Card XIII, Major ArcanaDeath tarot card meaning
Upright and reversedDeath in shortIn short
Death is an ending. A rider in black armour on a white horse moves slowly through, and king, child and maiden fall before him. Let go of what's over so something new can start.
- Endings
- Change
- Letting go
Piece oneThe rising sun
Far off, between two white towers, a gold sun comes up over the hills. Waite calls the towers pillars, and the light the sun of immortality.
"Between two pillars on the verge of the horizon there shines the sun of immortality."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe sunrise is the card's answer to the horseman. Death rides through the front, and far behind him the day starts again. The white rose on the banner says the same thing up close. The fallen king lies in the foreground, and the light is already climbing over the river.
Piece twoThe horseman
Black armour, and in our deck a human face under the helmet. Waite says he moves slowly and carries no visible weapon. He doesn't strike. Everything falls before him anyway.
"The mysterious horseman moves slowly"Waite, 1911
Why it is hereHe's the force the whole card answers to. He rides slowly and carries no weapon, so the king's fall and the bishop's prayer come from his presence alone. His banner carries the rose, and behind him the sun rises. The rider brings an end, and the card keeps a beginning in view.
Piece threeThe fallen
A king lies under the horse's hoof, crown still on. A child and a maiden kneel. A bishop in yellow waits, hands together. Power, youth and holiness all go down the same way.
"king and child and maiden fall before him, while a prelate with clasped hands awaits his end."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe fallen show who Death stops for: everyone. The king's crown doesn't save him, and the bishop's clasped hands don't stop the horse. The child and the maiden kneel in its path. All of them sit below the rider and his banner, with the rising sun behind them.
Piece fourThe banner
The rider carries a black banner with a white rose. Waite calls it the Mystic Rose, the sign of life, flying on Death's own flag.
"bearing a black banner emblazoned with the Mystic Rose, which signifies life."Waite, 1911
Why it is hereThe banner explains the rider. He carries the sign of life on his own flag, so the card points past the ending to what grows after it. The white rose answers the sun rising on the horizon, and it flies right above the fallen king.
Colour, and where else it appearsEchoes
-
The rising sun
A gold sun, pale towers and a grey sky, with a small boat on the river below. Two towers stand on The Moon as well, a path running between them, but there the light is cold and the night is only starting. Temperance has a sun rising at the end of a long path. Death sets its sunrise far off, past the water.
Also in -
The horseman
Dark iron and a red plume, the one spot of warm colour on him. He rides a white horse. The child on The Sun rides one too, bareback and smiling, with a red banner instead of a black one. In the Six of Wands a rider on a white horse wears a victor's wreath. Same horse, three very different riders.
Also in -
The fallen
The bishop's yellow, the king's red and ermine: rich colours of power, lying low on the grass. The Hierophant sits enthroned in red, blessing two kneeling men. On Death a bishop kneels himself. The Emperor rules from a stone throne in crown and armour. Here the crown lies on the ground with the king.
Also in -
The banner
Black cloth, a white rose, a gold centre: the darkest and lightest colours on the card, side by side. The Fool holds a small white rose as he steps toward the cliff edge. The Magician stands in a garden of red roses and white lilies. On Death the rose is flat and stitched to a flag, carried by the end itself.
Also in
Colour notes are ours, read from the picture; Waite does not explain the colours.
DeathUpright
An ending. Waite's words: end, mortality, destruction, corruption. Something's finished: a job, a relationship, a habit, an old picture of yourself. You can't save it, and holding on hurts more.
Waite also reads the card as change, transformation, a passage from lower to higher. The sun comes up behind the rider. Let the old thing go and you make room for the next.
DeathReversed
The change gets stuck. Waite's words: inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism, hope destroyed. You know it's over and you can't move.
You might be sleepwalking through a life that doesn't fit anymore. The ending still comes, slower and heavier if you fight it. Take one small step away from what's already gone.
Yes or noNo.
No, not the way you hoped. Something's ending and it won't come back. A new answer comes after you let go.
Death in your lifeIn your life
Love
A chapter ends: a breakup, or an old pattern ending inside a relationship that goes on. Drop what doesn't work.
Work
A job, role or project ends. It may hurt. It clears room for something that fits you better.
Money
An old income or spending habit ends. Make a new plan.
Health
This card doesn't predict anyone's death, and it can't diagnose you; if something worries you, see a doctor. It may point to dropping an old habit.
Spirituality
Deep transformation. Waite describes a mystical death: your consciousness changing while you're still alive.
Advice
Let it end. Grieve, then turn toward the sunrise.
As a person
Someone in the middle of a big change, or bringing one. Intense, honest, hard to stop.
Past, present, future
Past: an ending that changed your life. Present: something's closing; let it go. Future: a clean break and a new start.
Written by us, from Waite's meanings and the picture.
Symbols and correspondencesAt a glance
- Number
- XIII
- Hebrew letter
- Nun
- Astrology
- Scorpio
- Element
- Water
- Upright
- End
- Reversed
- Inertia
QuestionsCommon questions
Rarely the way people fear. Waite lists end and destruction, and also change, transformation, passage to something higher. An ending opens the way.
An ending or a deep change: a breakup, or an old pattern dying so the relationship can start again.
No, not to the old situation. Something's ending.
Waite calls it the Mystic Rose, a sign of life, flying on Death's black banner.
Scorpio, a water sign, in the Golden Dawn system. Its Hebrew letter is Nun.
Waite's Death is life going on through change and transformation, from lower to higher. Behind the slow rider, the sun of immortality rises.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911Card meanings and quotes: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911. Hebrew letter, sign and element: the Golden Dawn's Book T. Colours, life situations, yes or no and questions: written by us, from Waite's meanings and the picture.
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