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The Tower

MAJOR ARCANA · XVI

The Tower is card XVI of the major arcana. Lightning strikes a tall stone tower, the crown at its top is blown off, flames burst from the windows, and two figures fall headlong. Upright, it stands for sudden change, collapse and awakening; reversed, for something on the verge of falling, or a crisis avoided.

Name and number

Upright meaning

Keywords: sudden change, collapse, shock, awakening, release

What was bound in the Devil is shattered here at a stroke. The Tower is the most violent card of the major arcana.

Upright, the Tower stands for an unexpected event bringing down what you took for granted: plans scrapped, unexpected news, disillusion with something you believed in. The surprise and shock are great, but what falls is what stood on weak foundations: assumptions and appearances. The lightning is also a light that reveals hidden truth. It is read that after the collapse, what truly matters comes into view.

Reversed meaning

Keywords: on the verge of collapse, putting off, a small shock, a crisis averted

The reversed Tower has several readings.

One is propping up, for now, something that is close to falling: knowing change must come but putting it off. Another is that the shock is smaller than the upright card suggests, ending in a minor stumble. It is also read as a major collapse narrowly avoided.

What the picture shows

• The tall stone tower: what people build up by their own strength: status, assumptions, pride.
• The lightning: a power from heaven that strikes in an instant, an unavoidable change and a light that reveals the truth.
• The crown blown off: the crown at the top is a sign of conceit and false authority.
• The two falling figures: one crowned and one not, they fall regardless of rank.
• The falling sparks: in the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, sparks shaped like the Hebrew letter yod rain down, also read as grace from heaven.

History

The Tower, like the Devil, does not survive in the fifteenth-century Italian Visconti–Sforza deck. In Italy it was called by names such as "the House of the Devil" or "the Lightning Bolt."

In the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Tarot of Marseille, its name became La Maison Dieu, "the House of God." The top of the tower is blown off by fire, and two figures are thrown to the ground. Where the name "House of God" came from is unclear. One theory traces it to maison-Dieu, a word for a medieval hospital; another to the story of the Tower of Babel, which people tried to build up to heaven and which God struck down.

In the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, the tower stands on a rocky peak on a stormy night; lightning strikes the crown at its top and flames burst from the windows. It is often read alongside the story of Babel, as a scene of human pride shattered by a power from heaven.

Correspondences

Previous and next cards

• Previous: 15 The Devil
• Next: 17 The Star
• The major arcana

Lucky colors for The Tower