Tarot has been a part of Barbara Moore's personal and professional lives for nearly twenty years. Right from the start, tarot intrigued her with its marvelous blending of mythology, psychology, art, history, mystery, and magic. She has studied under...
This card rarely means physical death. Most modern interpretations of the Death card focus on transformations and new beginnings. However, before that comes the ending of something. It is this ending that people fear, and we try to gloss over it by talking about the new and presumably better time to come. That may all be so, but we show a lack of courage and commitment to truth when we minimize the experience of death. People experiencing the Death card both need and have a right to their grief and sense of loss. Hope is almost always present in most versions of the Death card, sometimes taking the form of a sunrise, a white rose, or a phoenix. But the images also present the dark side of death, with skulls, reapers, and engulfing flames. It is important not to skip the hard part and jump directly to the potential shiny new future.
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The Universal Waite card shows different approaches to death: the fainting king, pleading bishop, swooning maiden, innocent child. Along with the promise of a new day, Death comes riding into our lives. The end is inevitable; the new beginning is full of promise. The question in this card is how we greet death.
Core meaning: An ending that makes transformation possible.
The Legacy card shows the moment between death and transformation. The card almost reeks of decay and pain. Out of the decomposing remains, a white rose grows. At this point, the bloom is hardly visible.
In the Shadowscapes card, the phoenix—a mythical bird that rises from the ashes of its own death to be born anew—is a popular symbol for modern versions of the Death card. It beautifully conveys the idea of a clear ending leading to a promising future. Sumac is on the branch with the phoenix. In Victorian times, sumac conveyed the message that "I shall survive this change."
