Post by Empress Palpatine on Dec 31, 2009 22:30:45 GMT -6
The 16th card of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, the Tower, always shows the image of a tall tower being struck, usually by lightning. Some decks show figures of people falling out of it. In short, it symbolizes the breaking down of existing structures, abruptly and violently, to make way for something new.
The Tower is a man made structure. It stands for systems and ideas made by man, such things as rigid ideologies and systems. The attitude is that of the arrogance of those who built the Tower of Babel. The Tower can be a society, government, religion, or anything in the material world, any ego-structure. Unlike other dark cards like Death and Devil, which are more inner related, the Tower is about outward things.
The Barbara Walker deck gives it a political twist. Her's shows two figures falling out of the struck tower, a pope and a king, to symbolize church and state and the overthrow thereof.
Everyone should remember the story of the Tower of Babel that they heard in Sunday school. Humans built a tower to reach the heavens and challenge God. God ends it when He confuses the languages of the builders. Have you ever noticed how despite the advances in communication in recent years, people still have trouble communicating and talk right past each other?
Recently in U.S. history, we actually did have a tower that was struck. It was a real event. Everyone remembers where they were when 9/11 happened. I did not find out that day until about 4:00 P.M. This was because we had no T.V. or radio on. Someone knocked on our door and told us. We did not believe him at first. It wasn't until we turned on the T.V. Even then we doubted it, wondering if it was simply special effects. It was not until I talked to relatives from N.Y. State that I believed it was really happening.
Like so many I thought it would rally the citizens of the U.S. like Pearl Harbor and WWII. I thought it would shock them into changing things. I was disappointed by the resulting half measures, divisions, and confusion. It was later on that I thought of the Tarot's Tower. Symbolically, the Trade Towers stood for America's ego. They were all about money, trade, stock, business...basically towers of capitalism. Somehow since their fall, things have never been the same. It is as if some magical talisman was destroyed. Ever since, businessmen in America are not so clever at business. There is a strange dumbing down in the capitalist world.
Since ancient times towers symbolized either the ego of humans or the power of some god. Today that still seems to literally be the case.
There is also the symbol of the lightning which strikes the Tower. Over the ages, it has been debated whether lightning comes from God or Satan. The old pagans thought lightning was phallic male energy. The god of heaven mates with the earth goddess. Lightning strikes, and life emerges. The pagans ended up being the most scientifically correct. In the Cosmos series, Carl Sagan showed an experiment where scientists filled a glass container full of the sort of gasses that existed on a very young earth. Then they zapped it with electricity which turned the gas into some sort of organic goop. This was to show that most likely lightning zapped the early earth and caused the organic soup to form. From this goop life came and evolved. It was fun to watch because they did it right there on the show.
Lightning, therefore, is both a destroyer and a giver of new life. It is interesting that it is the Sith who are associated with the lightning. Sith seem to be dominant just before and after a change of dispensation. Their role is that of destroyer and giver of new life. Like the Tarot's Tower, the Sith destroyed the dysfunctional Jedi and republic. The Sith were the midwife of the new order, even were the catalyst for new things to start with Luke Skywalker. If I were to make a Star Wars Tarot deck, I would probably choose images of the Jedi Temple burning, Palpatine zapping Mace, Palatine declaring the empire in the senate, and the second Death Star exploding in Return of the Jedi.
This card, to me, has always been a card of revolution. Several years ago when I was an active Marxist Leninist Maoist, it was my favorite Tarot card. I saw it as heralding the end of capitalism.
But what if you get this card in a reading? What does it mean to one person? One person is not a government, a society, or an economy.
Yes, this is a card relevant to the individual. It could be a cataclysmic event in your life, an event that alters your life completely. It would be an outer event, not an inner event (not just in the psyche). Something in the material world breaks for good or bad. It could be a move away from an old life. Perhaps some lifestyle has become rigid and inflexible, and now that is over. Something was nuked.
The Tower can stand for societal demands and expectations. Perhaps you broke away from these and had a complete change of world view. Perhaps you changed your religion or political party affiliation. It could also mean you downsized the bulky and superfluous in your life. You are starting over. This can be a welcome fresh start, or it could be the destruction of a familiar and comfy rut you were in. Whether the reading is positive or negative depends upon your perspective. Are you looking back like Lot's wife at an old life you are not sure you want to let go of, or are you looking forward to new life and possibilities. Perhaps there is some arrogant individual you are dealing with when this card turns up. In that case, it could be good news. Perhaps this arrogant person is about to come crashing down. It could be a warning about your own arrogance and telling you to be wary of it. It would depend on the context of your question.
The Tower is a man made structure. It stands for systems and ideas made by man, such things as rigid ideologies and systems. The attitude is that of the arrogance of those who built the Tower of Babel. The Tower can be a society, government, religion, or anything in the material world, any ego-structure. Unlike other dark cards like Death and Devil, which are more inner related, the Tower is about outward things.
The Barbara Walker deck gives it a political twist. Her's shows two figures falling out of the struck tower, a pope and a king, to symbolize church and state and the overthrow thereof.
Everyone should remember the story of the Tower of Babel that they heard in Sunday school. Humans built a tower to reach the heavens and challenge God. God ends it when He confuses the languages of the builders. Have you ever noticed how despite the advances in communication in recent years, people still have trouble communicating and talk right past each other?
Recently in U.S. history, we actually did have a tower that was struck. It was a real event. Everyone remembers where they were when 9/11 happened. I did not find out that day until about 4:00 P.M. This was because we had no T.V. or radio on. Someone knocked on our door and told us. We did not believe him at first. It wasn't until we turned on the T.V. Even then we doubted it, wondering if it was simply special effects. It was not until I talked to relatives from N.Y. State that I believed it was really happening.
Like so many I thought it would rally the citizens of the U.S. like Pearl Harbor and WWII. I thought it would shock them into changing things. I was disappointed by the resulting half measures, divisions, and confusion. It was later on that I thought of the Tarot's Tower. Symbolically, the Trade Towers stood for America's ego. They were all about money, trade, stock, business...basically towers of capitalism. Somehow since their fall, things have never been the same. It is as if some magical talisman was destroyed. Ever since, businessmen in America are not so clever at business. There is a strange dumbing down in the capitalist world.
Since ancient times towers symbolized either the ego of humans or the power of some god. Today that still seems to literally be the case.
There is also the symbol of the lightning which strikes the Tower. Over the ages, it has been debated whether lightning comes from God or Satan. The old pagans thought lightning was phallic male energy. The god of heaven mates with the earth goddess. Lightning strikes, and life emerges. The pagans ended up being the most scientifically correct. In the Cosmos series, Carl Sagan showed an experiment where scientists filled a glass container full of the sort of gasses that existed on a very young earth. Then they zapped it with electricity which turned the gas into some sort of organic goop. This was to show that most likely lightning zapped the early earth and caused the organic soup to form. From this goop life came and evolved. It was fun to watch because they did it right there on the show.
Lightning, therefore, is both a destroyer and a giver of new life. It is interesting that it is the Sith who are associated with the lightning. Sith seem to be dominant just before and after a change of dispensation. Their role is that of destroyer and giver of new life. Like the Tarot's Tower, the Sith destroyed the dysfunctional Jedi and republic. The Sith were the midwife of the new order, even were the catalyst for new things to start with Luke Skywalker. If I were to make a Star Wars Tarot deck, I would probably choose images of the Jedi Temple burning, Palpatine zapping Mace, Palatine declaring the empire in the senate, and the second Death Star exploding in Return of the Jedi.
This card, to me, has always been a card of revolution. Several years ago when I was an active Marxist Leninist Maoist, it was my favorite Tarot card. I saw it as heralding the end of capitalism.
But what if you get this card in a reading? What does it mean to one person? One person is not a government, a society, or an economy.
Yes, this is a card relevant to the individual. It could be a cataclysmic event in your life, an event that alters your life completely. It would be an outer event, not an inner event (not just in the psyche). Something in the material world breaks for good or bad. It could be a move away from an old life. Perhaps some lifestyle has become rigid and inflexible, and now that is over. Something was nuked.
The Tower can stand for societal demands and expectations. Perhaps you broke away from these and had a complete change of world view. Perhaps you changed your religion or political party affiliation. It could also mean you downsized the bulky and superfluous in your life. You are starting over. This can be a welcome fresh start, or it could be the destruction of a familiar and comfy rut you were in. Whether the reading is positive or negative depends upon your perspective. Are you looking back like Lot's wife at an old life you are not sure you want to let go of, or are you looking forward to new life and possibilities. Perhaps there is some arrogant individual you are dealing with when this card turns up. In that case, it could be good news. Perhaps this arrogant person is about to come crashing down. It could be a warning about your own arrogance and telling you to be wary of it. It would depend on the context of your question.