DEATH

A skeleton in armor rides a white horse that tramples over a fallen king and draws near to a child and a woman, who turn from him in dread.
The standing figure is a bishop in a miter shaped like a fish — denoting the Piscean Age (which is about to end).

Death carries a banner on which there is a fivepetaled rose, symbol of Mars and the Life-force.

The river in the background indicates the constant circulation of the Life-force into materialization and out again. The water, as it flows to the sea, is sucked up by the sun to form clouds, from which rain falls into the streams and then to the river again.

The sun on the eastern horizon indicates immortality — once the two towers (which we meet again in Key 18) have been passed.

The fundamental meaning of Death in Key 13 (Card XIII) is that of the Manifestor of the Universe. The sun is the center and the 12 signs of the Zodiac surround it, making 13 signs in all.

The king has fallen, reminding us that kings must inevitably fall. There is perpetual transformation, one aspect of which is death-birth.
Death is a protest against stagnation — it is by death that social changes for the better come to pass and old ideas give way. With the new generation, new ideas gain currency as youth moves into maturity.

This card is a suggestion to change old concepts for new, to change rigid intellectual patterns.
Petty prejudices, ambitions, and opinions gradually die.

The change from the personal to the universal view is so radical that mystics often compare it to death.
But Death is the twin brother of Life. Creation necessitates its opposite—destruction. As Spirit descends into matter, so it must return to its source.

Death is half of the Universal Transforming Principle. But Spirit is immortal; thus humanity can never die, for the Destroyer has become the Creator.

Divinatory Meaning:
Transformation, change, destruction followed by renewal. The change may be in consciousness. Birth of new ideas, new opportunities.

Reversed:
Disaster, political upheaval, revolution, anarchy. Death of a political figure. Temporary stagnation. Tendency to inertia.

Dascent Deck