The Tarot of the Day is....
The Tower
Carefully crafted, tall, beautiful, and strong, the Tower represents our worldview. We have added to it and altered it as needed. We expected it to last and serve us well. It is hit by lightning, a literal bolt from the blue, and is destroyed. The bolt symbolizes, in some form or another, a moment of illumination, of realization, of experience, that shakes our world to its very foundation. We fall, like the naked man, from the structure. We have to rebuild, and we have nothing... or so it seems. However, don't discount what the flash of lightning reveals to you.
The message of the Tower is a difficult one. Unlike the Wheel, with its philosophical message of centeredness, and Death, with its promise of spiritual enlightenment, the Tower doesn't seem to offer much except destruction. Our belief system helps us find calm in the center of the Wheel, and gives us courage to face Death. In the Tower that belief system is shattered. The good news is that it is usually shattered by a truth is good; ignorance is not really bliss.
Be aware of over dramatizing situations. If you over-react to every upset in your life, you may find yourself ill prepared to deal with real trauma or tragedy.
How many times have you sat safely within the narrow confines of your life, comfortable in your current thoughts, beliefs and expectations? Then, out of the blue, something ‘shocking’ happens that completely destroys your picture of peace and harmony. It blows your mind or throws you for a loop. There is a sudden realization that your comfort was based on an inadequate foundation of false thought, belief and action. This is a humbling, frightening but necessary experience.
When you see the Tower in a reading, you may feel afraid, shaken and insecure. It is a time of great turmoil and destruction as you seek to understand how you could have been so wrong, so naive, or so blind about a particularly situation. And now, what will you do and how will you manage in the face of this shocking truth? You may be experiencing sleepless nights, depression, grief, anger and confrontation. These are normal reactions to major changes in your outer and inner worlds.
A Tower experience is any experience that shakes the foundation of your current sense of security and/or forces you to question your strongly-held beliefs, perceptions, attitudes and behaviors. It may be a divorce, death of a loved one, financial failure, health problems or job loss, or any event that penetrates to the core of your inner being, affecting you spiritually, mentally and physically. It is often descriptive of a major upheaval, disruption, emergency or crisis, and is likely to bring chaos in the aftermath of such an event.
If the Tower appears in your reading, ask yourself, “What structures in my life are breaking up?” No doubt you will already be very aware of where there is turmoil and destruction but sometimes it can be on a more subtle or subconscious level.
The most important aspect of the Tower is that with any destruction there comes creation. Thus, the Tower card represents an awakening and is about inspiration, freedom, reality and the release from bondage. It is a truth and honesty card that comes as a bolt of lightning to you through a shocking and impactful life event. It represents a necessary experience that forces you to get out of your comfort zone and to grow beyond your present level. The sudden destruction of the Tower represents the immediacy of change, and the often disorienting effects of that change. Once you hit rock bottom the choice is yours. You can revert to the self-defeating, restrictive Devil, or reach for the transformational and inspirational Star. When you begin to reach for the Star, you will come to realize that your true security and strength lies within yourself and your relationship with the Universe, and not in some false belief system or artificially-created world. Following a Tower experience, you can rest assured that you will grow stronger, wiser and more serene as you begin to develop a completely new perspective on life that you did not even know existed. These moments in time are necessary for spiritual growth and enlightenment. Truth and honesty will bring about a positive change, even if you must experience pain and anxiety throughout the process.
The Tower also represents the inner and outer structures that you have built. These structures represent your personal defenses, defenses that create a more socially acceptable ‘you’ by hiding your true, inner thoughts and feelings. It is like laughing politely when your boss tells a joke, or, on a deeper level, disguising your sexual feelings, particularly if you feel that they are socially inappropriate. In times of great pressure and stress, these structures will be tested and are at risk of shattering, finally revealing your true inner self to those around you. So, you need to be very careful how much of yourself you attempt to hide, knowing that one day, all will be revealed.
The Tower therefore asks you to break down the structures that you have surrounded yourself with. This can be a painful and difficult process if you resist against the external forces that are pushing you to reveal more of yourself. Breaking through this pretense can cause a great deal of anguish but remember that the Tower will fall, whether you like it or not, because you have reached your limits in this area and can no longer live with it.
Similarly, the Tower can signify your ego and the illusion of considering yourself to be superior to others. When the Tower of ego, deception and illusion is destroyed, you are free to face truth and reality without the trappings of false attachments. Are you undergoing a major shift in consciousness? Are you beginning to see things in a new way? Embrace the opportunity to accept change and move forward into a more positive psychological state, where personal freedom is the rule.
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