Death & Tower Card Question (Please help!)

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 04 Aug 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

moon_celestial	04 Aug 2003
Hi everyone, I'm new here :o) When I first looked at the Rider Waite Tower & Death card images, I pictured something unpleasant.But when I started to read some meanings about it, it's not so bad as I first thought it was at all.For example: the death card can represent rebirth or the beginning of something new like a catterpillar transforming into a butterfly. But how are we going to know what the card is telling us at a specific time when we already have a fixed opinion about the card in the first place? If you get the death & tower card when you're asking about someone's feelings towards someone else, does that mean it's negative just because I have a negative outlook on the images? I'd love to get some other opinions out there. Thanks in advance!

DimGenesis	04 Aug 2003
Quote: Originally posted by moon_celestial But how are we going to know what the card is telling us at a specific time when we already have a fixed opinion about the card in the first place? Well, a good first step is to clear your mind of pre-conceived ideas, and learn to love even the cards you hate. The Death :TDEAT the Tower :TTOW and The Devil :TDEV are the most misunderstood cards in the deck, in my opinion, since for they all carry relatively good meanings but their imagery tends to scare the newly introduced to tarot. These three cards deal with transition, with opening your eyes and acknowledging what's going on around you, realising who you really are. Small parts of us die every day, and we don't even realise. There's no reason to fear the cards even if you're reading about love or health, as long as you can understand that all death and downfall can be good because nothings happens without a reason. If a change will happen, it's because a change was needed.

genna	04 Aug 2003
In the beginning getting such cards in a reading about perhaps a friendship scard me horribly.Then I learned nothing awful happened to the friendship,but the cards where symbols of some change(Death,Tower),not the end of that friendship. Remember also that if a reading seems to end badly it can be a warning about doing things differently.A reading isnīt "written in stone".Then the bad things you foresee do not come to pass.Ask what you should do instead. Do keep a Tarot Journal and write down daily cards with a little entry about what happened that day,and write down as many of your readings as you can.Later,this will help you in reading the cards,and seeing what those cards can mean in your life(and those meanings change too).Like the reader who sometimes got Three of Swords when a toothache was coming on,or the Tower for thing to do with her house;like a spring-cleaing. Itīs very often only afterwards I see what these cards stand for(I read almost only to myself).Thatīs another thing;reading to yourself can be difficult.Often you tend to see the worst in the cards you get.Sometimes your readings even mirror your fear(Tower,Death,Ten and Three of Swords,if these are the cards you most fear for example),because you expect such a reading so strongly. Then the cards could have answered another question and wasnīt talking about the one you put in the first place at all,because you were not concentrating,or neede to know about something else. The readings done for me by a (good) professional is always more insightful than the ones I do myself.Still,I read for myself a lot,for the training.

ninewaters	05 Aug 2003
Death signifies, an end to something. Whereas, tower normally mean a collapse of the system/hierachy/perceptions/forms. However tower too provide the meaning of starting afresh. My own humble opinion is that, , the someone feeling towards someone else, will come to an end, not just a normal ending, but rather it can trigger a breakdown of all the "perceptions and forms" that he/she perceives inside him/her and is most likely to start afresh. As for the fixed opinion on the card, sometimes our brain are so stucked with the impression, so follow the impression then, not the reference. For example, if u always think fool is idiotic, then he is ! However, it is nice to try to be objective when it comes to the question-asking :D Its just my own perception, heehee :D

The Death & Tower Card Question (Please help!) thread was originally posted on 04 Aug 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.