“But the ego is destined to dissolve, and all its ossified structures, whether they be religious or other institutions, corporations, or governments, will disintegrate from within…”.
-Eckhart Tolle

Upheaval, revolution, revelation, clean slate

---

Overview

The collapse of false protection

The walls you’ve built to protect yourself are crumbling

The walls of The Tower explode as lightning strikes it, exposing the rooms inside the tall structure. All the possessions, complexities are exposed to the elements. The thing you once called asylum is in shambles down to its foundation. Now the only choice is to rebuild; grab everything salvageable and move forward. Build it better, stronger; this is your opportunity to reinvent the structure of everything you know. When you’re at rock bottom, you can be anything; reinvent yourself.

Symbolism

Dark skies are filled with clouds of smoke billowing out of a tower high in the sky. A brilliant bolt of lightning strikes the crown positioned on its roof top, sending two people flying through the air. One has their hands on their head, securing their crown from the velocity. The other is falling face down, with his red cape on fire. The Tower, which was seated on a mountain, isolated in the sky, is surely a devastating fall. Fire hails from the sky, the roof’s crown falling with it.

Meaning

Upheaval

Like death, The Tower symbolizes upheaval and massive change in your life. It’s something that knocks down your internal structures you use to protect yourself.  All the walls you’ve built around your heart come showering down, leaving you open and vulnerable. The thing is if you had been paying attention you would have seen it coming.

Eye Of The Storm

Take a moment and gather yourself. Don’t take too long this may only be the eye of the storm. Once you’ve found stable ground, look around at what’s left to salvage of your morals. Take what has survived and rebuild. Disrobe your armor and meld it into something that can stand up to the person you are becoming

Influence on Suits

During a reading, pay attention to the majority of the cards that are present. Depending on the number of Tarot cards of each suite, the meaning of the card can take a different shape.

With Cups dominating a reading with The Tower: The Emotional risk you are involved with can make or break your structure completely, but there is no reward without risk.

If wands surround the spread: The object of your will has the ability to shatter the foundation of society. Maybe not single-handedly but you will contribute or inspire the leaders of it. It will change views around the world.

If Pentacles are omnipresent in the reading: Something drains your disaster fund of most of its cushion. It may seem unexpected, but you have known for some time something was about to break, ignored it and hoped for the best. In the future position this can be prevented.

With swords suffocating the spread: Mentally, you are burned out and at the point of break down. If you are strong enough not to crack and swallow the stress it can make you ill physically or mentally.

---

The Tower Reversed

“Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective… these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history”
– Winston Churchill

Resisting change, delaying disruption, narrowly escaping disaster

---

In the Reversed position, you can turn the meaning of The Tower upside down and inside out, or it can be perceived as something else. Reversed cards can be read a few different ways. If you want to know the source of the concept of why this card is defined the way it is, check out the article “Reading Reversals” in Chapter 6 of this knowledge base.

If you simply want to know the reason and not the method of deciphering, here are some possible ways to read the card in reversed.

Meaning

Nearly avoiding calamity

You’ve snaked through by the skin of your teeth if the Tower is in the revered position. The spirits who root for you sent you numerous warning of what was to come and thus you were able to escape before the storm hit. Whether by emotionally withdrawing, physically changing locations, or challenging someone else’s thought processes to meet your perspective.

In this sense, I consider the Tower in Reversed to be highly favorable. Conversely, this may have been something you were made to experience in order to your character. If you avoided something in this form, you would have to a face it again in another. It is not entirely a win but if you were worse for wear it was a nice break from the chaos.

Fear of change

If you are comfortable where you are right now, and refusing to change your life— the Tower will be thrown in your face. Stop playing it safe, and you might avoid it.  Ultimately, you are becoming far too comfortable with where you are right now, and thus your growth in life has stopped prematurely before you reached the person you were made to become. To stimulate change in your life, the higher powers will throw you a curveball as a result.

In this sense, this is a forewarning to start moving or be dragged.

Health changes

Now is the time to pay attention to your body. In a reading about your wellness, this comes as a warning sign that the lifestyle your living is apt to cause you issues later in life. Whether you’re a smoker, drinker, sedentary, not eating right, pushing yourself too hard in the gym— the outcome of your actions will lead to some sort of critical failure in your system.

This maybe a good time to go to the doctor and receive your annual physical, and bring up any abnormalities that you’ve been experiencing. If you catch the warning signs, and the condition early enough it could prevent you from having to deal with a terminal issue in the future.

On the other cheek, you should be hyper-aware of your safety over the coming weeks to months. Avoid risk taking behaviors, wear your seatbelt while driving, and pay attention to threats in your environment. Listen to your intuition, especially if the High Priestess shows her face in the same reading. It could be the difference between life, limb and coming out unscathed.

Work Changes

Pay attention to the majority of suits around the Tower card, if there are a lot of pentacles present, there could be an issue coming to head with your career or another source of income. Whether someone who finances your lifestyle has a setback or reaches a major financial strain, or your current employer is considering downsizing to reach their bottom line. If you have job security, you may find that you take on a load too heavy for you to bare as you absorb other positions that were disposed of.

Improve your Relations

In this sense the Tower reversed can be seen as a forewarning that if your behaviors or attentions don’t change, then you will experience a loss. It’s time to speculate what these friendships, romantic relationships or familiar ones mean to you and what you’re willing to do in order to remedy them.

Iff the Tower reversed is surrounded by a lot of the suit of cups, this is especially the case. Do you really know these loved ones as well as you should? Have you taken the time to understand their hearts? Then you already know exactly how to repair the fractures that are slowly forming in their Priceline hearts.

If the Two of Pentacles is around The Tower Reversed in the presence of a reading that is majority cups, you are sacrificing your loved ones over work. Remember, if you died tomorrow— the position you held would be an open position on a job board the same day. The people we love make our lives worth living, don’t squander them for someone who may cry over you, but move on without a second glance.

Financial setbacks

The financial setbacks you maybe facing seem more towering than they really are. It’s time to tighten your belt, not file for bankruptcy. The Tower Reveresed here is telling you that you are living beyond your means, slowly but surely with each new subscription your subscribe to.  It’s time to budget yourself in order to keep yourself above water.

Stop spending so lavishly on a lifestyle you can’t afford. There is no need to drop hundred a month on a bar tab or five star restaurants. The inevitable is coming, but you can remedy it before it occurs.