16:   The Tower

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BOTA (Builders of the Adytum)

Universal Waite

The key word for this card is disruption.   The Tower stands for: 1.   Disaster; ruin; destruction; loss; catastrophe; revolution; failure. 2.   Sudden change; violent upheaval. 3.   The downfall of long-established institutions; the "shaking up" of one's belief system.   "An internal shift." 4.   False structures, false institutions, or false beliefs that come tumbling down, suddenly, violently, all at once. 5.   A shocking revelation; a "rude awakening."

COMMENTS:

"Things are not as certain and secure and predictable as you think."

One writer says that this card means that the same thing whether it is upright or reversed.

This is the most negative card in the deck; you can think of it as the "Twin Towers card."   Other Tarot cards may stand for setbacks that are overcome, or trials that become a learning experience; the Tower can represent a disaster that has no "positive spin."   It can indicate a disaster that doesn't have a meaning or "higher purpose."   The only thing you "learn" is that bad things happen sometimes, and you are able to survive them.

In some of the Medieval Tarot decks, this card was called "Fire" or "The House of God."

NOTE:   When this card appears in a reading, it does not necessarily predict a disaster.   There are two other possibilities:

      1.   the tragedy has already happened (and the other cards are telling the Querent how to deal with its aftermath) or

      2.   the surrounding cards are showing the Querent how to avert the disaster.

The imagery for this card may be related to the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.