in fire with wings. It is titled "Death-Rebirth"
• In the Star Spinner tarot deck, Death is depicted as Nyx holding her child, Thanatos

See also

• Triskaidekaphobia

References

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Death (Major Arcana).

• A. E. Waite's 1910 Pictorial Key to the Tarot
• Sir James Frazer
  The Golden Bough
• Hajo Banzhaf, Tarot and the Journey of the Hero (2000)
• Most works by Joseph Campbell
• The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley
• G. Ronald Murphy, S.J., The Owl, The Raven, and The Dove: Religious Meaning of the Grimm's Magic Fairy Tales (2000)
• Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade (1987)
• Mary Greer, The Women of the Golden Dawn (1994)
• Merlin Stone, When God Was A Woman (1976)
• Robert Graves, Greek Mythology (1955)
• Joan Bunning, Learning the Tarot
• Juliette Wood, Folklore 109 (1998):15–24, "The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Tradition: A Study in Modern Legend Making" (1998)