Certain tarot cards are guaranteed to show up in books, movies, and TV shows that have a tarot card reading scene. These cards are Death, the Devil, and the Tower. More often than not, they are used to foretell the coming of evil, physical death, and destruction respectively.
Not only is this an overused cliché that, quite frankly, I’m tired of seeing, it doesn’t convey the unique ability of these major arcana cards to teach important life lessons.
I want to dispel these inaccuracies and explain why you don’t need to be afraid if one or more of them should appear in your tarot card reading.
Death
The Death card shows a skeletal figure arrayed in black armor, mounted on a white steed. He holds a pennant in his left hand that depicts a white flower against a black background. The steed is stepping over a King and moving toward a child, a woman and the Pope himself. In the background, the sun appears to be rising behind two towers.
The message? No one escapes death, no matter how noble or anointed, but dawn always follows darkness.
There’s a lot more going on in this card (e.g. the graveyard on the shore of a river; the boat sailing down the river; the cliffs on the other side of the river), but the card’s main symbolism is all about the inevitability of death and the rebirth that occurs afterwards.
The death this card represents, however, does not have to be physical death and usually doesn’t. It’s letting you know that something in your life needs to “die” in order for something new to emerge. You can delay this death but you can’t stop it, so you might as well cooperate with it and let go of whatever no longer serves you.
Death is an integral part of life and shouldn’t be feared (easier said than done, right?) We have simply to look at nature to discover this natural cycle of life — from the new sprout that emerges in the spring, to its flowering over the summer, followed by the release of petals in the fall and its death during winter, only to re-emerge in the spring.
The Devil
This is definitely a scary card if you don’t understand what it symbolizes. It’s also the reason some people believe the tarot to be evil or the work of the devil. It shows a grotesque figure sporting wings and horns. The upper half of his body is human while the lower half consists of furred legs and clawed feet. He’s perched atop a black pillar to which are chained a nude man and woman.
Remember that the Christian devil used to be an angel, but was cast out of heaven. In this card, he represents the absence of a spiritual foundation and total focus on the earthly plane. When you have no spiritual foundation, you look to the physical world for support and love. This can often lead to addictive and/or abusive relationships with people or even substances.
The Devil is a reminder that the relationship isn’t healthy and needs to be changed or abandoned in favor of one that’s based on love and compassion toward self and others.
The Tower
The Tower depicts a burning structure being struck by lightning and two people tumbling to the ground. The base of the Tower is cracked and crumbling. The crown that was once perched on top has been flung away, along with the two people headed for the ground.
It’s a pretty destructive scene and may very well represent some kind of physical destruction. However, symbolically, it represents the existence of a weak foundation or structure in your life – a set of circumstances or even a mindset – that can no longer support you. It’s time for needed change, but you’ve been resisting it, even though, on some level, you know it’s necessary. As a result, circumstances arrange themselves to force the change, and it feels like a rug being pulled out from under your feet. And the longer you resist, the worse the destruction can get.
On the upside, when the old structures are released, new ideas, points of view, and circumstances emerge that would not have been possible because those old structures kept you from seeing them. You’re surprised and delighted and realize that things aren’t as bad as you once thought they were. It’s been a difficult journey, but it will pass, and the more you cooperate with this change, the quicker that passage will be.
Not So Scary After All
The primary message of these cards is to let go of what no longer serves you so that you can move forward toward a new life of promise and opportunity.
If they should come up in your reading, let it be an opportunity to discover what needs to change and how this change will benefit you in the long run.