Death Tarot Card Meaning: Upright and Reversed Meanings & Breakdowns
Death Tarot Card Keywords
Upright Keywords
Changes, New Chapter, Endings, Transformation and Transitions
Reversed Keywords
Resistance to Change, Fear, Holding On, Decay and Unable to Move On
Death Tarot Meaning
The Death card tarot meaning is one of the most frequently misinterpreted cards, thanks to popular media. The death card doesn’t refer to death with a capital D; it refers to the death of all things. This means it is a card of endings and the prospect of new beginnings, or at least a change in direction.
Death is a card of change and transformation for the better. It marks the point where we learn how to accept the inevitability of life and allows us to become accustomed to the life/death/life cycle that the universe constantly moves through. When one thing dies, another thing is born. If that weren’t the case, the world would stop turning, humans would become extinct, and even nature would cease to be. The life/death/life cycle is literally what keeps everything in existence.
If the Death card were the finite meaning many presume it is, it would come at the very end of the Major Arcana cycle, but it doesn’t. The Death card comes near the end of the second chapter of the Major Arcana; it preps us for the final leg of our self-awareness and individuation journey. It takes us from the calm clarity quest we embark on in The Hanged Man, and transitions us into the more self-aware and conscious energy of the Temperance card.
