Tarot Insight I: Death & The World

🎲 Dice Roll: 1

✨ Character Card: XIII Death

🌐 Situation Card: XXI The World

“You are undergoing a final transformative process and entering a new stage of development. Something amazing or fascinating is heading your way. A trip has been canceled or adjusted. Death is peaceful (if it is a question of Death).”

That is a general divinatory description of the two cards appearing together in a spread. Of course, it’s only a small portion of a much larger field of possibilities.

In the story, Death is one of the aspects of an essential character. It signifies his transformative nature and his relationship to the actual ending of life. In the scene for which the cards are drawn, he enters a new realm to carry out his purpose.

When you pull two Major Arcana cards—especially ones as significant as Death and The World—it may seem they must indicate something extraordinary, shocking, illuminating, or otherwise life-altering. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, they simply remind the reader that transformation is happening now, and that it is essential to the journey, even if it doesn’t feel dramatic.

To explore the relevance of these two cards in your own life, you may try the following:

♦  Place the two cards in front of you. Look at them for a moment.

♦  Close your eyes and take three deep breaths using this rhythm: 

• Inhale: 1–2–3–4–5–6

• Exhale: 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12

♦  If images, ideas, or words appear, write them down. Don’t worry about breaking concentration—recording is part of the process.

♦ Death

• Visualize the Death card in your mind’s eye.

• What images, thoughts, or sensations arise?

• Keep breathing slowly.

• Lift your hands (palms facing forward) and speak the first word that enters your mind.

• Hold your hands there until you feel it’s time to lower them.

♦ The World

• Visualize The World card.

• Again, observe what arises.

• Stretch your arms out to the sides at shoulder height, palms facing down—like wings.

• Speak the word or phrase that comes.

• Hold the posture until it feels complete.