“The falling leaf honours a season that has ended.”
Tarot Encyclopedia
Death
“Acknowledge what is passing without rushing your goodbye. Make room for the person you are becoming.”
Upright keywords
- Endings
- change
- transformation
- transition
Reversed keywords
- Resistance to change
- personal transformation
- inner purging
Summary
Death points to endings, change, transformation, and transition.
Upright meaning
Upright, Death highlights endings, change, transformation, and transition.
Reversed meaning
Reversed, Death can indicate resistance to change, personal transformation, and inner purging.
Symbolism at a glance
Endings
change
transformation
transition
Reflection questions
- Where is endings, and change showing up for me now?
- What would help me work with resistance to change, and personal transformation?
Visual description
rendered in the same hand-coloured woodcut style, with stark black linework on warm parchment and muted greens and browns that keep the mood earthy and inevitable. A marching skeleton dominates the scene, gripping a long scythe whose curved blade arcs overhead, its motion steady and unhurried as it strides across a rough field dotted with tufts of grass and small sprouting plants. Near its feet lies a fallen human head as a blunt emblem of endings, while the background stays simple and symbolic—a lone rounded tree, rolling green ground, and a distant hill beneath the textured sky—emphasizing transition rather than spectacle. Traditionally this card is associated with Scorpio and Pluto, pointing to transformation, release, and renewal after what must be let go.