Tarot Card Meaning: Death

Death in a Tarot Card Reading

The death card is one of the famous tarot cards, those that get interpreted quite literally by unskilled readers. The death card doesn’t bring physical death, it is a doorway between lives. Many times, we think death is just the end, but it is also a beginning at the same time. When we let go of certain traits and behaviors we can let ourselves die and fade away, as we let the new improved version of us be born.

The death figure holds a scythe, tearing down all that no longer serves a being, freeing it to blossom as a new self. This can also be seen as the spiritual self, shedding the physical self and its burdens like the ego, the mind, trauma and pain. It is the victory of spirit over body, transformation, metamorphosis and resurrection. This is why the sun shines at the horizon of the card.

When this card comes up in a reading, it doesn’t mean bad things, it means that you have to shed what isn’t serving you anymore, stop doing things the old why, and find a new, higher and more ideal way of getting to where you need to go. It is a call to change, and transform, to be free of all earthly chains.

The death card can be more easily interpreted as an ego death, as a breaking free of systems that holds the true inner light down. Things like greed, fear and pain. When we slay these things, and cut them out, we are bringing a better self to life.

The death card is easily associated with the astro sign of scorpio, the macabre sign, that deals with transformation, shedding the snake and embracing the eagle.

Death is associated with the astrology sign of Scorpio Death is the Scorpio tarot card - click here to read more about the astrology association to tarot.