The moment the Major Arcana card Death XIII appears in a tarot reading, some people want to run away and never touch the cards again.
This is unfortunate and completely unnecessary.
I wrote an article on my blog about Death XIII when I first began my tarot learning journey. One reader, a long-time subscriber, left a comment which has preoccupied me for some time. I wanted to reassure her that the card was not a bad omen in her particular situation, but back in those early days, I didn’t really grasp the true significance of this card. It is only now, a year later and much more intuitively experienced, that I feel more equipped to deal with the sometimes perplexing messages the tarot cards seem to transmit.
To read the original article on my blog, click here.
Reader reaction
Before I delve into my personal interpretation of the death tarot card, allow me to share my reader’s experience. I have slightly paraphrased her comment:
A month ago I drew the death card and my dog died a few days later. It might have been a coincidence and he was quite old. I have not touched the deck afterwards.
My reader admitted she had never made her feelings about the death card public, much less on the internet, but she trusted me/my blog enough to do so in the comments.
We’ve all lost pets before and understand the utter heartbreak this event can bring to a person. In her case, my initial response to her disclosure wasn’t so much an acknowledgement of the seeming premonition (I don’t believe the tarot holds this kind of power, to predict an event). Instead, I believe the death tarot card could have been used as a tool to help her prepare for her pet’s looming death. As she stated, the dog was old and it was clear he was going to die soon.
Maybe the card came out as an alert, or a gentle reminder that her dog’s days were numbered.
Could the tarot have awoken something within her that may have made her change her plans in the coming days in favour of staying home with her dog those last, few precious days?
Death as an ending
The death card is the 13th card of the Major Arcana. It follows the Hanged Man and precedes Temperance. It is often described as the most misunderstood card in the tarot deck.
The death cards points to endings and transformation, an element in the cycle of life. Without endings there can be no new beginnings.
Take a look at Death XIII and notice the two towers in the background. Do you see the sun behind the towers? To me it looks like it’s rising.
I haven’t paid much attention to the sun behind those towers in the past, but during the past two days, the death card has made appearances in both my own personal tarot readings (twice) as well as in two others I listened to online (Soma Chandra Libra and Julie Poole) covering the same time period. I find this fascinating and don’t pass it off as merely coincidental; I attribute the appearance of Death XIII four times in two days across three different channels symbolic.
There is something this card wants me to see.
Something is ending, changing, transforming.
The message is poignantly clear:
Something hasn’t been working. It needs to end or let go of. Only then can something else take root, grow and flourish.
Did the death card try to tell me that I should drop those projects which have not reached the type of result I had envisioned?
Death is about cycles endings, change and transition, transformation.
By dropping what no longer serves you, your focus and attention on other projects, relationships, or creative endeavors stand a better chance to reach fruition.
Death doesn’t have to be about dying. Only after a caterpillar pupates into a chrysalis can it transform into a beautiful butterfly.