This article is part of a series of posts that will compare each card in the Tarot across different decks in order to study and explore each archetype and concept more deeply. This is not necessarily meant to be a teaching tool for others, but if you like to study the Tarot as much as I do, I hope you find it interesting. Enjoy!
For more on the decks referenced here please see this page in my blog: Tools of the Locksmith https://wordpress.com/page/theramblinglocksmith.com/163
A major reference for this study was “Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom” by Rachel Pollack.
The Tower
The tower card features a bolt of lightning that will cause an existing belief structure in our life to explode and come crumbling down. This happens not because we are being punished, but because it has to and because we are ready for it. This tower is not serving a purpose anymore, if it ever did, and its time for it to fall to make way for truth, clarity, and a more solid foundation. The card prior to the Tower is the Devil in which we are trapped by the illusions of the material world, and in the Tower these illusions are blown away and removed in dramatic fashion, like the lightning that struck the Buddha under the Bo tree and brought forth enlightenment.
The Tower in many ways is a more difficult card than any other. The Death card and Devil cards are triggering because of the images put forth by society in connection with them, but the tower card has the largest amount of sudden change associated with it. Though the change is inevitable and unstoppable, it might come with some personal wounds and the need to grieve. Its hard to come away from a big explosion of truth unscathed.
Lets explore all of the different types of towers and the ways that they fall.
Standard images from Rider-Waite in the card include:
- Lightning as an arrow representing a stroke of divine insight or revelation with a the tower as a prime target
- The tower as a structure that gives us a false sense of security
- Fire seen throughout the tower as a destructive but cleansing force
- Two figures of the conscious and unconscious free- falling as the veil between them is destroyed
- An unstable foundation at the base of the tower showing it was never going to last
- Smoke surrounding the tower obscuring what lies ahead
The Lua Tarot shows the tower as a volcano exploding and showering all the surrounding land and water with ash and rock. In the words of the Lua Tarot author – the volcano “awakens in the night”. Its the break through that needed to happen to allow a new idea or landscape to surface and grow.
New ideas can’t be built on something that is old, crumbling or shaky. What shaky structure are you trying to build on? What will allow you to see that it doesn’t work? What are you willing to let explode and fall away so you can see what does work for you? What will it take for that volcano to awaken for you?
The Ancestral Path Tarot shows a tower made of several ancient structures. There are ancient stone temples upon which idols to Egyptian gods are built, and on top of that columns from ancient Greece and Rome , and on top of that a tall church reaching high to the sky but made mostly of stained glass. The lightning sees through all of the layers back down to the root, and it is going to clear the way back to that root.
In this case its more than one old structure that needs to fall clear back to the root structure, even back down the the essential elements of matter. This card shows how complicated things have gotten for us as a society, and also for each of us as people when we can no longer see or feel the ground beneath us.
Sometimes it takes a catastrophic event to break things down to simpler forms that can be understood and actioned. Is there something this complicated in your life that could be better seen and understood by breaking it apart?
The Brady Tarot shows the tower as a tree that is home to a number of pileated woodpeckers. The tree was already on fire and now a bolt of lightning has struck its base and it is falling.
In this card the emphasis is less on what the tower represents but more on the individual woodpecker’s response to this falling tower. Some have already left in anticipation, for some it took the lightning to leave and not just the fire, but they are in the process of moving on, and some are still in denial and cannot admit that the tree will fall.
What tower is falling in your life, and what is your response to this? What is the response to those around you? If you are in denial, what will it take for you to see things as they are? If you have clarity, who can you help to bring clarity to so they move on?
The Tarot of Mystic Moments shows a particularly heartbreaking image of the Tower. In this case the woman cannot move on to grieve the loss of this cherished home or institution. She continues to embrace and try to hold together something that is about to be blown up, and allows herself to become part of the destruction.
Sometimes grief is too strong an emotion to allow ourselves to feel, so we convince ourselves that the thing we need to grieve hasn’t left us. But it has. And not moving on doesn’t bring it back. And it prevents us from healing and participating in the present moment.
Is there trauma in your life that you never allowed yourself to feel deeply? Is there a loss that is too great to move on from? In this case you will need help moving on. You should not try to do this on your own. You aren’t really here experiencing life, you are in the past and hurting instead of healing. No one should live this way. Reach out to a therapist, spiritual advisor, trusted friend or family member. Its time to start the healing process from this incredible loss.
In the Santa Muerte Tarot there is a twisting and turning maze inside the tower that never leads anywhere. In this case the only way to escape the maze is to blow up the tower and leave it. Any energy or wisdom that might exist is stuck in this maze and is unable to be accessed. The tower is internally confused because the balance has somehow been altered in preparation for this impending explosion.
Is there an area of your life where leaving the existing structure feels like going against the current? Have you felt a shift in the energy that is hitting your intuition and telling you its time to go? Listen to this instinct. You may need to go against the current because the current is confused and following it will not lead anywhere good for you. Destroy old structures without fear to liberate the energy that is stuck in this maze.
In the Osho Zen Tarot this card is called Thunderbolt instead of Tower. It focuses on the Lightning that is coming to the tower instead of the emotions and meaning of losing the tower itself. The Lightning is a form of light and energy that is bringing new awareness and new knowledge. The meditating being is able to experience it with detachment. Instead of seeing destruction they just see a change and they don’t attach any emotion to that change. Its more about observing and feeling the flow of energy pour through them.
This is easier said that done for sure, but what would happen if you decided to step back from any large change or shift that either has happened recently, is happening, or seems like it is about to happen. How would you experience that change differently, and how would your perspective change? Would it change permanently because of this shift in awareness? What can you do to try this out even if in a small way?
The Patakis of the Orisha Tarot the scene shows the aftermath of the tower falling. There is one new sprig growing up out of the fallen tree representing new growth, the sun is out representing hope, and the axes are shown representing Shango, the Yoruba God of Lightning and Thunder, who will fight for those in these situations. There is a hook representing irrational action of trying to catch what is no longer there due to the grief of things falling apart.
Which are you able to focus on in the aftermath. Can you see the sunlight? Can you see the support of those like Shango who are here to help you? Can you see any new growth occurring? Or are you trying to use a hook to catch something that isn’t there?
The Rambling Locksmith 
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