Tower

Teheuti

I just had the Tower come up for me in a question about what's happening with the state of the world—one of those BIG questions.

At first I wondered if it was suggesting another act of terrorism. I turned to Oswald Wirth's book, The Tarot of the Magicians, and it gave me such an important insight. Afterall, there are always cataclysms and terrorist acts, but what's behind it all?

Wirth describes the Tower as the intensive exploitation of the Earth that eventually leads to terrifying social cataclysm. At the basis of it is the instinct toward individualization, which I take as the "every man for himself" or Ayn Rand-type philosophy. We build up false towers like Wall Street and banks-gone-mad and, when lightning strikes, everyone bails, mortgages are sold off, homes foreclosed, etc. It also suggests global warming and the extinction of species.

Terrorism is just another aspect of the same thing except the ideology stands in for the individualism. And, on the metaphoric level, even the earth itself tries to shake off the concretization of the land.

Any other thoughts?
 

SPIRIT HAWK

the tower to me plain and simple of your question , what's happening with the state of the world?
its falling apart.... as in the environment and the way our planet is treated .
i also take it as world tragedy's as in tsunamis , all the terrorism , yes we are going to have a shock and one day a wake up call and realize that things must change .
things maybe not be working all over the world and everything needs to be worked on , also some kind of treaty/or line needs to be drawn in the war torn country's as its destroying not just there country but life's too,
i would say the tower pretty well sums up the state of the world today , the whole planet and world need's to be worked on , just my thoughts and how i relate the card to the question :)
 

Luna-Ocean

the tower to me plain and simple of your question , what's happening with the state of the world?
its falling apart.... as in the environment and the way our planet is treated .
i also take it as world tragedy's as in tsunamis , all the terrorism , yes we are going to have a shock and one day a wake up call and realize that things must change .
things maybe not be working all over the world and everything needs to be worked on , also some kind of treaty/or line needs to be drawn in the war torn country's as its destroying not just there country but life's too,
i would say the tower pretty well sums up the state of the world today , the whole planet and world need's to be worked on , just my thoughts and how i relate the card to the question :)

I would agree with this, the Tower is re-enforcing what the rest of the world is going through, a complete shake up on the economy that is happening around the world and everyone right now, financially in Britain and in the USA this recession will not be easy or even stable, and things are still looking to be uncertain for a long time to come.
 

Richard

In my opinion, I'm afraid your insight is accurate, Teheuti. *shudder* (I tend to be an ostrich and avoid the BIG questions.)
 

starrystarrynight

My off-the-cuff intuitive thoughts on this question...

The world (i.e. its inhabitants) is building to a false god, needs enlightenment--and will get it, whether we see it coming or not. (I think some will see it coming; others will never.) The fact that you asked about the world as a whole, I might not see it as a single act of terrorism--no matter what the scope, though that could be a part of it--but as a necessary enlightenment of mankind as a whole. That means everyone needs to "get it"...and this Tower "event" would likely be (to me) a composite of stuff happening to chip away at the false economy (not in the financial sense) under which the world, as a whole, is laboring.

So, maybe not a single cataclysmic event...but possibly a chipping away of the negativity that has put us where we are now. So, either we, as a whole, will get it--or we will destroy ourselves and one another trying.

I read trumps as lessons needed to be learned or affected...so the Tower says we need to end the way we see and do things as a whole or everything will collapse--either all at once or in bits and pieces (which is what seems to be happening in the world today already on many fronts.)
 

Richard

It seems to me that the original question pertains to the way the world is at present, while starrystarrynight is looking at how the present gloomy (to say the least) situation may be improved. I'm afraid that sometimes things have to hit bottom before coming back up. That's the revolving of the Wheel of Fortune.
 

Teheuti

Yes - I was asking about the current situation, but since it's such a big question, current could mean this whole decade, like when we talk about life in the '70s. Still, I didn't get a sense of a specific event as a trend.

What I liked so much about what Oswald Wirth said is that he focused on the energetic source of the problem rather than on the specific events that result.
 

Autumn D.

Silver Lining...

You know, my first response to The Tower in this case was actually relief! That tower crumbling to the ground is built on denial, lies, harmful practices, and fear hiding in the shadows. We're once again coming to a place as a global society where structures built on limited beliefs and rigid thinking are collapsing. It's a terribly stressful time for many going through it, but it isn't a permanent state of being. Nature is taking her course, both in terms of the environmental changes we are experiencing as well as the disharmony within economic and political structures. We see the old destructive patterns clinging desperately to life through acts of terrorism and greed on the corporate and individual levels. We also see people integrating the gifts of life, community, and peace more deeply within themselves and encouraging all the people whose lives they touch to join in this spiritual awakening.
When the tower is destroyed, we mourn. The pain only lasts as long as our attachment to everything that structure represented. Once we let go, what is left is the truth of who and what we are, and our place in the cosmos. The spiritual awakening that we are feeling and sharing can come to fruition without the tower looming over us and casting a cold shadow on this beautiful light.
I hope that this gives a slightly hopeful tint to an otherwise gloomy storm cloud. It's not all bad when The Tower decides to visit!
 

Practicing Human

You know, my first response to The Tower in this case was actually relief! That tower crumbling to the ground is built on denial, lies, harmful practices, and fear hiding in the shadows. We're once again coming to a place as a global society where structures built on limited beliefs and rigid thinking are collapsing. It's a terribly stressful time for many going through it, but it isn't a permanent state of being. Nature is taking her course, both in terms of the environmental changes we are experiencing as well as the disharmony within economic and political structures. We see the old destructive patterns clinging desperately to life through acts of terrorism and greed on the corporate and individual levels. We also see people integrating the gifts of life, community, and peace more deeply within themselves and encouraging all the people whose lives they touch to join in this spiritual awakening.
When the tower is destroyed, we mourn. The pain only lasts as long as our attachment to everything that structure represented. Once we let go, what is left is the truth of who and what we are, and our place in the cosmos. The spiritual awakening that we are feeling and sharing can come to fruition without the tower looming over us and casting a cold shadow on this beautiful light.
I hope that this gives a slightly hopeful tint to an otherwise gloomy storm cloud. It's not all bad when The Tower decides to visit!

This is my favorite take so far... thank you, Autumn!

I've always interpreted the Tower as the the fall of the ego, that we have climbed as high as we can and cannot climb any higher. That we can only ascend internally rather than externally.

How many times have we seen the Tower in our own readings or in other readings? Yet we continue going forward, though we have to start a new way of life or change the course we were on. A way of living had become outmoded and useless. That's why I can't see this card as a doom-and-gloom card. It is an end of a particular paradigm that has outlived its usefulness. I think it is indicating an end to our current paradigm as a species, not an end to our species.
 

Teheuti

Thank you all. Really good perspectives. I like the idea that it is the end of a paradigm. But how, then, is the Tower different from the Death/Rebirth card?