Death: tarot meaning, upright and reversed

An armoured skeleton rides past figures of different ranks toward a distant rising sun.

Upright

ending · transition

Recognise an ending that changes the shape of life. Something must be released for what follows.

Reversed

clinging · prolonged ending

Resistance can extend a conclusion that has already begun; identify what remains unfinished.

In a reading

The position gives this card a particular task: a description of the situation, a challenge, or guidance. Read its image and meaning alongside the other cards and the question that brought them together.

Golden Dawn correspondence

Zodiac sign: Scorpio. This is the attribution in Book T.

Sources

A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. These notes are original interpretations of the Waite–Smith imagery, informed by that text.