The Tower Tarot Card Meaning

The Tower, in our words

A spooky, interwoven tree supplants The Tower as a solid, reliable, and naturally occurring structure. Its towering, self-entwined branches reach the clouds, but its roots twist through a shaky bedrock of skulls, symbolizing aspirations and intentions erected on an unstable foundation. As lightning strikes the tree, two specters flee from the chaos toward the ground with their arms outstretched; a sense of disturbance and disarray is palpable. Though it seems impervious to destruction, a simple bolt of lightning brings down its twisted boughs and sends its inhabitants hastily seeking safety. The lightning bolt represents a divine jolt of energy pulsing through the monotony, urging and sometimes forcing the subject to change paths or directions. The ghosts signify an absolute loss of control as their colors reflect the dichotomy of yin and yang, the male and female spirits. The black ghost characterizes yin, or the female spirit, and is a symbol of unconscious thought and action while the white ghost characterizes yang, or the male spirit, and is a symbol of conscious thought and action. They are seen together, though moving in opposite directions toward the ground, further highlighting nature’s duality.

Although seemingly engulfed in fire, a closer observation of the scene reveals twenty-two small, individual flames — ten for the ten branches of the Tree of Life (seen on the tree itself) and twelve for the zodiac signs (seen as falling debris). Even in mayhem, divine intervention is omnipresent.