meanings of the Death card

The crowned one

"For that which is born death is certain, and for the dead birth is certain. Therefore grieve not over that which is unavoidable."

"Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the hut of the poor and the towers of kings."

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."

"Death cancels everything but truth"

I am not a fan of quotes usually, but sometimes they are useful to give you idea's as to how to shape your thoughts in a card. Death always means an end, the question I do not ask myself when this card comes up is what is ending, but rather how will I face the end.

Key to me is what is coming is unavoidable, involves change generally or death rarely,has nothing to do with status, and is impartial, and all I have to do is either live and respond, or in that very rare case: die.
Another key to keep in mind Death means somethings allotted time is up in your life, not that you failed, but that the time for this thing has pasted.
 

SunChariot

It's an interesting card... perhaps the most misunderstood one with the Devil.

To me it's the renewal of things. How many little deaths we do have in our paths? How often we are afraid of them? It's definitely a new beginning; whether it is positive or negative, well, that's up to you and the circumstances.

What puzzles me at the moment is the Tower. If it is also a good-bye, what's the difference from Death?

Death and the Tower are rather similar. For me (although I am in the process of revising my meaning of the Death card). Death for me so far has just meant something ending to make room for some thing else (better) to come. The Tower, for me, means a very sudden unexpected change that hits when you least expect it and changes things forever in the situation.

Death, to me, is an ending. The Tower is change. Change CAN sometimes be an ending but it can also take other forms. Also the Tower contains that element of something happening very quickly, almost in the blink or an eye. That is not part of my meaning for the Death card. Also The Tower is something unexpected and we can at times know the ending talked about in the Death card is coming, so it is not necessarily unexpected, which in the Tower it always is.

Babs
 

SunChariot

Thanks for your help everyone! :heart: That helped so much. I am off thinking it all out now and redefining the card.

Oh and happy holidays and a great 2012 to you all!

Babs
 

Maagi

Death and the Tower are rather similar. For me (although I am in the process of revising my meaning of the Death card). Death for me so far has just meant something ending to make room for some thing else (better) to come. The Tower, for me, means a very sudden unexpected change that hits when you least expect it and changes things forever in the situation.

That's interesting! Thanks for answering... :)

I've been thinking the Tower is the death of the ego plus beliefs, so in a way it is worse than Death which is just a hint towards the new beginning... you know, Death suggests change, Tower MAKES the change. It tears apart everything you hung on to.. so it is drastic, hmm. Almost something that can make your sanity shatter....?

Happy 2012 to you too!
 

veniteangeli

Whenever I pull the Death card for someone not well versed in tarot, I liken it to gardening - one must cut off the dead heads of flowers, in order for new flowers to bloom, yes?

As in gardening, so in life. The old must make way for the new. In the Death card, specifically the RWS Death, you can see that the dead person is elderly, while the children appear to be being spared - the old making way for the new. Also, the sun is rising in the background, and I use that to illustrate that Death is not meant to be an end - it's the beginning of a new day, a new era.
 

SunChariot

That's interesting! Thanks for answering... :)

I've been thinking the Tower is the death of the ego plus beliefs, so in a way it is worse than Death which is just a hint towards the new beginning... you know, Death suggests change, Tower MAKES the change. It tears apart everything you hung on to.. so it is drastic, hmm. Almost something that can make your sanity shatter....?

Happy 2012 to you too!

You're welcome. :grin: I don't have that kind of way to seeing the Tower of it tearing apart anything. For me it is just very sudden change that is unexpected. Things changing in the blink of an eye. And forever. It could just as easily be a positive change as anything else. But just very sudden.

When the image shows two people falling from the tower, as it often does, I sometimes see it as meaning "falling in love" just looking at the person and suddenly realizing that you are now in love with them, when just a second ago you did not yet realize it.

The two people falling often reminds me of two people falling in love.

Babs
 

hopena

As the "teacher card" in my tarot constellation, Death has taught me the futility of trying to halt the process of change by clinging to outworn modalities of the past. It leads to a neurotic inability to go forward in life. But sometimes it's so hard to feel what you know -- that death is a process of transformation, and not the ultimate "end of you." Because... in a way, it IS the end of your ego to transform. The way a butterfly is the end of the caterpillar. If the caterpillar knew, maybe it wouldn't want to spin a cocoon. No more than a vampire wants to go into the sun. We cling to the devil we know for fear the unknown will be worse. Well, if we're fearful... and that's what the death card has come to mean to me personally. Unfortunately!

You've partially described my past two years, sadly. I had the dath card showing up a lot before one dog died. then I had the tower showing up, with the three of swords, and my year card was Death, this year (six deaths this year), as well as a real need to move on from something I couldn't get my head around, huge regrets, and issues with aging, my own and those I love.
 

liberated inferno

Ideas for Death:

Death is a necessary and inevitable part of life.

Death is not always positive or welcome.

Death means the irretrievable end of something.

When one thing ends another starts.

Death is unpredictable.

Just some ideas to throw into the pot:)

I would agree with these ideas from personal experience. I remember using Death as a significator card during this summer because I felt like huge changes were coming upon me. Lo and behold, my relationship with my ex ended in a way that only Death could explain.

To me, it signifies a point of no return. Once it's done, it's DONE.
 

Zephyros

I see the Tower as quite different from Death. In my first book on Tarot, it had a chapter dedicated to the so-called "bad" cards and what it said was an interesting take. Likening life to a table, the Devil makes you clear the table yourself, Death clears it for you while the Tower comes and breaks the table.

For me, the difference between Death and the Tower is that even though the Tower is broken and demolished, the foundations are still there, for good or for bad. You still have to deal with the fallout of the destruction. In the Thoth, the Tower is broken not by a lightning bolt, but from beneath, the bones of the earth, so to speak. Since the Tower rests upon the earth, it is being destroyed in way, from within itself. It could be the Tower of Babel, torn apart because of the pride of humanity trying to arrive at the Divine through material means. The Tower comes to laugh at Ozymandias and remind us that whatever we build is built on sand. Not that the Tower is always bad. It could be a new kind of lover, breaking apart your defenses since he isn't normally the kind of person you would see, for example, but you go with him anyway, because it feels right. In any case, an explosive kind of event, the forces of nature giving off a grand show of violence and upheaval.

Death on the other hand, suggests in itself no new age, no promise of the hereafter. Like I said in my earlier post, Death could mean rebirth, but that rebirth is not inherent to the card itself, it is the first in a two stage process and also the end of all processes. In a sense when something dies it already is something new (if I may be a little morbid, even a living body turned into a corpse is a kind of "something new") but you can't know what or even if anything will come out of it. An animal dying in the desert simply becomes food for vultures and then disintegrates into bones, but the same animal dying in the woods could become nourishment for a new plant, but neither will know it, the act of the Death is the same for both. Like I said before, we deal with Death far more than we deal with birth, Death is ever present. Death is not a by-product of creation, it is inherent to it, Creation's shadow, as it were. That there can be no creation without death is apparent, but that creation itself is a form of death is less so. In the Thoth, Death is the only the middle episode in the alchemical "trilogy" comprising the Lovers, Art and Death; suggesting that even the completion of Creation is a kind of Death in itself.

For Lord of the Rings buffs, think of the Numenorean fear of Death, and the anguish it caused them, while Eru's answer was that it was not good or bad, but simply a fulfillment of their being, as natural as life itself.
 

hopena

I would agree with these ideas from personal experience. I remember using Death as a significator card during this summer because I felt like huge changes were coming upon me. Lo and behold, my relationship with my ex ended in a way that only Death could explain.

To me, it signifies a point of no return. Once it's done, it's DONE.

This is what I was thinking last night. I told my aunt, when I was very upset in August, that I was seeing death everywhere, and the next thing I knew... I'd been lokoing for a missing cat, and crouched down temporarily, touching the earth close to where my dog was buried when he died in January, and felt a strong wave of sadness and wondering when others were going to end up there. My cousin died the following day, followed by four cats over the next five weeks. There was a massive butterfly caught in the garage, batting against the window the previous friday - biggest one I've ever seen - and it stepped onto my hand when I asked and guided it to, flying off once I took it to the door.

I felt oddly calm, clear and okay, the day after my cousin died, but that didn't last past that one day. Death can come quickly, but I was reminded of how long and painful it can be, too. :(