The Tower

Jun 1

Overview

**KeyworDS:** final warning, course correction, catalyst, sudden change, abandoning the past, destruction, revelation, chaos, resolution, shock, penalty, loss, self-betrayal, separation, awakening, unity consciousness, leaving wrongness behind
**ARCHETYPE:** course correction, penalty, divine retribution
**LESSON:** Life does not happen to you, it happens from you
**SIGN AFFINITY:** aries, scorpio
**PLANETARY Correspondence:** Mars, pluto
**YES OR NO:** no!!!

The Tower: Archetype & Symbolism

The Tower as a building initially represents our sense of safety and stability, and its impressive height, symbolically reaching for the heavens, our highest goals. Yet somewhere along the way, we not only chose the wrong path, we kept going with full awareness of its wrongness. The result is fire, breakdown, free-fall, lightning and chaos. This does not always mean getting fired, marriage or divorce, but can also be a life-changing new insight, an unexpected ending or an unanticipated plot twist. What goes up, must eventually come down: the tower is the course-correction for self-betrayal and likely the most drastic catalyst of change the Tarot offers. Modern interpretations of the Tower are predominantly negative and fear mongering — indeed, it has become one of the Tarot’s most dreaded cards. This unfortunately overshadows the fact that this card is one of the most powerful tools for awakening: life does not happen to you, it happens from you. Choose to hear the words of lightness and create joy.

The Tower: Advice

Understand the wisdom of why something is happening is to you — the string of connectedness will be there. The Tower is the final result of not learning earlier. The Tower says, “oh, you didn’t listen to me? Let there be thunder and lightning flash!”. The shocking course correction that occurs as a result is a deeply humbling process. To avoid this, if you’re on the wrong path, you must not take a step further in that direction. So simple a principle, this is almost never done in practice. Walk away from wrongness — NOW! — and not tomorrow. Like Scorpio and Pluto, the Tower can smell lies ten miles against the wind. Are you buying things you don’t need or not sharing what you have? Wrong job, wrong relationship? Walk away now, or you are enacting something that should never have been re-enacted and are betraying yourself. When you do step in that direction knowingly, it will bring about a shocking resolution or course correction which is what the Tower card represents. A shocking ‘Tower’ moment simply means that you did not read the signs (there were plenty!) and now you need a nudge by an external force. The Tower is not a vengeful God, this card is only a reminder that we are responsible for the original cause of everything that happens — whether this be inconvenience, pain or loss. We did know that what we were doing was wrong — we just refused to remember the truth.

The Tower: Lesson & Higher Wisdom

Taken from the dramatic story of the Tower of Babel, the act of throwing down an edifice that was claiming importance is profoundly symbolic. We are currently experiencing the Tower collectively. We knew for quite some time that climate change would happen, and now, things are crashing down. We now build skyscrapers instead of cathedrals — the people who stand on the highest points are not priests or religious or speak the name of god - they are now penthouse owners, bosses, top floor executives. luxury and power of position. degenerative species, building brick upon brick upon brick. do you want the glory of god, you want the top of a mountain, not a cathedral or a skyscraper. climbing the mountain is a healing experience, moving away from the marketplace. certainty of peace, in the presence of only loving experience on top of the mountain. you are free to evolve and create. they follow the rules and celebrate that - goodness, good people. bad people. freedom fighters. terrorists. ungodly respect for the law. imposed upon us from power possessors, land owner, money makers.

On a collective level, the archetypal Tower consciousness causes war. Othering people, or considering of groups as “they” or “them”, forgetting our state of unity and claiming to be different from your enemy, you are not affirming oneness with the One. Do you believe that you are separate from or more important than your enemies, or even your neighbours? Having enemies and prejudices but praying to God is not unity — it is self-deception. Do you have the conviction, sometimes subsconsciously, that disaster will eventually strike, even when things are going well? Deeply rooted in the collective psyche, we as a humanity have the same wars and issues with the same outcomes, which only benefits power possessors and money makers — ‘tis the story of our civilisation. We must find humility early on. Humility is a condition of a knowledge of unity (we are all part of the same organism), everything alive is an organism. The idea that we are individual is only a useful model to understand evolution, creativity, freedom and evolution, through which Oneness — for some, God — makes himself known.