Death

✦ END; EVOLUTION; CHANGE; MORTALITY

✦ Description

A hooded man stands before a large and mysterious gate. His posture is strong but passive. As the gatekeeper between worlds, he holds a great key. As the ferryman for those whose time has elapsed, he clutches a skull. The figure stands above an endless field of blood: the stuff of both life and death.

✦ Symbolism in Tarot

In tarot, the Death card is commonly taught as a synonym for change, the end of one chapter and the beginning of another, rather than physical death. It can indicate the end of a relationship or project, and while experiences, mindsets, and settings are likely to come and pass more often than permanent death, it is inevitable that the fundamental fear in life must be addressed.

✦ Mystery and Speculation

Death is the shroud behind which nothing earthly can reliably see, whether a result of inability or impossibility and is an enduring topic of mythology and speculation.

✦ Glimpses of the Unknown

Glimpses and flashes are purported, as depicted here. The quintessential gate to the unknown is adorned with two figures on either side: a great wolf to the left and an armed man to the right, agents in the Norse story of Ragnarok, a world-ending event that gives rise to a new beginning.

✦ Additional Artwork

At the entrance of the gate are the writings of the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 76. Written in 600 BCE, it is the foundational text for Taoism.

✦ Lao Tzu's Explanation

In this entry, the writer Lao Tzu explains: 'Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered.' He likens life to flexibility and death to rigidness. If a being is to truly live, it must be willing to grow, change, and experience. To cease these activities is to invite true death.