Angel, trumpets, graves with people rising from them, often water or an ocean. "You are right," the Angelic figure confirms, "you have only one last step on your journey, one final step to completion. But you cannot take that step until you lay your past to rest."
The Fool is perturbed. "Lay it to rest? I thought I'd left it behind, all of it!"
"There is no way to leave the past behind," The Angel observes. "Each step wears down the shoe just a bit, and so shapes the next step you take, and the next and the next. Your past is always under your feet. You cannot hide from it, run from it, or rid yourself of it. But you can call it up, and come to terms with it. Are you willing to do that?"
The Angel hands the Fool a small trumpet. The Fool is hesitant, but he knows that the Angel is right. There are certain memories he has a hard time looking back on as they make him feel guilty, ashamed, angry. He knows that he's never come to terms with what happened and he must if he wants to make that final transition.
He blows the trumpet and it cracks open the Earth. From under the Fool's feet, the spirits of his past selves rise up, including those less than admirable past selves that he's tried to forget.
This is not about Death, something ending whether you want it to or not, this is about deciding to make a change, to stop doing something that isn't working and do something that will work. Which means that it's really a card about courage, and about recognizing that you're holding onto something that needs to be let go. "You can't hide any longer," this card says, "all the coffins have opened, and all that you thought was buried is out in the open. Face what you have to face and lay it to rest so that you can move on. Make that decision. Change."
