My Tangle with the Tarot Death Card
Alright, let’s get into it. The Death card in Tarot. Sounds heavy, right? I remember the first few times I pulled this one, maybe years back now. Yeah, it gave me a jolt. You see that skeleton on a horse, people looking all sorts of upset, and your mind jumps places.
My initial reaction was pretty standard, I guess. A bit of a knot in my stomach. Thinking, “Oh great, what bad thing is coming?” It’s easy to fall into that trap, especially when you’re starting out or just doing a quick read without really settling into it.
But here’s what I actually did next.
Instead of just freaking out or shuffling it back into the deck real quick, I decided to just sit with it. I mean, really look at it. I put the card down in front of me where I could see it while I was having my morning coffee for a few days.
- I looked past the scary skeleton.
- I noticed the flag he carries – it’s got a symbol on it, like a rose or something, doesn’t look totally negative.
- I saw the sun rising in the background. That’s usually a good sign, right? A new day.
- There’s a bishop, a child, a maiden… seemed like it affects everyone, no matter who they are.
Connecting it to Real Life Stuff
So, I stopped thinking about literal death. That wasn’t what was happening around me anyway. Instead, I started thinking about endings. What was actually ending for me at that time?
I remember one period distinctly. I pulled the Death card when I was really dragging my feet about leaving a job. It wasn’t terrible, but it was draining me, going nowhere. Seeing the card didn’t feel like a threat then. It felt more like… a confirmation. Like the cards were saying, “Yeah, you know this chapter needs to close. It’s time.”
I didn’t just quit the next day, mind you. But seeing that card repeatedly in my personal readings around that time pushed me. It was the nudge I needed to finally say, “Okay, this has to end so something else can start.”
It wasn’t about doom; it was about necessity.
Another time, it came up when I was trying to ditch a really bad habit. Something I’d been doing for years that wasn’t serving me. Again, that card popped up. And again, it felt less like a warning and more like, “This part of you, this habit? It’s time for it to die off.” It meant I had to actively kill that habit, clear it out.
What I Learned From Living With It
So, after actually going through these cycles – seeing the card, seeing an ending happen (whether I chose it or it just happened), and then seeing what came after – my view totally shifted.
It’s about clearing the way. You can’t plant a new garden until you clear out the weeds and dead plants from last season. That’s the Death card for me now. It’s the cleanup crew. It’s the signal that a space is being made.
Yeah, endings can be tough. They can be sad or uncomfortable. The card doesn’t ignore that. Look at the people on the ground! But the key thing I grabbed onto, from just watching life after pulling it, was that the ending leads to that sunrise in the background. It’s not just The End, full stop. It’s The End of this thing, so that new thing can get going.
Now? When I pull the Death card, I take a breath and think, “Okay, what needs clearing out? What cycle is completing?” It feels more like a tool for recognizing necessary change than some kind of awful prediction. It’s one of the most practical cards in the deck, honestly, once you get past the spooky name.
