Lunara · Tarot Card Meanings · Death
Death Tarot Card Meaning
Death is card XIII of the Major Arcana. Upright it speaks of transformation, endings, release; reversed, of resistance to change, stagnation. Below — the original 1911 meaning by A. E. Waite, the card's Jungian archetype and its astrological correspondence.
Major ArcanaWaterScorpio
Upright meaning
“End, mortality, destruction, corruption; also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor; for a woman, many contrarieties; for a maid, failure of marriage projects”
A. E. WAITE — THE PICTORIAL KEY TO THE TAROT, 1911
Keywords: transformation, endings, release, metamorphosis, new beginnings.
Reversed meaning
“Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism; hope destroyed”
A. E. WAITE — THE PICTORIAL KEY TO THE TAROT, 1911
Keywords: resistance to change, stagnation, holding on.
The archetype
The death–rebirth archetype — the necessary ending that makes transformation possible; the nigredo.
Astrology
Correspondence: Scorpio.
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