The Tower as Advice?

Tarot Cards in Weird Contexts

The Tower as Advice?

One of the parts of tarot reading that I enjoy the most is ruminating on what cards mean in the context in which they present themselves. I think that sometimes this contextual meaning can get lost in modern reading methods, but as a reader it makes the reading more challenging and often times more rewarding for everyone involved.

This morning, as part of my own daily tarot ritual, I pulled ‘The Tower’ reversed in the place of ‘Advice.’ And it started me thinking — how, exactly can you work through The Tower as advice? If you read tarot reversals, how to interpret its shadow? Of course my little fiery self wanted to immediately give myself permission to burn it all down, but before I grabbed the gasoline, what did that mean, exactly?

A. E. Waite’s description said “THE TOWER. — Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe. Reversed: According to one account, the same in a lesser degree; also oppression, imprisonment, tyranny.” Where is advice in deception and ruin?

I have written about The Tower as advice before — it came up in a reading for Sagittarians this year. And i’m having a year that feels a bit like The Tower. My advice, based on The Tower, was to focus on the reinvention aspects and opportunities, but I think that The Tower has some other insights tucked away.

It’s been called ‘The Blasted Tower’ because the card isn’t as much about The Tower as its destruction. It’s definitely evocative of the famous ‘Tower of Babel,’ and it depicts what happens when ambition meets insurmountable and unavoidable failure. Modern sensibilities reframe this card in the new start that it contains — the ability to wipe the slate clean and reinvent yourself. But before we started to move away from tarot as divindation and towards its revelatory purpose, it was long linked with the most negative outcomes possible in tarot.

Given that sort of history — how can one possibly see it as advice? Is it as easy as burning it all down to start again?

I don’t think it’s as straight forward as that. I think it’s understanding that The Tower was bound to fail from the beginning. If you look at Pixie’s drawing of the tower, it’s built on an impossible — looking mountain. I bet that thing gets bashed by all sorts of terrible storms and lashing, just look at it. At the top of the tower, a crown is blasted free, toppling downward (representing shedding materialism / oppression). While I’ve traditionally heard The Tower as advice to be interpreted as ‘expect the unexpected’ is it truly unexpected?

Are we surprised when human power falters in front of nature? Is the toppling of a crown such a shock in a time that is after the fall of so many kings?

There are 22 flames sparking in the sky as the tower explodes — they could correspond to the 22 Major Arcana cards, or the 12 signs of the zodiac and the 10 points of the Tree of Life.

I think part of processing the Tower as advice is to understand that failure is not final, and that being prepared for the worst is sometimes all that we can really do. Change is inevitable — and while it can feel like it’s out of the blue, sometimes it’s because we’re just so deep into it we don’t even see it coming. After all, minutes before the change to the people jumping from the tower it felt like everything around them was so solid that it would be forever.

There are lots of ways to interpret the reversal, of course. The image of the card, when reversed, shows the figures ascending which plays into how I tend to interpret it, which is as as sign that the huge change and upheaval that is coming for you is something you can (and should) start for yourself.

When I look at it that way, and approach myself fearlessly, I can see big ways I can — and should — be trying to change my life.

How do you tend to interpret The Tower as advice?