Death is The End

Death is the End. And it is NOT a bad thing.

My understanding of the Death card has evolved. Years of Readings and client feedback have taught me that the Death card means an Ending is unfolding. People in the Tarot world often declare the Death card to be about Transformation and Change. However, I say that the Death card is an Ending. The card hints at Changes, but those show up afterward. In The Death Card, what we experience is an ending. And that ending isn’t a bad thing at all.

Please Note: This post is an edited version of the transcript of a video I made on this topic. You can watch this video on my YouTube Channel.

Back in the day, when I started reading the Tarot and studying the card meanings, all the teachers and all the books used to talk about the Death card and say, “Death is not about dying. It is about change!”  When the Death card came up in a reading, even I would rush in to reassure the client. I’d tell them, “Hey, don’t worry. Nobody’s going to die. Death is a card of transformation. Death is a card of change.” Today, I see a lot of Blogs and YouTube videos where people say that too. In fact, I wrote a blog post about the Death card too!

While that perspective is a great way to understand the Death card, I would like to add some thoughts to the conversation. These are based on my experiences over all these years doing readings and looking at the Death card energy playing out in those readings. Add to that the feedback from my clients. This enabled me to compare the readings with the actual situations as they played out in real life. 

TL;DR : Death is the End

Essentially, I’m saying that the Death card is not necessarily talking about Transformation. It’s hinting at it. But the Death card describes an ending. The presence of the Death card indicates that there is an ending taking place. Death is the End.

What Do The Death Cards Say?

I decided to look at the images of various Death cards, to see if my new insight was aligned with their symbolism. Let’s look at the Death cards from the 3 Tarot imagery schools: The Tarot de Marseilles, the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, and the Thoth Tarot to see what the card images have to convey.

Death: Tarot de Marseilles

Let’s begin with the Tarot de Marseilles image. What you see here is not a skeleton. It is a skeletal person. We see someone who is quite likely starving. You can see his rib cage, legs, hands, and face. He looks like a person who has starved so much that there’s no flesh on their body. There are just skin and bones. Perhaps he is a farmer. He’s got a scythe. Incidentally, the scythe is a typical symbol associated with the depictions of Death.

We see this skeletal person standing in a field. By his feet, we see a crown, leaves, hands, and feet. Maybe this was the field where he was growing his crops. But now he has got the heads of the dead people strewn about in it. All the different body parts have fallen into the soil. It looks like he’s he’s removing all the weeds and all these dead people’s body parts. 

All of this is very symbolic. Even the colors tell you something. We see Red at the base of his spine and the edge of his scythe. In the Tarot de Marseilles, the color Red conveys energy and anger. 

So here’s a poor farmer who lives on what he grows. Here’s a field where he used to grow his crops. Maybe a battle happened. People died. He certainly couldn’t grow his crops in the field due to that battle and everything just went to waste. If he had crops growing in there, they were most certainly destroyed in that battle. He’s left with the body parts of dead people that were killed in his field. He has to grow the crops now that the battle is over. He’s starving, just like a lot of other people. So, off he went to clean up the field. He took his scythe and started cleaning up. 

This is the big ending energy here: the remnants of the battle are being cleaned up. Here Death is the end where he clears the slate (or the field), so that he can start growing his crops again.

Death: Rider-Waite-Smith 

Now, let’s look at the picture from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck. 

Here we have an actual skeleton. He’s wearing a nice armor — he’s protecting himself. He’s holding this flag with this white flower, which is all about peace. Even his horse is white. White is the color of peace. The horse is all about movement. This is peace on the move. Even with that peace, this skeleton has protected himself. 

We see The Emperor from the Emperor card lying dead. The Emperor stands for structures. He represents the entire kingdom and the leadership of that kingdom. All of that has ended. Next, we have the Hierophant — he looks like he is praying or imploring or requesting as he stands in front of the horse with his hands folded. 

While the Emperor represents the structure of the kingdom that he built, the Hierophant represents the bigger, broader structure of society. The card’s imagery also has shades of religion, learning, and teaching. The Hierophant card represents the “System” that has a broader scope than that of the Emperor’s Kingdom. However, even though The Hierophant pleads, the Skeleton of Death will end him too. This is an important lesson because, we are told that, every single thing has an ending. No system, no matter how overarching, really stays the same. It always undergoes an ending. Anything that has become too much, too big, has to end. 

Then we see the lady from the Strength card in the corner. She’s all about compassion, understanding, inner strength. However, she too seems to have given up. Her inner strength is over. No matter how much you hold on, at some point, your patience, your understanding, your strength, your compassion — all of it comes to an end. She’s giving up. 

We’re often told to look at the little kid. We are told that since that child doesn’t have preconceived notions or fears, he greets the Death coming towards him with an open heart. The child even has flowers to welcome Death. Perhaps what I’m going say next may be a little controversial. I think that this little child will very likely meet his end despite being fearless and welcoming towards Death. 

Death comes for everyone. Everybody’s story is going to end. Death is unavoidable. Death is the End.

This card is full of symbolism. We can see the boat on the river which is a little homage to the different Death myths. Across different mythologies, we have a similar narrative: once you die, your soul is taken via a boat down a river. This ferryman (Charon in the Greek Myths, Anubis in the Egyptian Myths) takes your soul to the underworld where your soul will be judged, and so on. 

Interestingly, this card also shows or hints at something new to come. First, it does that through the symbol of that child. Second, we also see a sunrise in the distance. Note that the sunrise is not in the foreground but in the background. This sunrise, then, could be something that either happened before or will happen in the future — depending on how you perceive it. But the background placement tells us that the sunrise is not in the here and now. That sunrise is the reason for the “New beginnings are around the corner” interpretation that people like to quote.

In the foreground of this card image though, everything is ending. Death won’t spare anyone. Every single person, concept, feeling, structure, system — every single thing — will come to an end.

Death: Thoth

We also see a similar vibe in the image of the Thoth deck. 

Here, we see a skeleton with a crown and a scythe, coming in to reap his harvest. We see the rebirth and reincarnation cycle of the souls across lifetimes taking the forms of various creatures. We see souls releasing and reincarnating, from one form to the other. 

Here too, the Death skeleton is ending these creatures, and releasing their souls so they can transcend to the next level of evolution. In this card though, we see an ending that keeps happening, over and over. Death is the end of one cycle that leads to the beginning of the next cycle.

Death is the End? Or Is It a Transformation? 

Looking at the images of the Death cards, I’m sure you’ve realized that the transformation, the change that we often talk about has NOT happened yet. What the Death card imagery does show us is that all the old stuff, all the stuff that needs to be cleaned up — the stuff from the past, the old structures (Emperor), the old systems (Hierophant), even compassion and patience (Strength), the fearlessness (Child), all the Souls — everything is now ending. 

The transformation we’re looking for will come afterward and not during the time of the Death card. 

The Death Card in Context of the Fool’s Journey

Now let’s look at the Death card in the the bigger picture. 

This familiar image of the Major Arcana shows the Fool’s Journey divided into 3 segments of 7 cards each. This Fool’s Journey depicts the journey of someone who’s on a quest, who’s on a journey of self-discovery. It can even metaphorically describe the life of a person. The first 7 cards represent the journey on the material plane. 

The story begins with The Fool jumping off the cliff and encountering The Magician and The High Priestess, representing the Male and Female energy respectively. They are the creative energy and the intuitive energy in their purest form. The Fool shows us the beginning — a space where you don’t know anything and you’re just taking a leap of faith, and starting your journey, your story. Then, this Fool encounters these two energies — they represent the energies within us — the creative and the intuitive energy. 

Next, we have the mother and father energy: the nourishment of the Mother in The Empress, and the structure of the Father in The Emperor.

This is how we all begin our life’s journey. We become aware of ourselves. We discover that we are either a girl or a boy. Then we see our mother and our father. As we grow up, we learn. In The Hierophant, we learn about society, religion, and culture. Then, in The Lovers, we come face to face with our emerging sexuality. Remember how as teenagers, we wanted to be treated as adults? This is part of the sexual awakening. We are now in the process of becoming grown-ups. We then find ourselves in The Chariot, forming our own identity in the world at large. We ride forth to become our best selves as people. 

Next, we are in the second phase of this Journey: we grow emotionally and mentally. We become better human beings. We discover our compassion (Strength), or inner wisdom (The Hermit). We learn that people will show compassion and share their wisdom with you, when you ask for it. We start to see the cycles of life at play in The Wheel of Fortune: we discover that actions have consequences, that good leads to good and bad leads to bad. A sense of Justice and balance starts to develop within our minds.

When that happens, in The Hanged Man, you pause and start seeing the world from a different perspective. As the new point of view takes root, you find yourself in the Death card. Finally, it is time to end the old ways of thinking, feeling, expressing, experiencing, and understanding. All of these old ways have to die. The old cycles, the old perspectives, the old perceptions — all of this need to die. That is what happens in the Death card. This is the end of everything that no longer serves you. 

Your perspective changed in The Hanged Man because the experiences of the previous cards in the Journey made you decide (Justice) to seek the right path forward. That change has now led you to discard all the old stuff, the old ways, and start to figure out a new way that aligns with this new knowledge you’ve gained. 

That’s when you find yourself in the Temperance card. Interestingly, if you look at the sunrise in the Death card and then in the Temperance card, you might even say that these are the same Sunrise. We see one side in the Death card, and the one in the Temperance could be on the other side. It is only after the ending manifests, after all the old cycles have ended and the debris has been cleared away, that you find yourself in the Temperance card where the process of evolution begins. We see the Alchemical transformation here, from Silver to Gold, as the liquid moves from one cup to another. The change and evolution are taking place in Temperance. That change is incomplete. It’ll be complete in The World card. But that is still a long way away, for now. 

In Temperance, right after the experiences of the Death card, you get a breathing space. Here, you can collate all the information you’ve received. Life starts to make sense to you on a mental and emotional level. Then in The Devil card, you discover your deep-rooted attachments to the material world. These needs, desires, connections, and attachments exist in the material world that you live in. You look at the chains that bind you to these desires. Perhaps, that is why, in The Tower, the Universe decides to help out. In a lightning burst of insight, understanding, and spiritual energy, the structure that you have created for yourself, the structure that you thought was keeping you safe and secure as you grew — the whole structure comes crumbling down. The Crown which represents your ego is destroyed. Everything is on fire. 

Imagine, if you will, that The Devil card energy is held within the Tower of The Tower card. 

When the Tower crumbles down, the man and the woman (representing you) trapped inside that Tower are forced out of that structure. That’s how the Universe helps you — by stepping in and sending in the lightning bolt of Realization to break down the Tower of your structures. The process of change, realization, and understanding has started. Now you must break out of the structures you’ve made for yourself. These structures are not going to serve you anymore. You’ve outgrown them. So, they must be destroyed. 

Interestingly, The Tower is also another ending card. While the Death card’s ending is slow and gradual, The Tower card’s ending is sudden.

This Tower is where you find yourself in the darkness. When the Tower falls, the Universe throws you out of this darkness. 

Again, just after any such jarring events, you have a moment where you get a break. After Death, you had Temperance. Now, after The Tower, you have The Star. Here you can take a moment, take a deep breath, and let go. In The Star, you see the letting go of all of the experiences back into the subconscious, and the letting go of the attachment to various desires. This card is all about Hope and Positivity. This is another card where people say one thing, but experience tells me that that is not what this card is about. The Star has Positive and Hopeful energies. It is the hope of a new beginning. This card represents the positive energy hinting at a new beginning that is around the corner. 

After The Star, we see The Moon rise in the sky. Now you’re out of your old structures, you’ve taken a breath, and you’ve let go. The attachments are finally gone. But now you’re confused. Whatever you knew from before is now not there anymore. The structures, the ideas, the concepts, the chains, the thought process —  this new world is an unfamiliar terrain. Of course, you’re lost and you have to figure it out. In The Moon card, we also see an eclipse. Everything is a reflection. As the emotional Moon blocks the clarity of the Sun, all your primal animal instincts and the stuff from the depths of your subconscious rise to the surface. Now you have to figure yourself out again. Only this time, you start with a clean slate and a lot of awareness. That brings you to The Sun card. This is a very playful energy. Maybe the little child from the Death card is now in The Sun card. Maybe this is The Fool with his jaunty red feather. I think that The Fool is shown as the child on these cards to symbolize the child-like energy. This child-like enthusiasm allows you to embrace this adventure. You’ve come a long way. The wall in the background represents the separation between the old and the new life. You’re ready to go on that adventure again to discover and/or re-create yourself. That’s why you’re depicted as a child. Here’s your clean slate: the pure energy of the child ready to explore and figure himself or herself out. 

Then in the Judgment card, the Angel blows the trumpet and you have a revelation. This information, this knowledge, it is a signal. When the trumpet blows you know you’re now free from all these old cycles. This adventure has also started to free you from your karmic cycles. Finally, you find yourself in The World card where you realize that you are indeed one with the universe. This is actually where the cycle finally closes. This cycle, which began with The Fool has now concluded.

The change hinted at in the Death card has slowly and gradually unfolded. The cards after the Death card show us the entire process of this change unfolding and finally wrapping up. In The World card, the cycle has finally successfully come to an end. This is a big accomplishment. The goal has been reached. The change has slowly taken place over time and in The World card you embrace that change. This is also where you are now clear about what that change is all about. 

After the conclusion of The World, you find yourself in The Fool again. Once the cycle of change sets in and you have understood what it is all about, you are ready to go on another journey, another cycle, another quest. You then find yourself in the energy of The Fool card yet again.

This entire story symbolically represents the different quests, projects, or inner journeys we experience. This journey could be a lifetime as well — if you believe in reincarnation, you can see how the unfolding of one lifetime leads to the next life, and so on. All these images and cycles are symbolic. You can interpret the metaphors in a way that makes sense to you. 

That brings me back to my point. 

Death is the End. It hints at the change, it hints at the transformation. But by itself, the Death card is all about endings. The change will happen afterward. Once that change sets in, a new cycle starts. 

These are my thoughts about the Death card and the role it has to play. It is an important role. It tells us that until the old ways are thrown out, the new changes will not come into your life. When you see this card show up in readings, what is happening isn’t a transformation but an ending. Whether it’s a job, a relationship, a thought process, a concept, or a structure of your life — whatever you have been going through in the cards before the Death card in that spread, all of that is now ending. And this ending will then start this process of change. 

Perhaps, this is why they chose the title “Death” for this card. Nothing can so specifically depict an ending as much as the word “Death” can! There’s no way this title would cause any confusion about what will happen when this card shows up in your reading. You know things are going to end. Death is an Ending card.

Death is the End: The Coffin

We also see similar energies in the Coffin card in the Lenormand and the Fatality card in the Kipper. While the Tarot is very descriptive and full of metaphoric symbols, the Lenormand and Kipper are straightforward and to the point. These cards tell you that it is the end. 

You cannot find a much better symbol in terms of the coffin, because in the primarily Judeo-Christian Western world, the coffin as a symbol easily translates to an ending. When you see that card, you know that everything is over. This is the ending.

Some Thoughts…

My mom often tells me a story that as a kid, at the end of any movie, when the big “The End” sign would come up on the screen, I would say, “The End, Be Happy!”  It is interesting how 40-something years later I finally understand the deeper meaning behind the words that spontaneously popped out of my mouth back then. Now I know the weight, the worth, and the value of that statement in terms of the Tarot. All of this has become more meaningful for me. I have also realized that an ending is not necessarily a bad thing. When an ending happens, one should be happy. Only after the old approaches have been discarded, can one bring about one’s desired transformation. The ending will then eventually lead to a transformation and a new beginning. 

Death is an ending. It is only after Death that the transformation process begins. 

In the End…

I would like you to reflect upon all the different endings you have experienced in your life. Think about whether you accepted them happily or unhappily. Think about those endings and the subsequent transformations and changes. I would also like you to think about how you may have resisted these endings.

All of us do that. Nobody’s happy with endings or with change. No matter how toxic the relationship is, we don’t want to give it up. No matter how that job may be stifling your creativity, we don’t want to walk away from the security it represents. All of us do that. Look at those parts of your life’s story and think about how things would have gone differently if you had accepted those endings happily.  

Consider how you can apply these new insights to the endings taking place in the ongoing, or the next cycle in your life. 

Life is a journey of learning and applying our new knowledge to our lives. We can make sure that we don’t repeat our errors. Endings are not necessarily bad things. They have the power to initiate change and transformation, eventually taking you towards finding happiness. When you see the Death card in your reading, don’t avoid the ending. Embrace the deeper lessons within it. Allow the transformation to manifest in your life. Death is the end, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

The End. Be Happy. 😉