Perhaps considered one of the most negative cards in the Tarot deck, The Tower is the card of chaos and upheaval. Its contemporary tarot card meanings often refer to disruption, instability, transformation and the inevitable truth. When the Tower card appears in a tarot reading, one can anticipate the total deconstruction of one’s beliefs system. The Tower brings forth an unacknowledged truth. It is an indicator that one’s faulty perceptions have caused the creation of an unreliable foundation. It is a warning that one’s thought processes are not in alignment with a higher truth. It always signifies the commencement of an emotional purging.
However, there is much more to the Tower card than the concept of destruction. In truth, the Tower is a card of liberation and freedom. It is there to ensure you that if you choose to shed yourself of your faulty beliefs; you will experience an inner freedom. In its place comes a new level of consciousness. This heightened awareness is a direct result of new channels of communication with the higher mind or divine spirit. In a Tarot reading, the Tower elucidates the parts of our own inner beings that we have been reluctant to examine. It is this denial that causes our actions or behaviors to be in conflict with our personal truths. In the end, when we find the courage to look at our misconceptions, we are freed.
What is so frightening about the Tower Tarot card is the sense of inevitability. During a Tarot reading, the Tower informs us that disorder and confusion can not be avoided. There is the need to delve into the unknown. The unknown represents our greatest fears. It is here that we must surrender to uncertainty. However, true freedom lies in the act of surrendering. Instead of trying to will our lives in certain directions, we have the opportunity to merge with our higher consciousness and let the Universe be guide us. There is nothing more liberating than relinquishing our concept of control. On some level, we must come to accept our powerlessness and finite natures.
Symbolically, the Tower represents the power of the Divine. This is represented by the piercing lightening bolt that knocks down the top of the Tower. Here it reminds us that we do not have the ultimate authority. Our concept of power comes from our ego. In Tarot reading, The Tower suggests that there is something much greater than our selves. There is a Universal law that we must honor and respect. As we take this into consideration, we find ourselves humbled. Our old ideas no longer work for us. We must, in the end, be willing to come to terms with the fact that our concept of self power and control is unreliable, ego-centric, and faulty.
Finally, the Tower card refers to narrow-mindedness. The Tower informs us that we have outgrown our old ideas. Our past perceptions and value systems have become too small-minded. We are, at last, ready to expand our perspectives. As we begin this process, we come to learn that we were prisoners of our own making. The Tower liberates us from self-imposed incarceration and ensures us that a false self-image will be replaced with self-knowledge. Although there is a great deal of fear and chaos with its arrival, in the end, we always discover a new freedom.
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