When Death appears in a tarot reading things suddenly get very serious. The querent’s warm, happy feelings about having someone tell him all about himself vanish and dread settles in. He reaches out and touches the card. “This doesn’t look good,” he says. The reader swoops in with the comforting words, “This card doesn’t actually mean death, it means transformation.” About thirty years ago, Death appeared as a future card in a friend’s reading. I reassured him that the card “just” meant that he would experience a life-altering transformation. A week later his father died. But this is the only time in all my years of reading tarot that Death has actually predicted a physical death—at least to my knowledge. I have no way of knowing what happened to the strangers I’ve read for who pulled Death. This is one reason I really like reading for people I don’t know. So, if it almost always signifies transformation and not physical death, why not call the… Read More »