The Tower - XVI -
The
Tower shows a tall tower pitched atop a craggy mountain. Lightning
strikes and flames burst from the building’s windows. People are
seen to be leaping from the tower in desperation, wanting to flee
such destruction and turmoil. The Tower signifies darkness and
destruction on a physical scale, as opposed to a spiritual scale.
The
Tower itself represents ambitions built on false premises. The
lightning bolt breaks down existing forms in order to make room for
new ones. It represents a sudden, momentary glimpse of truth, a flash
of inspiration that breaks down structures of ignorance and false
reasoning. Notice the lightning bolt is oriented left to right (from
the perspective of the card), from heaven to earth, and from Spirit
to material. The falling figures correspond to the chained prisoners
in the Devil card.
They fall headfirst, because the sudden influx of
spiritual consciousness represented by the lightning flash completely
upsets all our old notions about the relations between
subconsciousness and self-consciousness. The flames are actually the
Hebrew yods. There are 22 flames, representing the 22 Major Arcana.
The gray clouds are the clouds of misfortune that rain on everyone
indiscriminately. The ruling planet of this card is Mars.
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