Post by Empress Palpatine on Feb 5, 2007 17:55:29 GMT -5
The 16th card of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, the Tower, always shows the image of a tall tower being struck, usually by lightning. Some decks show figures of people falling out of it. In short, it symbolizes the breaking down of existing structures, abruptly and violently, to make way for something new.
The Tower is a man made structure. It stands for systems and ideas made by man, such things as rigid ideologies and systems. The attitude is that of the arrogance of those who built the Tower of Babel. The Tower can be a society, government, religion, or anything in the material world, any ego-structure. Unlike other dark cards like Death and Devil, which are more inner related, the Tower is about outward things.
The Barbara Walker deck gives it a political twist. Her's shows two figures falling out of the struck tower, a pope and a king, to symbolize church and state and the overthrow thereof.
Everyone should remember the story of the Tower of Babel that they heard in Sunday school. Humans built a tower to reach the heavens and challenge God. God ends it when He confuses the languages of the builders. Have you ever noticed how despite the advances in communication in recent years, people still have trouble communicating and talk right past each other?
Recently in U.S. history, we actually did have a tower that was struck. It was a real event. Everyone remembers where they were when 9/11 happened. I did not find out that day until about 4:00 P.M. This was because we had no T.V. or radio on. Someone knocked on our door and told us. We did not believe him at first. It wasn't until we turned on the T.V. Even then we doubted it, wondering if it was simply special effects. It was not until I talked to relatives from N.Y. State that I believed it was really happening.
Like so many I thought it would rally the citizens of the U.S. like Pearl Harbor and WWII. I thought it would shock them into changing things. I was dissappointed by the resulting half measures, divisions, and confusion. It was later on that I thought of the Tarot's Tower. Symbolically, the Trade Towers stood for America's ego. They were all about money, trade, stock, business...basically towers of capitalism. Somehow since their fall, things have never been the same. It is as if some magical talisman was destroyed. Ever since, businessmen in America are not so clever at business. There is a strange dumbing down in the capitalist world.
Since ancient times towers symbolized either the ego of humans or the power of some god. Today that still seems to literally be the case.
The Tower is a man made structure. It stands for systems and ideas made by man, such things as rigid ideologies and systems. The attitude is that of the arrogance of those who built the Tower of Babel. The Tower can be a society, government, religion, or anything in the material world, any ego-structure. Unlike other dark cards like Death and Devil, which are more inner related, the Tower is about outward things.
The Barbara Walker deck gives it a political twist. Her's shows two figures falling out of the struck tower, a pope and a king, to symbolize church and state and the overthrow thereof.
Everyone should remember the story of the Tower of Babel that they heard in Sunday school. Humans built a tower to reach the heavens and challenge God. God ends it when He confuses the languages of the builders. Have you ever noticed how despite the advances in communication in recent years, people still have trouble communicating and talk right past each other?
Recently in U.S. history, we actually did have a tower that was struck. It was a real event. Everyone remembers where they were when 9/11 happened. I did not find out that day until about 4:00 P.M. This was because we had no T.V. or radio on. Someone knocked on our door and told us. We did not believe him at first. It wasn't until we turned on the T.V. Even then we doubted it, wondering if it was simply special effects. It was not until I talked to relatives from N.Y. State that I believed it was really happening.
Like so many I thought it would rally the citizens of the U.S. like Pearl Harbor and WWII. I thought it would shock them into changing things. I was dissappointed by the resulting half measures, divisions, and confusion. It was later on that I thought of the Tarot's Tower. Symbolically, the Trade Towers stood for America's ego. They were all about money, trade, stock, business...basically towers of capitalism. Somehow since their fall, things have never been the same. It is as if some magical talisman was destroyed. Ever since, businessmen in America are not so clever at business. There is a strange dumbing down in the capitalist world.
Since ancient times towers symbolized either the ego of humans or the power of some god. Today that still seems to literally be the case.
