The Tower
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| The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength, The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World. | |
| Wands | Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King. |
| Cups | Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King. |
| Swords | Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King. |
| Pentacles | Ace 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King. |
| Aces, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, Sixes, Sevens, Eights, Nines, Tens, Pages, Knights, Queens, Kings | |
A tarot card. Position 16 in the Major Arcana.
Contents |
Description
Rider Waite Deck
A tower is struck by a bolt of lightning and bursts into flame. Two figures fall from the wreckage. The tower represents material ambition, while its ruined crown represents materialistic-centered thinking. The lightning is pure spiritual insight destroying this mindset in an instant.The hebrew Yods in the air around the Tower represent the life-force.
(from The Pictorial Key to Tarot by E.A. Waite)
Occult explanations attached to this card are meagre and mostly disconcerting. It is idle to indicate that it depicts min in all its aspects, because it bears this evidence on the surface. It is said further that it contains the first allusion to a material building, but I do not conceive that the Tower is more or less material than the pillars which we have met with in three previous cases. I see nothing to warrant Papus in supposing that it is literally the fall of Adam, but there is more in favour of his alternative--that it signifies the materialization of the spiritual word. The bibliographer Christian imagines that it is the downfall of the mind, seeking to penetrate the mystery of God. I agree rather with Grand Orient that it is the ruin of the House of We, when evil has prevailed therein, and above all that it is the rending of a House of Doctrine. I understand that the reference is, however, to a House of Falsehood. It illustrates also in the most comprehensive way the old truth that "except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it."
There is a sense in which the catastrophe is a reflection from the previous card, but not on the side of the symbolism which I have tried to indicate therein. It is more correctly a question of analogy; one is concerned with the fall into the material and animal state, while the other signifies destruction on the intellectual side. The Tower has been spoken of as the chastisement of pride and the intellect overwhelmed in the attempt to penetrate the Mystery of God; but in neither case do these explanations account for the two persons who are the living sufferers. The one is the literal word made void and the other its false interpretation. In yet a deeper sense, it may signify also the end of a dispensation, but there is no possibility here for the consideration of this involved question.
Meanings
- awakening, grace and sin
- Complete deconstruction of the personality's intellectual and emotional structure.
- the destruction of delusionary beliefs and assumptions
- forceful liberation, changes that seem desastrous but were overdue
- mundane questions: destruction, substantial loss of material property, rapid and involuntary changes
The Tower indicates a major overturning in one's life or beliefs. Expect emotional upheaval, and distressing events, but be assured that what is important will be preserved. The lies created by ambition, desire, and the ego will be laid bare leaving a solid foundation of Truth on which to rebuild. Cling to the belief that everything will be all right, because it will.
Reversed Meaning
EDIT
Correspondences
- Links Hod to Netzach as path number 27 of the Tree of Life
- Colour red
- the planet Mars
- The direction North (from the Sepher Yetzirah)
- Yetziratic Intelligence - the Exciting intelligence
- Musical note C (Paul Case)
- Hebrew letter HEBREW:Peh meaning Mouth and also the number 80
- Organic Time - World War The time of intellectual growth hit a brick wall when the nations of the world believed they could behave as they once did when they were feudal protective systems. The World War signified the end of individual nations and the beginning of the world market and global worldcentric meme.
- September 11th.
