XVI : The Tower

The Tower

Destruction · Dramatic change · Loss and ruin · New start · Unexpected events

The Tower Tarot card

The Tower's Meaning

Dark and foreboding, the Tower is the embodiment of disruption and conflict. Not just change, but the abrupt and jarring movement caused by the unforeseen and traumatic events which are part of life. The Tower in your spread is always a threat, but life inevitably involves tragedy, and you must decide whether you will face it with grace.

Past

To make room for the new, the old must be destroyed. The ambitions that you have been following are built on weak foundations and offer false rewards.

Present

A conflict is coming to a head in your life. Relationships will need to be reevaluated and restructured in order to maintain.

Future

By withstanding the coming challenges, your future will be bright. Seein things as you want them to be in order to make them become that way. Knowing the worst is behind you can give strength.

Yes / No Key Interpretation

The Tower is all about unexpected events and changes coming up in your life. However, the changes are along the lines of something catastrophic, disasterous, and overall negative. It could be related to some sort of accident, disaster, or damage to another area of your life. The answer provided by this card is no.

Key Dates, Timing, and Astrology.

 Mars
No key dates: ruled by Mars

Tarot Cards - The Tower




The Tower (La Maison Dieu) The Lord of the Hosts of the Mighty Card Number: 16 Key Number: 27 Rulership: Mars Hebrew Letter: Peh Translation: Mouth Numerical Value: 9

Divinatory meaningUpright - Disruption. Conflict. Change.  Sudden violent loss.  Overthrow of an existing way of life.  Major changes.  Disruption of well worn routines.  Ruin and disturbance.  Dramatic upheaval.  change of residence or job sometimes both at once.  Widespread repercussions of actions.  In the end, enlightenment and freedom.

Ill Dignified or Reversed - Negativity.  Restriction of desires and imprisonment.  Less sever forms of the above.  Drastic change that may rob the individual of freedom of expression.  Sometimes bankruptcy and imprisonment.  more usually imprisonment within a set of circumstances which cannot currently be altered.  Sudden changes out of one's control.  Less sever forms of the above.

Tower Tarot Card Meaning




Tower Card Symbols

A tower on a rocky outcrop, a powerful bolt of lightning, one or two figures falling from the tower, sometimes waves crashing below.

Tower Tarot Story

As the Fool leaves the throne of the Goat God, he comes upon a Tower, fantastic, magnificent, and familiar. In fact, The Fool, himself, helped build this Tower back when the most important thing to him was making his mark on the world and proving himself better than other men. Inside the Tower, at the top, arrogant men still live, convinced of their rightness.
Seeing the Tower again, the Fool feels as if lightning has just flashed across his mind; he thought he'd left that old self behind when he started on this spiritual journey. But he realizes now that he hasn't. He's been seeing himself, like the Tower, like the men inside, as alone and singular and superior, when in fact, he is no such thing.
So captured is he by the shock of this insight, that he opens his mouth and releases a SHOUT! And to his astonishment and terror, a bolt of actual lightning slashes down from the heavens striking the Tower and sending its residents leaping out into the waters below.
In a moment, it is over. The Tower is rubble, only rocks remaining. Stunned and shaken to the core, the Fool experiences profound fear and disbelief. But also, a strange clarity of vision, as if his inner eye has finally opened. He tore down his resistance to change and sacrifice (Hanged man), then came to terms with Death (Death); he learned about moderation and synthesis (Temperance) and about power (The Devil). But here and now, he has done what was hardest: he destroyed the lies of his life. What's left are the foundations of truth. On this he can rebuild himself.

Tower Tarot Card Meaning

With Mars as its ruling planet, the Tower is a card about war, a war between the structures of lies and the lightning flash of truth. This is a card about anything we believe to be true, but later learn is false. This realization usually comes as a shock, hence, the violent image. It is, quite simply, that moment in any story where someone finds out a shocking truth, one that shatters their perceptions and makes them reassess their beliefs.
When the Querent gets this card, they can expect to be shaken up, blinded by a revelation. It sometimes takes a very bright flash of light to reveal a truth that was so well hidden. And it sometimes takes an earthquake to bring down beliefs that were so cleverly constructed. What's most important to remember is that the tearing down of this structure, however painful, allows us to find out what is true and reliable. What will stand rather than fall apart.

Thirteen's Observations on the Tower

The Tower is one of the clearest cards when it comes to meaning. False structures, false institutions, false beliefs are going to come (or have already come) tumbling down, suddenly, violently and all at once. This sort of prediction can scare anyone, especially as the one you're reading for likely does not know that something is false. Not yet. To the contrary, they probably believe that their lover is being faithful, that their religious beliefs are true and right, that there are no problems in their family structure, that everything is fine at work...oh, and that they're fine. Just fine, really.
Alas, they're about to get a very rude awakening. Shaken up, torn down, blown asunder. And all a reader can really do to soften the blow is assure the querent that it is for the best. Nothing built on a lie, on falsehoods, can remain standing for long. Better for it to come down so that it can be rebuilt on truth-or not rebuilt at all, if that's what seems best. This rude awakening is not going to be pleasant or painless or easy, but it will be for the best in the end.
Some frequent keywords used by card readers are: (by Joan Bunning in Learning the Tarot)
• Chaos ----- Sudden change ----- Impact ----- Hard times
• Crisis ----- Revelation ----- Disruption ----- Realizing the truth
• Disillusion ----- Crash ----- Burst ----- Uncomfortable experience
• Downfall ----- Ruin ----- Ego blow ----- Explosive transformation
Upside down :
• To be currently in a harsh and chaotic situation but exiting in a good manner. Indeed you are falling but landing with your feet over the soil.
• The same of the normal position but less negative because their incorrect position can block some powers of the card.