Tower representing death?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 14 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Dovanna	14 Mar 2005
Most of the descriptions I've read on the Tower card talk about destruction, "crumbling", etc... But can it also represent physical death on it's own? I ask because there are two major things going on in my life at the moment. My grandfather who I'm not that close with was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only a few months, and I'll be finding out in a couple days if I've gotten into graduate school. Family and career have been on my mind more and more in the past few days. Since learning of grandfather's condition a week ago, I've gotten the Tower three times in two days on spreads that related to my career path. I can't help but think of my family when that cards pops up. *if I've posted in the wrong section feel free to move it

closrapexa	14 Mar 2005
Lady Harris writes in her essay about the cards that she painted tha the Tower means "Purification through fire, lightening, flames, war." This can mean a multitude of different things. The tower comes at a time of violent upheaval and revolution and in this so-called "meaning" you can find so many things. In another book, by Terry Donaldsen he writes of the Tower that it shows the need to build on solid foundations and build up your strength for the upheavals that are to come. Now, according to what you say, you are indeed in a time of change and upheaval, you may be feeling that things are going too fast for you or something. Did you see that? It was a shot in the dark!!. If so, then the Tower makes sense.

WalesWoman	14 Mar 2005
The Tower came up a lot when a freind of mine was diagnosed with cancer and then died a week later. I don't know if it meant his death so much as the emotional and physical turmoil of changes, our illusions that life stays the same, that we will always see them around and having to face reality, to take nothing forgranted, that went with it. It was World, Judgement and 6 Swords showing up that meant his death to me more than the Tower did. I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather, Dovanna, my deepest heartfelt sympathies. It could be Tarot is telling you your family may need more of your attention, since you think of them when you see this card. Sometimes it ignores what you are asking about and tells you where you need to focus instead. In regards to the career path spreads, it might also depend on what the other cards were and what position the Tower came up in. Sometimes what we think we want and what is actually best for us are two different things, so it may be asking you to examine why you want to do this, what motivates you and what you have built your tower on. Are your foundations firm? Sometimes the Tower isn't so ominous, but more of a light bulb going off, a bit of serendipity to make a turbulent emotional crisis suddenly make some sort of sense, gaining insight into something that's troubled you and caused a lot of worry.

psychic sue	14 Mar 2005
I think there are a lot of cards that can relate to physical death, the tower being one of them - but it obviously depends on the position and the other cards in the spread. The Tower, I think, could relate to the response to death - the whole world crumbling down.

Aoife	14 Mar 2005
Dovanna wrote: Most of the descriptions I've read on the Tower card talk about destruction, "crumbling", etc... If you look at the RWS and Marseille images [and many others], a bolt of lightening strikes the crown of the tower. Metaphorically it is about that powerful and painful experience of enlightenment that can turn our world upside down, that blasts us out of our comfort zones and dramatically changes the way we see and feel about things thereafter. Quote: But can it also represent physical death on it's own? In this instance I would say no... its far more likely to refer to the spiritual, emotional and mental changes in you that comes about from taking such a significant step on your career path, together with the impending loss within your family. The way we feel about loss of a particular person is often determined by how close we are to them... but the loss of a family member, no matter how distant, can affect others we're close to, can significantly change the family structure and functioning, and can be a reminder of the ebb and flow of life. The Tower reflects these changes... but also reminds you that change resulting from enlightenment, whilst undoubtedly painful, is also the impetus for significant growth.

Bosorka	14 Mar 2005
To me, Tower always reprezented two things pretty connected together. The sudden change, something that came like a lightning from brith sky, or a need for starting from begging, for building another tower putting together brick on brick. So I won´t say that Tower would stand for death, but for change. Good or bad, happy or sad, but for change.

Elven	14 Mar 2005
There is so much wisdom in the threads already posted that Im not sure I can add much to their good help and advice but, I would like to comment that although you have the news around you recently of your grandfathers ill health, I feel that the Tower is leaning towrd your career path, but it attends to you personally. It may mean the changes you make will have a mighty impact and blow the top off all your plans. Are you sure of what your next move is? are you leaning one way and then another - like the leaning tower of Pizza - careful not to take on too much and topple over. I read somewhere in one thread on ATF that the Tower is also like a Light House, it shines on things that we cant see. The only other thing that has come up with the Tower in a reading ( which had to do with death but in an indirect way and with alot of other cards inclusive), was that it was at night. Hope this has been of some help, Take care and best wishes Elven x

The Hierophant	14 Mar 2005
All I can tell you is that I lost both of my parents to Cancer---took care of both of them till the end. Can't think of anything more painful if I tried. Yet oddly enough it was life affirming---it taught me to value life so much more than before--it was as if my parents were handing me that legacy. I think this message lives within the Tower. After my parents were gone I was no longer someone's child. I shed my old self and was someone different. Life changes us, sometimes suddenly. You will gain strength from your experiences. The Tower is an affirmation of life. Good Luck! Hal

Nuovena	14 Mar 2005
in regards to your question being if the tower could be more relative to your grandfathers illness rather than what may be about to transpire regarding your career path: i've found that other cards appear almost subconsiously in a reading. what i mean is that i could be doing a spread on one issue and some other ongoing issue presents itself in the reading too. if you feel your cards are trying to tell you something about your grandfather while doing your career readings, you might want to ask the cards why or what they are trying to tell you. perhaps there's a family member that hasn't taken the news so well and requires some support? or try a cleansing by using a clear crystal or fire between each reading. when i feel my cards need a rest or if i've asked them one too many times regarding a situation, i will take out my smudge stick and do a better cleansing. sometimes too, i refuse to listen to my cards. when this happens the hanged man usually comes up. as for the tower itself, i've only come across this card when some shocking information or event is about to, or has, come into my life. my world as i know it usually crumbles. i like what bosorka wrote in that it represents change. i also like what closrapexa wrote about Lady Harris' interpretation of the card. i see both of their thoughts reflected in my experience with the tower. and lastly, interestingly enough today, my daily reading advised the knight of swords and the tower. needless to say, i was on alert. as it happened the only thing i could put these two cards together with today was than an ambulance sped up behind me in morning traffic on the highway. i could only think of my fast and furious knight with his sense of urgency and the tower for the life of who's emergency it was. hope this helps

tarotbear	14 Mar 2005
I am one of those people who firmly believes that the tarot does not or will not predict Death. There are many cards of change in tarot, and the Tower being one of the most dramatic images of the tarot brings with it much controversy. For me, the Tower represents change of a sudden type. It will knock your sox off with it's intensity and will come without any warning. If you are lucky to have received some kind of warning, the event will happen before you can act upon it. Although heavily dramatic, this card is far from negative. The Tower indicates that you have built your tower on a base that cannot support it, meaning that your belief system is incorrect, you have badly miscalculated your abilities, or are just plain ignoring the warning signs that you are seeking the wrong thing. That bolt of lightening strikes to tell you it's time to rethink, rework, rejoin. By knocking you off your feet, you have no choice but the start over, and by destroying the incorrect beliefs you hold, you can start fresh again. Remember - everything that gets destroyed was not necessarily in your best interests, so the negatve forces in your life are being destroyed as well.

psychic sue	15 Mar 2005
tarotbear wrote: I am one of those people who firmly believes that the tarot does not or will not predict Death. John, you are right in one sense (IMHO) that there is no card or spread that will predict death. The two times I have seen it, it was my inuition that picked it up, the cards in question (neither of them death by the way) being the catalsyt to my psychic ability. It works for me like this - I look at the card, I begin to speak and suddenly I am rambline away, sometimes on a subject way different to the card that started me off. I hasten to add, that my querants seem to know what I am talking about, even if I don't! But when death cropped up, I didn't tell either querant, for the obvious reasons, although one lady picked it up herself (she told me this after her husband had died). I personally find this aspect of "psychic ability" upsetting and I have asked since these two occasions, not to be shown anything connected with physical death. I think its interesting to note that on both occasions, it wasn't the querant but people close to them, that died. I know this isn't true for everyone as I have read other posts on this. Sue

Dovanna	19 Mar 2005
I did get some major disappointing news about career-related stuff in addition to more bad news related to family this week.. It got me thinking that the Tower that showed up maybe represented both career and family, but more on the career end of things. In anycase it was Bad Stuff on the Way. tarotbear's post really says it all.

ros	19 Mar 2005
I use The Tower as "misfortunes are blessings in disguise" It may not be clear now, but in the future when you look back, things that are happening are blessings. (foundations or structures are not firm) Take Care (((Dovanna)))

Alpha-Omega	22 Mar 2005
well i did a reading for a friend who wanted to know what would happen in the month of the question with her boyfriend and the tower came up. He got hit by a car and got killed. So the Tower did represent DEATH. I told her at the ime of the reading was that a horrible event was going to take place and would change her life.

Adjustment	22 Mar 2005
Yes i have done readings where the tower was telling me of the death of someone i knew, it happened with 2 different people, but the tower came up combined with the 3 of swords, 10 of swords and other swords card. it was kind of scarry to see all this card in one spread.

WalesWoman	23 Mar 2005
When I saw the Tower regarding my freind last month, as well as 8 Cups, 6 Swords, Justice, 3 Swords I knew no matter how much 7 Wands came up he wasn't going to win this battle for long. I figured the Tower was finding out the diagnosis and 8 Cups the actual death.

mariskiss	23 Mar 2005
Hi...could the TOWER card, besides many things perhaps simbolize moving--to another county, another house...???? Could the tower represnt "HOME and HOUSE"??? A sudden change to your house, hence predicting moving somewhere?? Of course this would also be affected by the other surrounding cards, for example the WORLD might be moving to a different counrty. Has anybody else ever thought of it that way? It happened to me in one of my readings. please let me know if I'm way off!

Dovanna	24 Mar 2005
mariskiss wrote: Hi...could the TOWER card, besides many things perhaps simbolize moving--to another county, another house...???? Could the tower represnt "HOME and HOUSE"??? A sudden change to your house, hence predicting moving somewhere?? Of course this would also be affected by the other surrounding cards, for example the WORLD might be moving to a different counrty. Has anybody else ever thought of it that way? It happened to me in one of my readings. please let me know if I'm way off! I do plan on moving to a new area soon, but none of the surrounding cards suggested travel. In spreads that I've had that deal with/mention travel the Tower was no where to be found. But I could see how the Tower could represent moving, especially if cards around it were also saying the same thing... I think I just repeated myself! ;)

MeeWah	24 Mar 2005
The Tower has represented news of a death; physical death other than the client's (a family member or close friend); illness from the recoverable to the catastrophic; marital breakup; house fire; a change of residence; job loss; accident resulting in physical injury; car accident; migraine. Do not recall the surrounding cards of each occasion, but moreorless read The Tower on its own.

Dave's Angel	27 Mar 2005
Tarotbear, I'd broadly agree with you in that in my experience no card clearly and unequivocally predicts death. Part of it is that few of the cards are unequivocal about anything on their own, and part of it also is that I would have very strong reservations, if I drew the Tower, about assuming it meant a death (regardless of whether I was reading for myself or someone else) because of the seriousness of making that assumption. That said, I do think that the Tower is the card that brings up Death the most clearly. For me it is, as someone else said, deep-reaching and painful change that shakes your foundations. It's as if, once you've been nudged and nudged and nudged into making change, but haven't, you will be made to change like it or no. That can mean a lot of other things, true, but death is probably the biggest example of "deep-reaching and painful change" we'll ever come across in life. What helps for me, as an exercise, is to come at it from the opposite angle. Instead of taking a card and asking "What circumstance does this represent?" I think of a possible circumstance and ask "If this were to happen, which card would represent it?" and for death the cards that spring to mind are The Tower and the Ten of Swords, and possibly The World if there's an element of someone being in pain and death coming as a release.

Nuovena	28 Mar 2005
I had the tower come up for me three days ago regarding a friend of mine. His mother has been very ill with cancer. I hadn't heard from him in a few days, until today. His mother did pass over the weekend. Thought it was worth mentioning. Thanks,

psychic sue	29 Mar 2005
So sorry to hear about your friend's loss. My heart goes out to him. The tower in this situation relates not directly to the death (IMHO) but to your friends reaction. The whole world has crashed down. I will say a prayer tonight that his grief be eased in the weeks to come. Blessings Sue x

Hazelsdottir	02 Apr 2005
I just wanted to add to this thread that in my own experience, The Tower represents transformation through upheaval. The upheaval itself is some kind of catastrophic change that is almost always experienced as a negative, usually something quite shattering. But, the transformation _that comes about because of the upheaval_ can often be really positive. Not always, but often. So when I read this card, I think of "transfiguration through pain." For example, when my mother died, I was grief-stricken for months. I loved her very much, and I missed her desperately. But I also have to say that the experience changed me for the better. I became able to relate much more directly and openheartedly to other people's suffering. The importance of being kind to others became clear to me in a completely new way. I so wish it hadn't taken my mother's death for me to learn some of this; but in a way, this was her final gift to me... and it's a precious one. So with The Tower, you have the shattering experience - and then you have the aftermath, how we deal with that experience. I think the aftermath is at least as much a part of The Tower as the experience itself. (We don't just see The Tower being struck by lightning, we also see the effect: the people falling!) We can choose to use that shattering experience to let go of what is no longer useful, and to become renewed. The other thing about The Tower is that (again, in my experience) it often refers to the demise of a situation whose dissolution is long overdue. There can be a sense that something is stale or ossified (e.g. a loveless marriage is chugging along with both partners unwilling to take the initiative and move on), and that the event referred to by the card is the catalyst that brings necessary change into being. Sometimes, it can refer to an illness coming to fruition. In any case, a cycle is coming to its inevitable close. These are perhaps rather optimistic ways of reading the card, but since so many people find it scary or disturbing, I really think that the potentially transformative quality of the Tower experience is an important one to mention. It's a little like Death in that way, except that with The Tower, the change is invariably startling or shocking... the ground falling (apparently) from beneath one's feet. Hazelsdottir

The Tower representing death? thread was originally posted on 14 Mar 2005 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.