According to author, Tarot reader, and Witchy Wellness founder Leah Vanderveldt, you may think the death card symbolizes a more metaphorical death. “It’s a card of great change, transformation and, yes, endings,” she says. “It’s a big chunk in the process of personal evolution, in which we release old patterns. It’s a shedding of skin (i.e. your ego), to become a new version of you. -same.”
Death represents the loss necessary to keep moving forward on one’s path, notes Vanderveldt. “There is a sense of grief present, as well as a fear of the unknown that is hard to come to terms with in the moment, but if you can hold on there is a new beginning on the other. side.”
Other cards in the tarot deck carry a similar message, adds Vanderveldt, explaining that the 10 of Swords is like a mini death card: “This card says: it’s time to do it differently. Once you decide to drop a damaging negative thought loop, you can start a new path.”
Additionally, the cards on either side of Death, Hangman (XII) and Temperance (XIV), are also part of the “death journey”, in which we prepare for an end by letting go and releasing fears. of judgment (the hanged man), then go through a rebirth by transmuting our past pains (Temperance).