The Tower - When the Walls Come Tumbling Down

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Happy Summer Solstice everyone!!!

For this blog hop, we were instructed to choose a card from the Major Arcana, for whatever personal reason that we have chosen it, and write about it.  It could be because we hate it, love it, wrote a poem about it, painted our own version of it, etc.  The personal reasons for choosing each card are going to be as diverse as our multi-talented hoppers. If you are following the blog in order, you should have come here by way of Johanna Hill and the Devil Card.  Let’s get started with the card that I chose, The Tower.

The Tower from the Pamela Coleman Smith 

Commemorative Deck

Ahhh, the dreaded Tower card.  It’s definitely one of those cards that can bring up instant anxiety when it turns up in a reading.  The picture itself is pretty intense, with lightening hitting the tower and people falling from the windows towards their impending doom.  It’s a pretty dark card at first look. We fear we are about to have the rug pulled out from under us, our foundation shaken to the core.  It’s obvious that something big is about to happen.  The thing about the destructive tower, is that there is always hope and possibilities in its wake.  We have the opportunity to rebuild the structure to make any improvements or changes that we would like.  Sometimes there has to be a shake up in our lives to make those changes, to make our lives more of what we want it to be or need it to be.  Many times, we know that changes need to be made but for whatever reason, we are reluctant.  Sometimes its fear based and sometimes we are just stuck and we don’t know how to proceed.  The Tower shows us that our hand is being forced; that its time to make those changes whether we feel we are ready or not.

I am no stranger to the fear of the Tower when it comes up, in my reading or in a clients reading.  Even after all of these years, I still get that little twinge and I think “oh crap”, but I know that this is just a forewarning and it’s best to be prepared so I (or the client) know where to go from here.  My “Tower moment” happened about 4 years ago, only it is more literal than most: my house was hit by lightening.  Talk about having your foundation destroyed.  Thankfully, no humans were home at the time so there were no injuries, however, we did lose a few feathered and furred family members. Losing your home in an event such as this is difficult to describe.  You lose your sense of security.  The place that is your retreat, where you feel safe, is no longer there to comfort you and in its place are pain and feelings of misplacement.  It was a surreal time in our lives.  It’s pretty normal to ask “why” at times like this, and its difficult to figure out what we are supposed to learn when we are in the midst of it.  There is always a lesson to be learned though, we just may not be aware of it right away. 

I had a few lessons that I learned and one of them was that I’m stronger than I thought I was.  I had to be, even though I felt like falling apart, and in some ways, I did.  Like the tower, I, personally, was destroyed and I needed to find a way to rebuild myself.  I needed the reminder that I was strong and that I could handle it, especially at a time in my life where I felt utterly defeated, even prior to the fire.  At first the fire felt as though it was one more negative thing to happen in our lives and I felt very much like a victim for a very long time. Then I changed my perception and looked for, not only the reasons that it happened, but how I could make the best out of the situation. I don’t even remember when it happened, in all honesty, but it did.  As sucky as it was at the time, I know that it laid the groundwork for what is happening now. 

At the time of the fire, our home was 11 years old.  We were talking about moving but we needed to do a lot of work to sell it, i.e. new carpet, painting, etc., you know: the typical things.  We needed to sell the house for many reasons but we didn’t even have the money to come up with improvements.  Enter the lightening.  Just like the Tower makes us do, we were able to rebuild our foundation by rebuilding our home.  The inside of our home has been remodeled and we are able to put the house on the market so we can move and rebuild the foundation of our relationship.  After years of barely seeing my over the road trucker husband, especially now that we are empty nesters, this is our opportunity for him to slow down and for us to focus on our relationship and really enjoy life rather than just doing what we need to do in order to pay the bills.  I’m not sure how long it would have taken us to be able to reach this point without the fire and quite honestly, it’s taken longer than what we have planned since then, but looking at everything that keeps coming up, I know that there is a reason for each and every one.  I see the path that is being laid before us.  I definitely do not wish this type of upheaval to anyone, but it happens and it’s up to us to figure out what we can learn from it and how we want it to define us. And while a “Tower moment” is going to bring upheaval, it’s not necessarily going to be as literal as lighting striking your home.

To help get some insight into your “Tower moment”, I have created the following spread:

The Tower Spread

1. What is being destroyed that needs rebuilding?
2. What can I do to make the best of this situation?
3. What shouldn’t I do?
4. What do I need to release?
5. What will I gain?
6. What lesson can I learn?

Life upheavals are definitely not easy, but I hope that this spread will give you some insight to how best to handle what you are going through and, most of all, what you can learn from it. 

It can be hard to see the meaning of it all while the walls of your structure are crumbling all around, but if you take the time to ground and center yourself and think about the situation after honoring your feelings around it, you can get a better handle on what is happening and be able to better prepare yourself.  There is always hope and opportunity after the Tower.  Always.

If you are following the blog entries in order, next in line is Vivianne Kacal with The Star.

Happy hopping!!

Bright Blessings.

Tarot deck used is the Pamela Coleman Smith Commemorative Deck

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