Major Arcana · XIII
Death — tarot meaning
ending, transformation, clearing
Upright
An ending that clears the ground. Nothing to fear — what falls away makes room for what cannot yet be named.
Reversed
Refused endings — holding shut a door that is already open.
In the Papus Tarot, 1909
L'Arcane sans Nom — The Nameless Arcanum · Hebrew letter מ Mem
Papus: transformation, the passage from one plane to another, never annihilation. Martinists hold that nothing is destroyed, only reintegrated.
In the Oswald Wirth Tarot, 1889
La Mort — Death · Hebrew letter מ Mem
Wirth reads XIII as passage, never annihilation: the field is not destroyed but harvested, and the same soil is being prepared again.
Shown from the 1909 William Rider & Sons deck (public domain). A card is read in relation to the question and the cards around it; these meanings are a starting point, not a verdict.