TAROT - DEATH

 

Hello Everyone!

I have now posted card number 12 which was the Hanged Man and Im going right ahead to follow up with the DEATH card which is card number 13. 

All the cards that I have interpreted from a psychological point of view are on this link below so please do visit and check back as I go through the Major Arcana.

TAROT - THE JOURNEY OF LIFE - EXPLORATORY

Well now....the Death Card, who actually likes this card when it shows up? not many! most readers will tell you 'not to worry as it does not mean Death' - well it actually can...but it would depend very much on the rest of a spread as to whether it was a physical death or not.  Death however DOES represent the END OF SOMETHING.   When something ENDS - whatever that is - its pretty much obvious that there is a transition into something else or the next 'thing/step/stage' etc.  Therefore, the most popular way of describing the attributes of the Death card is to simply suggest that this card is all about TRANSITION. 

Oh well...I kind of sigh.  This is not the easiest of cards to nutshell.  Look for example at the detail on it.   What can you see?  a kind of armoured Knight on a horse with a flag.  Under the horses feet  an amount of debris, bodies too. If you look closely there is even a KING lying there and his crown is flung away from him and there is someone kneeling very forlorn in a white gown and a child in front and what appears to be a BISHOP.  What a scene!!  its almost depressing. It is also pretty much to the point about how BRUTAL it comes across. For example, this card is number 13 and if you add those numbers together you come to 4.  The Emperor is card 4. If we look at the Death card again we have a KING/EMPEROR who is beneath the horse and his crown removed on the floor as I mentioned previously and it is a way of suggesting that IT DOESNT MATTER WHO YOU ARE.....Death doesnt care.  NOTHING stops Death and NOTHING gets in its way.  So its pretty much obvious that this card means business. It is ruled by Scorpio and  Aries in other words  PLUTO and MARS.  I have not gone into all the astrological elements in any of the cards but of course they do exist. Mars /Aries is really like a Machete in a forest... and Pluto/Scorpio - Hades, unfathomable waters and peculiarities all come to mind.   Death cuts down everything in its way in random ways, sometimes in ways that cannot be explained.  

It seems almost incredible to suggest that Death can be a 'good card'.  I really could suggest that its easy to sound slightly psychotic trying to write honestly about this card.  Basically, it takes away what no longer SERVES a person/situation and it obviously throws a new light on everything by doing that. Whether or not it is a physical death which obviously if coupled with other cards would change a persons life or those attached to that person, even in the other forms of 'death' endings etc we all know that something else comes into view.   This card is trying to suggest that something ELSE DOES come into view and it is a NEW PROSPECTIVE.  That, the Death card will ELIMINATE whatever has gone before whether its just a situation or REGARDLESS of what it is that it tramps all over and changes, it brings NEWNESS.  This is why there is a LIGHT by the Bishop /Priest you see there.   It is to me symbolic of HAVING FAITH THAT THINGS ARE DONE FOR A REASON.   Yes it is not always welcome. Look at that child and that woman, they are aghast and looking on at the likely INVINCIBLE Emperor or King and wondering how on EARTH that person can possibly be cut down like that.....but to Death itself, there is an inevitable likelihood that EVERYTHING gets cut down . It doesnt matter who or what.....when change comes IT COMES. Nothing can stop that.  The horse will plough through - the rider is in armour ...it is a TOUGH LESSON...the past is being obliterated - history is being changed...and one is walking towards the light of a new 'era'.  hence transition and transformation.

Notice that the horse is WHITE.   You would think that perhaps the horse should be BLACK just like that Flag just like most of the impression of this card but no...the horse is white.  A beautiful white horse in fact.    The horse is simply the transportation - it is not a foe.   The Whiteness to me suggests almost a kind of 'afterlife' or apparition or some kind of 'otherness'.   You see how words can fail ? the horse to me is almost ethreal - I see no bad in the horse. I see no bad in the card - its almost like some things have to be changed because it makes way for something else . Maybe one cannot promise its something BETTER..only that the previous situation HAD to come to a close and this card shows NO MERCY AT ALL. This is why you see the bodies underfoot even a KING/EMPEROR.   There is NO STOPPING THIS CYCLE.   It MUST happen for change to renew...for all to renew, for a new situation, new cycle, new life, new circumstances and its no good clinging to WHAT WAS....so there is actually NO CHOICE in this card either.  Its WHAT IT IS....it is going to plough through and take down whatever is in the way for good or bad and create a new landscape ahead...

Is this a good card or bad?   well...I guess there has to be a question doesnt there?  and that would be WHAT WAS THE SITUATION - did something HAVE TO CHANGE....Who is to say if the future is better or worse?   there are no promises here on a single card except to say that the cycle moves ON it goes ON - forward - >>>>> but in doing so changes what was as it goes forward.    I feel that Transition and Reformation and Transformation are all good words for this card but also I feel the biggest message is NO MERCY.  There is a FINALITY HERE regardless.  We do have to recognise that lives can be changed forever, as well as situations when we get this card.   It an be MAJOR metamorphosis or it an be minor but overall we know that something is NEVER going to be the same again.    We have no choice but to move with the scythe that is felling everything around us....

Imagine living in a town somewhere that has a huge history , or village or somewhere familiar and then huge swathes of land are sold to build hundreds of houses.   Imagine the impact that has on people who have been brought up in that area - perhaps have generations of a family that have all shared different times of history and remember little things that used to happen and re -tell the stories ? People love the tradition and the heritage and the way things are done.....so when there is a sweeping change threatened IMAGINE how that affects people....it is not a physical death to change the landscape but it is a DEATH OF THE OLD WAY OF LIFE.....the lovely old fields that might have been Father Browns turnip crop or where the children all used to go and play down by the stream - and then one day a big BULLDOZER comes along and starts to clear the ground to make foundations for houses.     The old views, sights, way of life , would have gone.    There would be something NEW to contend with.  Of course it will give people a HOME - perhaps people who need it even, so the change was necessary and brutal and seemingly UNKIND BUT, in the long term the LIGHT in the card could be interpreted as a bright new beginning of a new community or extended community that itself will eventually GROW and MATURE and itself become part of what was BUT as it eliminates what was PREVIOUSLY the accepted norm - a situation like this would perfectly pinpoint the brutality , swiftness and clinical nature of the Death card.     One cannot say its for BAD as there could be so much good involved and one cannot say it is GOOD for the new community may be full of those who reject the previous history of the place as they wish to establish their new community presence.     As a quick edit here, as I was reading through I thought with this scenario in mind, one could think of the Bishop as being the local MP or Spokesman who is assuring people that this is the way to PROGRESS ...Im sure that you will see the truth but the irony in that ....again, a great example of putting forward some kind of idea of the Death Card. Its so easy to imagine someone saying 'ah yes its all progress, its all going to be wonderful blah blah....' and the local people say ' yes but what about the conservation of our hedgerows or what about the fact that 'Mr Important person' was born in that house over there' ...but Mr MP will say 'ah yes but that land is going to give 20 families a home......'

History does not have a place with the DEATH card. It doesnt represent the past or the future not really.....it just represents a tornado that passes through....its almost a freak of nature - it defies everything....its just 'the inevitable' yet sometimes is unexpected.....

So you see its a HARD CARD.   

When it appears though, its wise to ACCEPT that something is going to change.   It is as simple as that.  It will be whether or not you can face that change with good grace...or whether you will lament and anguish over it ...either way ...it doesnt matter HOW you accept that change...the  ultimate outcome is that IT WILL HAPPEN, ITS GOING TO HAPPEN AND YOU BETTER GET USED TO IT. 

Welcome the Death card with an open mind.  It is not going to give you a choice. 

Please join me next time for TEMPERANCE card number 14 but meanwhile do check my link below to read my other interpretations and remember that when I have more time I will add more information .

TAROT - THE JOURNEY OF LIFE - EXPLORATORY

Join me soon . 

Empathy.