The Death card is one of the most feared cards… by tarot readers, and they try to dissemble when it appears in a reading, and say, “it doesn’t always mean death, it means change”.
The problem is that the way Tarot is generally taught is all about the meanings of the cards, there is an obsession that is entirely unhealthy, so that when Tarot readers have problems remembering the divinatory meanings, they worry, thinking that something is wrong with them. Unfortunately, remembering the primary meaning of the Death card is rarely a problem.
We all have issues with death – where we go when we die; do we get punished or rewarded? Maybe we saw someone close to us die in a painful way. Divorcing ourselves from these perceptions and experiences is not easy.
As if that was bad enough, the Tarot community has seriously shot itself in the foot with its fondness for one particular kind of spread, the Celtic Cross spread. Why is that a problem? When the Death card appears in a Celtic Cross reading, the Tarot reader will try to smoosh over it in an attempt to reduce its significance. Oh the illogicality of it all. Why? By definition the Celtic Cross spread (and other positional spreads) seek to increase the significance of the cards by only using the first ten cards off the top of the deck – all the other cards are ignored. If the Death card is in the top ten it is very significant, while if it is in the the ignored, covered up, and hidden other 68 cards, then it has no significance.
The same applies to any card, such as the Tower, 9 and 10 of Swords, 10 of Wands, etc that is awkward for the tarot reader.
There is also a problem with the so-called positive cards – let’s say that the Empress and the Lovers appear in the Celtic Cross spread – what a wonderful combination! A fruitful relationship… with the distinct possibility that there will be a baby soon! But what if the client was a mother desperately worried about her under-age daughter’s relationship with an older man?
No wonder so many tarot readers lack confidence – they leave themselves in the permanent quandry of desperately trying to find significance in the divinatory meanings and then having to backtrack when the difficult cards turn up.
Do I have this problem? Nope! I use the Opening of the Key spread, which utilizes all 78 cards – the Death card will always appear somewhere, and I have the luxury of looking at the context of that card in relationship to the cards around it. In the Celtic Cross spread, it is easy for the client to see that tricky card in all its glory, while in the Opening of the Key spread, unless it is on the top of any of the four piles, it is tucked away, and the client may not even notice it. As a Tarot reader, I have the choice, I have the luxury, I have the option of drawing attention to the Death card, on my terms.
Try doing that with the Celtic Cross spread.