| Death is the thirteenth card of the Major Arcana and the thirteenth
step on the journey of life. Astride a white horse holding a banner of the sun, sits a black armor clad
skeleton. This card doesn't, as it's often percieved, necessarily mean a physical death. Rather it represents
the death of old habits or ideas, and a rebirth into a new idea or new state of awareness or consciousness.
The symbol of the sun on the banner, is what demonstrates this fact. He rides through trampling down a child
and a religious figure, representing the trampling or destroying of old childish ideas, or dogmatic and rigid
beleifs, and paves the way for new learning experiences. Just as a child puts away toys and old ideas as he
becomes a teenager or reaches manhood, we have to put away old ideas and behaviors. This card itself is paradoxical.
When he comes into your spread he is there to tell you "The only true constant in life is change." |
| We all have a tendency to hold onto the past. Why not? Why should I try
to do something entirely new, when its so much easier to do things the way I always have? We fall into this trap
so much that we tend to miss out on a lot of other experiences. When the Death card comes into your spread
he does so with a vengeance,yet stealthily and with purpose. He tells you immediately that you've got a lot of changes coming and
regardless whether your ready to accept them or not they are going to occur. This cards appearance though it,
may seem negative to most, isnt. It's a new growth and a new beginning and should be considered as same. |
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| Keywords for Interpretation |
| Upright |
| End, mortality, destruction, corruption,
sudden changes, loss, failure |
| Inverted |
| Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction,
sonambulism |
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| There is a myriad of symbolisms on this and many of the other cards in
both the major and minor arcana. In order to present a comprehensive and easy to use as a reference source
set of pages for this and other cards, I will refrain from going into great detail regarding the individual
symbols on the cards. On a future date I will go over the more explicit aspects of them. If you have a
question regarding a particular symbol you can email me at Tamerin.
I would also like to hear from you on some of your interpretations of this particular card or any other
that you would like to discuss. Please use above email link. |
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