THE TOWER
Basic 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.
Basic 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, as if the shout has taken form, 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 grief, 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 broke free of his fear and
preconceptions of death (Death); he dissolved his belief that
opposites cannot be merged (Temperance) and shattered the chains of
ambition and desire (The Devil). But here and now, he has done what
was hardest: destroyed the lies he held about himself. What's left is
the bare, absolute truth. On this he can rebuild his soul.
Basic Tarot 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. The
Tower, as Wang points out, stands for "false concepts and
institutions that we take for real." When the Querent gets this card,
they can expect to be shaken up, to be blinded by a shocking
revelation. It sometimes takes that to see a truth that one refuses
to see. Or to bring down beliefs that are so well constructed. What's
most important to remember is that the tearing down of this
structure, however painful, makes room for something new to be built.
Thirteen's Observations
No card scares a Tarot reader like the Tower - or the person they're
reading for if that person knows anything about Tarot cards. It is
however one of the clearest cards when it comes to meaning. False
structures, false institutions, false beliefs are going to come
tumbling down, suddenly, violently and all at once. What's important
to remember as a tarot reader is that 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 to tear it
all down and rebuild on the truth. It is not going to be pleasant or
painless or easy, but it will be for the best.
.
.
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.........
.
.
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