The Tower

✦ Rebuilding

✦ Creation and Destruction

The Tower is based on the Tower of Babel, a creation of ours that was to reach the very heights of heaven. For the builder’s glory, not for God’s. Then God knocked it down and told us to quit it. I think that’s how it went; it’s been a while since Catholic school. After the tower fell, God came down to the rubble and made everyone speak different languages (babble), and they scattered and formed tribes. To sum up: creation, destruction, confusion, rebuilding.

✦ Life Dissolving

In tarot, the Tower is about your life dissolving. You’ve built up this life, this Tower, piece by piece. You were sure about each placement of each stone. Then, from out of nowhere the universe reaches down, grabs your little snow globe of a life, and shakes the hell out of it. Now what?

✦ Loss of Identity

This can be about someone hurting you so badly you forget who you are. Having someone treat you so unfairly that your breath is literally taken away. About being deceived, robbed, violated, and demeaned. About losing part of your identity. It can be about divorce, death, losing a home or a job, tragedies and accidents, chaos and fear.

✦ Rerouting Life

It’s also about rerouting your life. The golden crown gets knocked off man’s creation. The men are falling, thinking, 'Oh shit! Bad idea! Do over!' The base of your venture was shoddy—scrap it. I think the thing that frightens people so much about this card is the suddenness of the change. It’s about the universe pulling the rug out from under you, and the taller you were standing, the harder you fall. If you’re expecting a change, you can roll with it. It makes the recovery and rebuilding a lot easier. Less time is required for healing, and you haven’t got as much dust in your eyes and can see more clearly. There is also a huge lack of control. In this card there are people falling, lightning, and fire. You can’t stop yourself while falling, can’t predict where or how fire will travel, and can’t see where the lightning will strike.

✦ Honesty in Readings

When you give a reading with the Tower, you have to be honest. You have to say to the querent that this is going to be hard, but that it’s going to be okay. Honesty is always better, however difficult it is finding that path. I would prefer to start again rather than keep building and building higher. I would rather have a strong base and the truth than a stack of lies.

✦ Facing Changes

I don’t think, though, that the Tower is a bad card. It is a serious card. Sometimes in our lives we have to face up to real changes. These changes are uncertain, but I think the thing that gets us through it is faith. Faith in yourself. Faith that the universe is trying to put you where you belong, on your authentic path. The Tower clears the rubbish out of the way so we can rebuild on an empty canvas.

✦ Personal Experience

I’ve lived through the Tower a few times. While it’s happening, you can’t see past the bricks and mortar of your life falling around you. Through divorce, a devastating breakup, loss of a job or friends that you thought would be around forever. There were times in my life when I was certain I wouldn’t see the sun again. It’s only now, after the dust has settled, that I know why the Tower came. Why it took everything away. It came so that I could be here, surrounded by opportunity and love.

✦ The Tower Inverted

When the Tower is inverted, it’s got a few different meanings depending on the reading. It can be about nearly getting flattened. Did you ever have a moment where you nearly got hit by a car and had that cold feeling in the pit of your stomach? That’s one of them. A premonition that comes just before tragedy would have struck.

✦ Deceptive Appearances

Another is that the lies or the faulty foundation stay put. Liars get away with it, truth doesn’t come to light, and the Tower gets higher and higher, with this rot in the middle of it. That’s not going to work out well. I’ve had this come up reversed in readings for people who have the 'perfect' life. Everything is great! The job, the marriage, the 2.5 kids—all of it. Everything I’ve ever wanted! Except, no. Mom is a drinker and Dad is embezzling at work and the kids are up to serious shenanigans. It’s like a shellac of perfect that’s just about to be shattered. Sometimes the Tower inverted is scarier than upright, because the distortion and general 'wrongness' of the situation just gets worse and worse.

✦ Healing Process

One of the most important things to tell your clients when the Tower comes up is that they have to wait until the dust settles to make clear decisions. The Tower rocks everything in your life, including you. I read for a woman recently who was covered by the Tower. She’d gone through a lot of loss in just one year. She asked, 'When should I start dating again? When will I feel okay again?' The bad stuff didn’t come overnight, and you can’t heal from it that quickly. You have to understand that it takes a while to get back on your feet. You have to be able to tell your clients, 'Listen, this is going to be really hard. It might be really hard for a long time, but I swear it will be better in the end. You just have to trust yourself and be patient.'

✦ Trite Optimism

There is a quote by Fernando Sabino that goes through my mind like a mantra these days: 'Everything will be all right in the end. If it’s not, then it’s not the end.' It’s a bit trite, sure. I did see it embroidered on a pillow. The thing is, if your whole life has just been shaken to its very foundation, you’ll take trite over bleak pessimism any day. At least, I hope you will.