The Tower can be a card that elicits a gasp of fear. It's a chaotic scene. Lightning striking a structure and bodies jumping (or falling) out of windows? Yeesh.
Will they land on their feet? What is the ground below? Is it soft? Is there water? Can these figures swim? How ready were these people for this moment? I like to think the one with the crown is a Fool, like---that looks like a jester hat more than a crown. And it's not falling off. Maybe this is a Jester who knows how to do a flip. I like to think the one with the cloak is freaked out but ready for doing an awesome dive. Or they could both be on their way to breaking their necks.
But the tarot tells us that we survive from The Tower. It isn't the last card in the deck. The Major Arcana card that follows it is The Star, a naked and alone figure at peace and connected and letting go under a beautiful sky:
The Star is in nature, at peace. There are no other people, clothing or human constructs in sight. The only thing made by human hands are the water vessels and their contents are being released. This is the card that follows The Tower and it is the freedom of being outside of society and hoping for something bigger than what human hands can build. Knowing that your ambitious human hands have perhaps built your own prison and all it took was jumping off and trusting something larger than yourself. The Star shows the human figure as a part of nature rather than trying to build herself above it.
So what do we get from building a TOWER when we know that human hands build traps and prisons? Well---building a Tower is an exercise in strength building! It's about the muscles you build while building The Tower, not the safety you find within it.
Once you've built a Tower, perhaps it is wise to go within, enjoy it and then go and enjoy your new-built muscles in nature, being a creature again. Maybe being human is about process and cycles. Maybe building a Tower is a game. Nature will always win, always send its lighting bolts and disasters to break down the flimsy human-built structures. Maybe accepting that will allow us to appreciate the muscles and grit we've built while building The Tower. And that's powerful. What if the figures jumping off The Tower were partying and enjoying the heights of their structure and they know it is transient. They're ready for the dive because they are not ignoring their place in nature. They know the real strength of the Tower is the muscles they've built.
I think that's really the lesson.
And the challenging things to ask yourself when you get The Tower card are
- where have I let the muscles from this process atrophy?
- Where have I been results oriented and not appreciated the process?
- Why do I think something has a definitive FINISH instead of understanding that life is process?
I believe that being process-oriented is a wiser way of living than being results oriented. Being process-oriented allows us to be adaptable. Goals are useful as North Stars but it's really about the moment-to-moment living you get to do while you're following that Star. We definitely see that the figure on The Star card isn't actually looking at the sky and the stars. She's in the moment. She's present with her activity. She knows the stars are there, she knows she can follow any one of them and enjoy the land and travels. But she also knows they're just hope. They lift and inspire here but she isn't under the illusion that she can reach and own one. She has already jumped off The Tower and she knows she can't built a structure to heaven. All she can do is enjoy the glow of the Stars whilst appreciating work. And maybe she'll build another Tower, wiser this time about it being process-oriented.
Being obsessed with a result is limiting. It makes us brittle. The real stability is in trusting in the process.
So I think when The Tower comes up, we need to confront where we've been results oriented and break our illusions around that result. Get ready to be flexible. Get ready to jump off and be free of that rigid result. Warm up your muscles to go and experience another round of building and dreaming.
Being alive is a process, we are all a process, not a solid thing. We will always change, always age, and the nature around us will always change and have unpredictable storms. Acknowledging process is a gift. Knowing there will always be storms helps you understand how to live in many kinds of weather. It takes time to learn this. But I think this perspective on the relationship between The Tower and The Star can be a great reminder.
In a reading, you might see the card you pull after the Tower as an idea of what your Tower is made of, what firm ambitions must be deconstructed to gift you with more flexibility. Surrounding cards may also be supports for how you will survive The Fall or The Jump from the rigidity, reminders of how to get more flexible.