You need to observe the other cards around it to place it in context. While this card is generally viewed in a negative light, it doesn’t always have to be. It’s life-altering change that shakes you to your very foundation. In a general reading, The Tower represents a major upheaval that you aren’t prepared for. See also: Check out Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot decks here. The woman’s crown isn’t enough to save her here - pride often cometh before a fall. The crown is knocked off, the tower is crumbling, and its proud occupants fall, screaming, to their deaths. Unfortunately, all it takes is a strike of lightning for it all to be for naught. The Tower is a fantastic construction, topped with this ostentatious golden adornment. The crown here represents achievement, possibly even arrogance. It’s a fitting metaphor for the dozens of seemingly insignificant actions that build up to create a crisis. It’s also the source of the idiomatic term “jot,” meaning something small or insignificant, since yod is the smallest Hebrew letter.Įven small and insignificant things can wield tremendous power, evidenced by the rain of tiny flames that accompany the destruction of The Tower. In some alchemical interpretations, yod represents the tiny flame that seeks to rejoin the Divine. Around the tower, tiny flames in the shape of the Hebrew letter yod rain from the sky. The woman wears a golden crown, indicating an exalted status. Two figures, a man and a woman, are seen falling from the flaming windows. A bolt of lightning has struck the top, engulfing it in flames and knocking off a golden crown. In the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, The Tower is depicted as a gray obelisk-like structure at the top of a cliff. Instead, they have La Foudre (“lightning strike”) which depicts a man watching in distress as a tree is struck by lightning. In some old decks, particularly of the Belgian tarot, there is no card for The Tower. Narratively, it’s part of the progression from falling into destructive behavior, hitting one’s “rock bottom,” and emerging wiser and hopeful. In those that do, it comes directly between The Devil (a sign of addiction, manipulation, and self-destructive obsession) and The Star (a sign of hope and optimism).
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