How to Interpret the Death Card in a Tarot Reading

In Tarot, Death, Card XIII, is a Major Arcana card and probably the most misunderstood of all Tarot cards. As a Major Arcana card, Death carries the weight of an archetype, a universal symbol that has powerful meaning when it appears in a Tarot spread. Most importantly for Tarot interpretation, the Death card is not a card to take on face value. Its meaning lays deeper and addresses issues of which the seeker may only be dimly, if at all, aware.

Instructions

1. 

   Reflect on and interpret the symbols present in the Death card. Reassure your seeker that the Death card is not a literal prediction of impending death. Rather, the card is a powerful indicator of an approaching transformation that only can occur when she lets go of the old. Let her know that new wonders are waiting.

2. 

   Read the black background as a symbol of your seeker's potential, what may be dormant. The dark night sky is mystery which holds all of the seeker's potential.

3. 

   Explain that the skeleton represents the "bare bones," a need to get to the foundation of the issue in order to build a new structure in place of the old.

4. 

   Interpret the river, which symbolizes the seeker's emotional life, as a time to release the old and embrace the new. Allow the questioner to understand that Death is the card of letting go of old resentments or other emotions and moving forward. Every ending beckons a new beginning.

5. 

   Read Death Reversed as a warning to the seeker. He is clinging to something that needs to be consigned to the past. Advise that the only way out is to release clinging and attachment.

Resources

• The Tarot's Death Card
• Death