The Tower
Upright Meaning
Lightning strikes a tower built on a rocky cliff, blowing the crown from its top and sending two figures plunging into the void. The 22 flames in the sky represent the 22 paths of the Tree of Life — and the 22 Major Arcana. The Tower was built on false foundations: ego, illusion, material security mistaken for spiritual truth. Its destruction is violent but necessary. What the lightning reveals was always true — the Tower only concealed it. This card does not come gently, but what it destroys needed to fall.
Reversed Meaning
Reversed, The Tower may indicate a disaster narrowly averted, or an internal upheaval that hasn't yet manifested externally. You may be sensing that something in your life is built on a false foundation without yet experiencing the collapse. This is an opportunity: what the upright Tower destroys by force, the reversed Tower invites you to dismantle by choice.
Quick Reference
- Arcana
- major
- Number
- 16