Day 4 of the Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun Tarot Challenge

Or, what the Death card teaches us about alchemy

Spooky season is incomplete without today’s symbol: the skeleton. Or, more generally, bones.

Not only are skeletons and skulls Halloween staples, but they are a beautiful and dynamic part of the gorgeous Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations and decor I personally cannot get enough of.

You might consider bones and conclude that they symbolize death, of course. But I’d urge you to look deeper. Why? Because that’s the literal significance of bones, since they are often what remains of animals after they have died. And in literature and art, symbols refer to objects, places, events, or even characters that represent something beyond the literal meaning.

For that, I offer a bit of Alchemy 101 for one possible interpretation of today’s spooky symbol.