The Tower
The Tower, one of the most dreaded cards in Tarot, is the card of destruction, utter collapse, disintegration, dissolution, and perhaps the scariest words of all... imminent change.
Happy Monday, everyone. We had a nice weekend, pretty positive and quite relaxing until our kiddo burned it all to the ground at bedtime last night with an angry tirade meant to provoke. Pretty ironic that today's card is The Tower, because that's exactly what today feels like: the aftermath of fiery destruction.
The Tower, one of the most dreaded cards in Tarot, is the card of destruction, utter collapse, disintegration, dissolution, and perhaps the scariest words of all... imminent change. Not happy themes. I mean look at the cards above: lightning, fire, people falling from the windows, the destruction of a building... it doesn't bode well.
But, like the III of Swords (the card of heartbreak), this is not the end-all-be-all, although the Tower tends to bear more weight or be more life-uprooting. The Tower is like a lightning strike in the forest; it burns so that something new can come to be.
Our The Tower playlist is available on Spotify.
Message of the Day: When we have a Tower moment, we often find ourselves at a loss, trying to pick up the pieces and move on. We often feel blindsided, and our lives are disrupted in ways that are not inconsequential.
When I look at the Tower, I am drawn to the individuals falling from windows. Remember, this is a tower built high on a peak, and the fall is no small feat. They jump unaware of where exactly they are going to land, hoping it's somewhere soft, but you know it's gonna hurt.
A lot of times, people think of The Tower as "the divorce" card, signifying the absolute collapse of a relationship. Perhaps it's a foreclosure or the loss of a job. As this is a card in the Major Arcana, whatever is happening is big and it's going to suck.
But literal interpretation isn't really the point of my daily card draws; I reflect on the cards internally. And when I think of The Tower, I ask myself, what inside of me do I need to tear down? What part of me needs to be brought to ruin so something bigger and better can take its place? This, in Tarot, is what is called Shadow Work. Answering these questions and bringing that Tower to the ground is no easy feat and not something that can happen in a single day. It takes a conscious effort to make change and keep that goal of change in your mind's eye. DAILY. EFFORT.
When I think of my son, I immediately think that (currently) his Tower moment is communicating his anger and frustration. He aims to provoke, manipulate, and emotionally maim regardless of the cost. If he's angry then everyone's going to be angry. It needs to be razed and rebuilt into a more effective and healthy form of communication. And in this example, it's certainly clear that won't happen in a day, especially as he's only 10 and has ADHD. (God help us with the teenage years...)
When we look at the overall Fool's Journey, the card that follows The Tower is The Star, a card of humility, hope, and faith. It's the place where we land when we fall from the Tower windows, naked, possibly burnt to a crisp, but alive and capable of rebuilding, even if we need to take a minute. It's the silver lining of an otherwise dark and pendulous storm cloud. I feel the overall goal of The Tower is humility and a return to our basic self: our phoenix moment, ready to be reborn into something new.
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