TAROT – The Tower Card

Which tarot card fills you with dread and why? Could it be the haunting specter of Death, the menacing Devil, the destitution found in the 5 of Pentacles, or maybe the nightmare visions of the 9 or 10 of Swords. For me, a complete control-freak, the hands-down answer is The Tower, a card that looks at all your carefully laid plans and laughs and laughs and laughs. This card literally explodes your life, causing all your dreams to come crashing down. The Tower is utter chaos, a fall from a place you thought was safe, a giant monkey wrench. The Tower is about catastrophic change and turmoil that is out of our control. We think we have built up a safe, secure place where nothing bad can reach us; this card shows us that there is no such place.

 While I subscribe to the idea that there are no truly “bad” cards, I still have a hard time seeing the good in this one, even though deep down I know it’s there. I feel this way because The Tower tells us some hard truths. It reveals that instead of a stronghold, what we have actually built up around us is a cage of isolation and illusion. And though it may be extremely painful, the time has come to break free.   

Tower cards from various decks. Clockwise from top left: Art Nouveau Tarot (Antonella Castelli), Lo Scarabeo Tarot (Anna Lazzarini), The Witches Tarot (Martin Cannon), Aquarian Tarot (David Palladini), Modern Spellcaster’s Tarot (Scott Murphy)