By Lorraine Kemble
Image from the RWS Tarot
15. Tower
Rachel travels to San Francisco for a Jewish, American girlfriend’s wedding, from her college days. On Rachel’s plane from London, the air-traffic is diverted and terribly delayed. Rachel, subsequently hears about an horrific accident. An inferno occurs, emerging from a tower block, which collapses. It happened in the west of England, around Devon and coincidentally, Rachel knows one of her first teachers inside it, who narrowly escapes. He changed careers and relocated to live in Cornwall. He and his family are safe, apart from one of his teenage sons who suffers a severely, fractured leg, yet, rehabilitates.
The
Tower
has typical imagery of a tall tower pitched on top of a mountain.
Lightning strikes and flames burst from the building. People are
desperately leaping from the tower, to flee such destruction.
The
Tower
signifies darkness and devastation, representing ambitions built on
false premises. The lightning bolt breaks down existing forms, in
order, to build new ones. The lightning is oriented left from heaven
to earth, and from Spirit to material. The falling figures correspond
to the chained prisoners in The
Devil.
There are 22 flames, representing the 22 Major Arcana Tarot
cards. The grey clouds are the clouds of misfortune that rain on
everybody indiscriminately. The
Tower
is one of the only cards containing good and bad energy;
representing balance.
Numerically, The Tower card is the sixteenth Major Arcanum of Tarot. Added together, one depicting the solar, divine energy and six associated with Venus and the power of love equals seven, providing spiritual insights.
Astrologically, The Tower represents Mars; a planet offering predominantly male energy.
The previous installment can be found in the March 2020 issue of Tarot Reflections. Watch for the next installment in the May issue.