Why is the Death Card in the Tarot So Scary?

When some people approach me about a reading, some of them say, "Oh, I'm so scared. Don't tell me if I'm going to die." or "What if I get the Death card?" I quickly reassure them, saying that if the Death card actually predicted physical death, I personally would have died a long time ago since I have received it many times in my life. In fact, when I had cancer some years back, it appeared regularly. So even though I said I didn't predict Death, don't think it wasn't a little scary for me then also. As it turned out, it did not indicate my eventual demise, but instead heralded a huge and welcomed change.

In truth, the Death card is a card of difficult transformation. There are other cards in the Tarot that signal an easier change in consciousness that one experiences as part of the flow of their lives. For instance, the Wheel of Fortune, Temperance, Chariot, etc. The Death card usually reflects the possibility of letting go of something painful in one's life: perhaps an attachment that needs to drop, an addiction to be faced, a relationship to be let go of. I find it personally helpful when I am struggling with something that I receive the Death card. I have come to know that it is time to radically change or drop something in my life that I have perhaps considered part of my identity. That's how important the Death card is.

If you use the Rider-Waite deck, and look closely at the Death card, you will see that there is light arising in the midst of the darkness. Life is not oppositional, black and white. The polarity of darkness arising out of light and light arising out of darkness is one of the spiritual truths revealed by the tarot, and a good reader who has done their spiritual homework knows this to be true of all the challenging cards in the deck. When we receive those cards, they speak of an opportunity to change our character for the better, and I always say that if one receives the truly challenging cards, it is because they now have the strength and the will to overcome and best the challenge. A good reader will always convey hope and the possibility of better times in the midst of despair, not because they want you to feel better, but because it is truly one of the spiritual truths within the Tarot.

Lastly, it has been my experience, having worked with many people who were dying, that when those people asked for a reading, they never received the Death card. I sometimes get personally afraid myself that they will and have thought of removing the card, but I never did that. The remarkable thing in all those readings is that not one of them received the Death card. I can only attribute this to the fact that they are not to think of Death but to think of their life now.

No one has yet asked me to ask the cards if their death were imminent. But I think that if somebody were a truly mature and deeply spiritual person and I felt that death was not frightening to them, I might consider facilitating the reading of the cards for that purpose. So far nobody has. As it is, it is not my intention to predict Death and intention with the cards plays a large part. In actuality, very few psychics can predict Death or the future. They are very special, those people, and I admire them for their being able to live with such a burden.

Lastly, in a true spiritual journey one is always confronting the death of their ego. After I let go of some limiting perspective or attachment, I think, what was I holding onto? It feels so much better to be free. And that ultimately is the meaning of the Death card, freeing ourselves of that small self that hides the Self we long for.