The Tower: Read the Card

(Tarot Prompts for Writers)

Here’s a compilation of my notes on reading The Tower as a card of the day or in a spread.

If you’re just learning tarot, use the deck that most appeals to you, and spend some time looking at your card. What does it say to you? (See my description of The Tower as I see it.)

Tarot is personal and open-ended. There are traditional meanings — and yes, you should know them if you want to read tarot cards — but it really only “works” if you follow what the cards mean to you personally. Your tower and my tower may not mean quite the same thing.

Number

The number 16 can represent the combination of 1 — new beginnings — and 6 — harmony — but that doesn’t really apply here. This card is about endings and disaster that may, if you’re lucky, clear the way for a more honest life.

Name

Towers are symbolic of power or imprisonment, of culture or aspirations. Whether a tower is “good” or “bad” depends on whether you go there for protection or someone locks you in. Glass towers and ivory towers are out of touch with reality. The Tower in this card represents false beliefs and insecure lives; the lightning is the illumination that shatters you but allows you to see things as they really are. 

Placement

The Tower comes after the Devil, and before the final cards of the major arcana. It is the most revolutionary card in the deck, the “dark night of the soul” of your story. It is painful to go through but it’s the only way to experience the glory of a really meaningful ending. To progress further in your life, to find a deeper peace, you have to expose yourself to the truth. If you stay in your tower, you will never get there. (Chances are you already know that you’re kidding yourself.)

Traditional interpretations

The Tower is never an easy card. It’s that shattered feeling when you realize that you are not what you thought you were, that your life is a lie, that you’re actually unloved or unimportant, that you’ve been duped or foolish, that you’re living all wrong. Anything might cause the lightning: love, war, health crisis, mid-life crisis, violence, debt, adultery, failure, success, divorce, being fired, being deceived or being left alone.

Whatever the specifics of what happens, you are left reeling.

Sometimes the revelation is not totally unexpected, at least in hindsight — you should have known it was coming — but sometimes it’s a complete shock that smashes your beliefs and unhinges you. It’s an intellectual shattering, your ego rent. The flash of illumination brings enlightenment with suffering — how much of each depends on how ready you are for the truth, and how much you relied on that tower to protect you. 

The card traditionally warns of misery, distress, adversity, calamity, crime, chaos, disgrace, deception, ruin, loss, or utter disaster. An unforeseen catastrophe, shock and revolution. This could be highly personal and private, a downfall resulting from your selfish ambitions, or a widely shared trauma, a disaster that strikes the good and bad alike. It is always a sudden unexpected end that brings a sense of disaster and a crisis of confidence. You are exposed and unmoored. 

Reverse interpretations

The Tower is less disastrous reversed; there will be a shock but not as bad, and likely unnecessary — it’s self-undoing; you call down disaster that could have been avoided.

What is coming will demand a flexible character and patience. You’ve relied on deceitful things and now you must see clearly. Oppression, tyranny, false accusations, and even imprisonment may threaten. Withstand. Be open to change. Remember there are still some certainties. Friends are there – but don’t impose too much. 

Thematic readings

  • In love, clashing egos, domination. Something is coming that will level you. 
  • In work, keep your ego in check. Humility is essential for progress. Things may not be as good as they seem.
  • In general life, sometimes things fall apart. A situation you’ve relied on and thought of as permanent will end. (It could be in any area of life. Consider how the card might fit into your life — surrounding cards may suggest something — and how you might prepare or react.) You will be plunged into confusion; you’re not what you thought you were. You are cast out and have to fend for yourself.

Specific positions

  • Current situation: This is not a time to take risks. Upheaval threatens your self-image. It may lead to clearer understanding in the long term, but initially there will be a great big mess. You are not prepared for this change. Look at reality and your place in it. Remember that you’re not the only person to suffer or be deluded. Align your suffering with compassion. That is what will save you.
  • Past influence: You’ve been overconfident in your abilities. Pride causes your fall. Humility is necessary to move on. 
  • Outcome: You’ve been naïve and you’re in for a shock. What seems stable is not. Pair your recovery with humility. You may be able to see the truth of a matter and start again more wisely. The card demands adaptation. It’s not what happens but how you interpret what happens that will decide how much this hurts you. Be honest, humble, kind, and compassionate to yourself and others.  
  • Blocked: Your fear of change is isolating, stagnating. Get out of your tower before it crashes down around you. You’re not really safe there. 

Questions for the Querent

  • Do you have any reaction at first sight of this card? What do you focus on?
  • Are you afraid of this card?
  • What do you think of from your past when you see this image?
  • What is your tower built of? Who lives there with you?
  • What world might be outside this tower?
  • Do you consider yourself resilient?
  • Do you practice strategies for resilience?
  • How long do you think these people have lived here? Did they build it as a permanent home? Should they rebuild here?
  • Is the storm over now?

Keywords to aid Memory

  • Revelation
  • Shattered / Unmoored
  • Humility/Pride/Ego
  • Catastrophe/Disgrace

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Images on this page are by the following artists: Banner, left to right: Marseilles deck engraved by Nicolas Conver; Dragon Tarot illustrated by Roger and Linda Garland ; Tarot Balbi by Domenico Balbi; Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti; Radiant Rider-Waite deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith (also shown in box); Druid Craft deck illustrated by Will Worthington.