1. Tarot
2. Card meanings
3. Death

Major Arcana · XIII

Death

• change
• transformation
• passage from lower to higher

Upright meaning

Change and transformation. Waite reads the card as passage from lower to higher, not a literal ending of life: one chapter closing so another can open.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, Waite gives inertia, sleep and lethargy: change resisted or postponed. A prompt to notice what is ready to be let go.

• inertia
• sleep
• lethargy

Symbolism

A horseman moves slowly, bearing a black banner with a white rose, which Waite says signifies life; a sun rises between two towers.

Group

Major Arcana

Element, astrology

Not given by Waite, so we give none

Source

Our own plain-English summary of A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1911), Part II §2 (symbolism); Part III §3 (divinatory meanings). The keywords are Waite’s own words. Waite’s fortune-telling lists also contain harsher terms; we keep to the reflective readings he gives and never state an event as certain.

Tarot is a tool for reflection, not a prediction of fixed outcomes. This is not medical, legal or financial advice.