TAROTThe Tower
Upright
Crisis, upheaval, destruction of old life through external events.
A crisis to existing beliefs or life, causing a need to rebuild and refocus
Sudden disruptive change.
Failure due to ego or over-ambition.
Intuition
The Minotaur represents hidden truths that lie at the foundations of the tower, creating shaky foundations or an insult to the Gods. The tower must fall because of it.
Notice the spirals on the Tower, symbol of life as a continuous journey of birth, life, death, re-birth. There will be a period of growth after the tower topples.
Reversed
Clinging on to an old life or situation that has ended, or a personal transformation through internal events.
A significant personal transformation caused by outdated thinking, distraction, ego, vanity or apathy.
An inability to move on after a significant event from the past that is blocking growth.
Astrologia
Ambitious, assertive and passionate with high emphasis on sexuality. Prone to being destructive, aggressive and making rash decisions through a self-centered path.
The Tower
While the Devil represents the darker side of your nature gaining ascendancy, the Tower represents another misfortune: an external event that reveals unstable structures and deceit, bringing them all toppling down.
The Tower is often seen as the worst card in the deck. Whether it appears Upright or Reversed, it represents major and difficult change. This change is inevitable because parts of your life are currently based on weak foundations.
Deceit, success that has taken you far but left you untrue to your core beliefs, or a relationship that has grown stagnant; all these stifle your growth. Complacency, ego, or hubris has set in. A single event can bring the entire structure crashing down, and it is only a matter of time.
There is often no way to avoid it, and no way of even knowing from which direction the initiating event will come from. Only the very intuitive and quick have a chance to avert the destruction.
However, the destruction of the Tower represents change that will ultimately be for the better. Old ways must come down forcefully because they are so strongly ingrained.
The destruction of the Tower represents change that will ultimately be for the better.
This sounds terrifying, but a new future of growth and renewal inevitably follows this destruction.
Many archetypal myths denote this situation. For every tower that reaches upward, there is a cave that reaches down. At the bottom of that cave lies a beast, representing a secret or sin that will bring the entire structure down.
Asterius the Minotaur
The Minoan civilization was hit by a massive earthquake around 1700 BCE (during the Bronze Age). This occurred around the time the first Greek civilization appeared (the Mycenaean), marking the dawn of large civilizations in the West.
This earthquake destroyed the first palace of Knossos, ending the First Palatial Period. There were three palatial periods in all, showing that the Minoans suffered greatly from natural disasters, or perhaps managed to anger a few gods with their hubris. As a cosmopolitan trade hub in the Bronze Age, they certainly had much to show off.
The first palace of Knossos in Crete was massive, occupying around 20,000 square meters across many levels, making it labyrinthine. As with many myths, the Minotaur’s story is likely a real event retold through ancient eyes: the factual destruction of this palace may be the basis of the myth.
We have a great king (Minos) who tricks Poseidon, promising to sacrifice a magnificent bull but keeping it for himself, substituting a lesser one. As punishment, Poseidon causes Minos's wife to fall in love with the bull. The result is Asterius the Minotaur: a physical manifestation of sin hidden in the center of a labyrinth.
Of course, sins never stay put. They must be fed as well as hidden. This particular sin was voracious, demanding human flesh. The Minotaur was eventually slain by Theseus, but presumably, that was not enough for Poseidon. As mentioned, the Palace of Knossos fell and was rebuilt three times.
Description and Symbology
The card depicts an ancient tower. At its base, we see the entrance to a cave: the labyrinth.
Spirals adorn the tower. These could denote a warning about the labyrinth, or hold their traditional meaning: the spiral of life, symbolizing birth, life, death, and rebirth. It likely means both, as the Tower represents short-term destruction followed by growth into a new phase.
Thunder strikes, and the planet Mars looms above. Two people fall from the tower: a man dressed in red and a woman dressed in gold, signifying that most problems have their roots in blood or money.
At the base of the tower lurks the Minotaur. He is the symbol of a sin, mistake, or event kept hidden at the foundation. He will bring the whole tower down because the structure rests upon a growing, voracious beast of a problem.
Once the tower falls, the beast is negated. There is no longer anything to hide, and nothing to constantly waste energy fixing. That energy can finally be put to productive use, and, as the spirals suggest, life will move on.
Card Icon
The circle and arrow has several meanings. It can represent the shield and spear of Ares, God of War. It can represent the planet Mars. It can represent the male energy of the Minotaur. It could be as obvious as a tower with a cave at the bottom. Or it could be all of them.
The Tower
Represents the life you have created, the experiences you have built up, the things you have, but at its foundations may lie the mistakes and deceits that also came along the way. Such things cannot be fixed without also bringing down the tower first.
The Spiral
Near the base of the tower we see some brickwork has come off to reveal a more ancient inner part of the tower’s structure, and on it, we see the ancient symbol of the spiral. This represents life as a constantly cyclical process, but on each turn you get closer to the goal.
The Fallers
A number of people are falling from the tower. It is not clear if they have jumped because the tower is about to fall, or because they were pushed. Either way, they are victims to the tower’s current situation. The closest man wears red, and the closest woman wears gold, symbolizing most problems are to do with blood or money.
Asterius
At the base of the tower we see a cave entrance and Asterius the Minotaur. Half-man, half-bull, he represents an unholy union that is a slight to the God Poseidon yet Asterius is innocent in his predicament. When the tower falls, there will be more than one such innocent. Nevertheless, the Minotaur is the sin at the foundation of the tower that will cause it to fall.
Tips for Readings
The following table shows the upright and reverse meanings for general questions. The last row ('Yes/No') is useful when you are picking a single card to decide a yes or no decision.
Upright
Reversed
Sudden upheaval in a relationship, creating toxicity and a need to rebuild or tear down and start over.
To survive the upheaval, quick and decisive action is required.
Upheaval in a relationship coming from your side of the equation. Address any unresolved issues you have that may be causing the relationship to unravel, become toxic, or simply unsatisfying.
A need to re-evaluate goals and career path in light of a sudden change. This will cause serious problems in the near future, but re-evaluation and growth in the long term.
The card suggests being ready for it. Save money. Take no risks.
A need to re-evaluate goals and career path because of unresolved issues within yourself: lack of belief in the current path, lack of progress or changing personal situation.
It may be time to instigate a change but be prepared for some pain in the short term.
Possible sudden illness or injury through an accident, or unaddressed negative emotions that are affecting health via stress or sense of unfairness.
Known illnesses or injuries may get worse. Check your wellbeing in both body and mind and be prepared for challenges in the short term, but the future looks better.
Deeply held beliefs will be shaken by a revelation or change. Be prepared for change or to have to let go of some core beliefs.
Address whether recent success has come at the expense of core beliefs.
Check whether ego and ambition have come at the expense of leaving behind something precious behind
Financial ruin is a possibility.
Check your plans for unrealistic expectations or a reliance on others. You may be let down at the foundations of your planning, causing them to crumble.
Check whether you are spending to further yourself or just give the impression of being a big-shot.
You may have built a tower of success, but pride comes before a fall.
No, chaos and upheaval.
Uncertain; short term pain.
Reading the Card
The Upright Card
The Upright Tower represents a sudden upheaval causing a major collapse in your life. Structures and relationships may be altered or disappear entirely. It will likely be a difficult and challenging time, especially because the event is often unexpected.
Often, the reasons for the collapse have been fermenting for some time. Life seems to be moving forward, but things have actually become stagnant and immovable. Perhaps ego, lies, and deceit contributed to early success; these are now hidden in the fabric of your tower, creating fatal weakness. There might be an ongoing secret, or a structural weakness in the things you rely on for stability: the job you 'cannot' lose, or the help you have come to take for granted.
Whatever the cause, a weakness exists in the fabric of your life, waiting for a sudden event to bring it crashing down.
Rebuilding will be hard, but infinitely better in the long term. The issues that caused the structural weakness are gone now that the tower has collapsed. You are free to move back into a phase of growth.
The Reversal
The Reversed Tower is unusual in that it represents something very similar to the Upright card; only the scope changes. In the Upright, the collapse involves external factors: family, friends, and career. In the Reversal, it affects the inner you.
Something within you must change: a belief, a set of values, or a way of living. Stagnation has set in. This could be regarding a relationship, a workplace, or simply the rhythm of your life slowly becoming dull. The external world will not change, and there will be no lightning strike. The collapse will be entirely in your head.
The world around you remains the same, but you will change. From this new vantage point, you will realize that you must be the destroyer, upturning and removing parts of your life so it is fit for the future.
This may mean fixing relationships (or your role within them), closing them down entirely, moving to a better career, or changing your circle to remove toxicity and barriers to growth.
The core point is that this is an internal reckoning; it is up to you to initiate the change. You have the option to ignore the message, but that will almost certainly allow the rot to worsen. Remember, this is a choice between a stable life that you dislike, and a new life free of the things holding you back. Viewed in this light, there is truly only one choice.
Card Design Process
The Tower is often one of the most feared cards, as it is always initially negative. The design intent was to create an 'ugly card that stands out from the others', dark and featuring a mythological monster associated with the foundations of the tower itself.
Most Tarot decks show the tower falling or being struck by lightning. For this deck, the aim was to show the weakness or hidden sin within the foundation; this is the true cause of the collapse.
The lightning or earthquake is just the push the tower needs to initiate the final cycle of its life: closure. After that, the monster is negated, the angry gods are satisfied, and life can continue, this time growing from more stable foundations.
Final Words
The grass is always greener on the other side, but if you stand still for too long, the grass under your own feet will die. You simply will not see this until you are forced to move. The Tower is the card that pushes you.
