THE TOWER

This is the Tower of ambition built on false premises. It is made of the bricks of traditional race thought and the wrong use of personal will.
Streaks of lightning issue from the Sun; the crown of materialistic thought falls from the Tower.

The lightning is also the Divine fire that destroys only what is evil and purifies and refines what is good.

The falling drops of light or dew, seen here as well as in Key 18 and in the Aces of three suits of the Minor Arcana, are Hebrew Yods.

They signify the descent of the Life-force from above into the conditions of material existence.
The man and woman are falling from their tower of material security, after a brilliant glimpse of Truth.

We see here the Cosmic Consciousness struggling to break through man’s thoughts of material ambition and bring them to naught in order that he may build again.

When man sells his soul to the devil and uses his occult knowledge for evil ends, then destruction descends upon him from above.

Key 16 has been associated with the fall of Satan’s kingdom. This tower is built upon a foundation of misapprehension.
~”Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”~

Divinatory Meaning:
Change, conflict, catastrophe. Overthrow of existing ways of life, old notions upset. Disruption will bring enlightenment in its wake. Selfish ambition is about to come to naught. Bankruptcy.

Reversed:
The gain of freedom of body or mind at great cost. False accusations, false imprisonment, oppression.

Dascent Deck