You Think it’s the End, but it’s Really the Beginning

(Examing new beginnings with the Death card in the Tarot)

When newbies to the Tarot come across the Death card, I can see how it might be a bit off-putting. So here comes Mr. Death strutting in on a white horse standing over a dead public figure, holding some strange, black flag with a white, 5 pointed rose on it.

Then there’s a pope feeding the horse water, as if he is responsible for keeping death or change alive. There’s also a little girl sitting on the ground next to a standing bishop, both begging for death not to devour them. Creepy stuff right?

Not necessarily.

The card isn’t about death in a literal sense, even though death is a part of life that we all have to face. It’s more about the ending of things.

But an end is also a new beginning.

Let me first break down the meaning of the symbols on the card.

One one hand it is believed that the 5 points of the rose represent the 4 elements plus spirit. But there is a historic meaning behind the flag, too. It’s centered around what’s called the “War of the Roses”.

During the 15th century a war between two branches of the House of Plantagenet broke out in England. Those rivals were the Lancaster and the York branches. It was this whole, big war of economics and feudalism that killed off two, whole male family lines of the rivalry.

So the Tudor family took over the Lancaster branch. And eventually the Tudors and the Yorks merged in union, creating a new beginning and a new dynasty. So even though there was a lot of bloodshed that ensued from the war, eventually the rivalry ended and new union was set forth.

Behind the symbolic morbid scene is a water fall that seems to have broken through a damn, symbolizing some freely flowing emotions unhindered by any boundaries, which represents mourning.

Some endings don’t always feel so good. Some endings are based around heartbreak, literal death, job loss, and the kind of change that’s hard to accept. But not even death is an ultimate end.

Change is the only constant thing we have to count on, well besides the fundamental vibration of love (though that’s another…