Death

UPRIGHT

Death rides his pale horse beneath the rising sun, the black banner of the white rose lifted against the sky. He is not the end of life but the end of a form of it — the transformation that requires the old shape to be put down before the new can come up. Bishop and child alike stand in his road; he is impartial, and he is on time.

REVERSED

Reversed, Death is the change resisted — the relationship, identity, or era the querent cannot bring themselves to release even after it has plainly ended. The card does not promise the avoidance of death; it names the suffering that comes from refusing the death that has already occurred. The horseman waits as long as needed, but he does not turn around.

Return to the full deck, or draw the cards and see Death in context.