The Death Card: Tarot Arcana for July 2022
The Death Card is represented by a skeleton that seems to sail, in a sea of bodies, but it does not represent physical death as much as transformation.
The Death Card: The Arcana of Transformation
Death is something that scares all of us humans. Perhaps it is something that cannot be avoided and brings us negative feelings of sadness and endings.
In the Tarot, this major arcana has a different meaning than we know. The Death Card is a positive card, which does not indicate physical Death, but changes, renewal, and rebirth.
If this Card comes out during your Tarot consultation, be prepared, as your life will undergo a giant transformation.
The Death Card: Fundamentals
In the Tarot, the Death card is represented by the number 13 and is part of the major arcana. Marked by transformations, this Card has a positive meaning when studying its archetype.
Representative of changes, Death is a necessary detachment from the past so that the present and the future undergo renewals and rebirth. However, before we know more about its meaning, we must know its history and symbolism.
The Story behind the Arcana
The figure of Death has been represented for years in the most diverse forms, but one thing is shared among all of them: when Death appears, it brings the end of a cycle and drastic changes in the scenario or in a person’s life.
Van Rijnberk, the author of the book Le tarot – Histoire iconographie ésotérisme (French, The Tarot – history, iconography, esoterism), studied the separate parts of the Death card and linked the number 13, which represents the Card, with a saying very popular in the Middle Ages: “When 13 people sit at the table, one of them will soon die”.
This saying, which has become superstition, goes back a long time, starting with the emperors and including the painting Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, in which 12 disciples sat with Jesus, and one of them killed him, proving that the saying also had Christian influences.
For this reason, in the Tarot, Death is much more than just the end of something. On the contrary, in the Tarot, the Card is the messenger of good, necessary, and even revolutionary things.
Iconography
The Death card is represented by a skeleton covered in a skin type and seems to sail, using its sickle as a paddle, in a sea of bodies.
For those who start in Esoteric Studies or even those who seek to consult with the Tarot, this Card frightens the way it was designed. But remember that what matters is its message. According to its symbols, Death means great transmutations and rebirth. It shows that it is necessary to end what is gone, to have something new. Be it the past or some moment in your life.
The number 13, analyzed symbolically, represents the unit after the duodecimal. The number 12 is the ten that occurs right after the end of a cycle. We have 12 hands on the clock that complete a 60-minute cycle. We have 12 disciples, 12 signs, and 12 months.
The number 13 represents the necessary Death of something for a rebirth to occur and a new cycle to begin, and this number perfectly represents Death.
The Death card is related to the Scorpio zodiac sign. Considered the most feared combination in the Zodiac Tarot, Death + Scorpio is a powerful duo. These two give a new meaning to the word change, in which one increases the strength of the other so that everything goes well.
Death presents the circumstance, and Scorpio teaches how to accept it. One shows that it is necessary to leave it behind, and the other shows what the feeling of freedom is like. It is from this constant change that rebirth takes place, and everything is renewed.
The Meanings of this Major Arcana
There are several meanings linked to the Death card. Most of the time, the meanings change according to the cards that come out during your reading.
Death and these meanings are far from being about real Death. Nevertheless, here are some of its meanings.
Sudden changes
When we let go of the negative view of the image itself, the Death card comes to mean life, rebirth, that moment when we realize that the old needs to go away to make way for the new. In this line of thinking are sudden life changes. Of course, we are not always ready, or we like changes, but they need to happen so that we can evolve as a person.
This process of detachment can be painful because we are attached to what has been, but if you analyze, you will realize that perhaps the old is more harmful than a promising future. Therefore, accept the change and understand that this process is necessary.
Creation and Destruction
For a rebirth to occur, something must be destroyed and re-created with a new vision, more maturely, and ready to start the new cycle. So it is with the Death card. The destruction here does not mean Death or the loss of someone. The destruction is linked to the end of a cycle, the past we must leave behind. It can be painful, but it is necessary.
Therefore, creation and destruction are part of the process of rebirth and the release of yourself, ready for a new journey.
End of cycles
After the process of destroying the painful moment of saying goodbye to something that often, despite your love or having an emotional attachment, does you more harm than good, you complete this phase of life and end the cycle.
We, as changeable people, go through different cycle ends throughout our lives. Whenever we are ready to mature, to start a new journey, or when we learn the lesson of that cycle, we show that we have finished a stage and now we are ready to move on, ready for a new cycle.
And as much as we don’t know the time of the end of the cycle, we can feel when that change is about to come. So even if we don’t want to, we feel the moment to organize our thoughts and move on.
Spiritual and Transcendental Vision
The spiritual and metaphysical vision perfectly translates the meaning of the Death card. This view proves that Card is not seen as something painful or tragic but as a passage of the cycle positively.
Taking the meaning of real Death to the spiritual world, we have Death as a way of passing through the limits of life. Self-knowledge, a process we develop throughout life, helps us transcend the barriers that hold us back and reach a new cycle.
The Death card represents the liberation of our being from material things, even sentimental things, that hold us and prevent our maturation. Let what doesn’t add you “die” so that what completes you can be born.
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About the Author
Creatrix from Sirius. Fairly Odd Mother of Saints (Bernards). Fish Tank aficionado by day ninja by night. Liane is also the Editor-in-Chief of OMTimes Magazine and Ministry Earth Magazine, Co-Founder of Humanity Healing International and Humanity Healing Network, and Board Member of Saint Lazarus Relief Fund.
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