Donnaleigh's Tarot

The Lebanese Tarot

Want to get a reaction? Draw The Tower card.

 Few images can pull such a visceral and immediate response from someone than the smashing card in the deck we all dread. A lightening bolt sears through the tower of mortar, shattering the roof to smithereens as people fall to their sure-deaths onto the jagged rocks below. Not exactly a trip to Friendly's.

Emily Dickinson wrote:

"All but Death, can be Adjusted --

 Dynasties repaired --

 Systems -- settled in their Sockets --

 Citadels --dissolved --

Wastes of Lives -- resown with Colors

By Succeeding Springs--

Death -- unto itself --Exception--

Citadels dissolved...

When The Tower card surfaces, the response is immediate. The room hushes, chairs push back, jaws drop, and body language is an opposing magnet to where the card lies. Bodies shift. Eyes look up at us as the all-knowing and ever-gentle reader.

 "Um, what is that?"

Huh.

How to break it to them gently?

They say that every card has both a positively aspected side and a shadow side. Well, you gotta admit, the shadow on this one is laid on a lot thicker than the sunny side. The only light here is in the bolt. This isn't the slow and necessary change of Death. This is the rug being pulled out from under your feet. It's the table cloth being yanked from the table when you forgot how to do the magic trick. It's walking into work and seeing three attorneys standing there with their arms folded waiting for you. It's the management deciding telling you on Tuesday that you have three days to pack your things because lay-offs were necessary and the office will be closing Thursday, we are so very sorry. Even reversed, The Tower maintains its mood of destruction. A little less, perhaps...or coming out of it, perhaps...but it isn't a walk at the beach. It'll bite'cha in the backside nonetheless.

"Is this card bad?" she asks.

"Ewww," her friend says..."Are those PEOPLE falling?"

Um..... Working through the difficult cards with grace is, in my opinion, one of the most important skills of a good reader. Great responsibility comes when interpreting a reading. A seed is planted in their subconscious, and even those who claim to disbelieve will take your words home and chew on them. Creating calmness from chaos is no easy task, and being forewarned is being forearmed, but this isn't exactly the card you can draw as a final outcome and say, "Oh, and have a nice day! Take a gumdrop on your way out!"

Best to use this time to sneak out a few clarifiers to let them know about the calm after the storm. And perhaps an advice card will get them on their way to inner preparation for the inevitable shift, whatever it may be.

The Death card seems to have risen to fame in pop culture and though it is grossly misunderstood, is still a card that makes us take pause. Even though it's a harbinger of change, change is always difficult. Even good change is considered a stressor by psychologists. A marriage or a new baby, typically considered happy events, are considered amongst the top 10 most stressful situations in a lifetime. Life would be grand if we could continue to just coast downstream. But, as Charles Kettering once said, "If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong." And you know how life has a funny way of sneaking up on you and presenting the Cosmic 2 x 4 just when you thought you balanced the checkbook. Life will teach you new ways of doing things when IT feels ready; it waits for no one.

Heck, give me The Death card any day. Change can be good. But The Tower....? Can't we just go a little slower? The Tower is more like ripping the band-aid off really fast so it hurts less. Lots of speed, lots of energy, makes you wince, but when it's over the boo-boo feels better.

I sat eating lunch with a fellow tarot reader during a psychic fair and we discussed The Tower card.

 "Reorganization," he said quite calmly. "It's simpy a restructuring of things, that's all."

I stopped chewing. Restructuring? Hmmm...you know, he has something there. Yeah, it kind of moves things around, doesn't it?

For every Tower moment I've had the privilege (cough) of experiencing, there was definitely a reordering of thoughts, a reorganization of routine and thinking, and a complete restructuring. I liked this. perspective. And it was a nice way of explaining this difficult card.

"Oh my, you received The Tower card. Plan for some rebuilding."

"You mean like the new kitchen we're adding on?"

Hmmm. Perhaps. And as much of a nasty pain it is to have the dust and clutter and disrupt of home construction, when it is done, there surely appears something much better, something easier to live with in the end, and more breathing room, even though the process isn't something we'd care to endure again. The Tower actually is quite similar to adding on an addition to the side of the house. It's just construction in the scheme of life. It's just kind of... well...faster than the nails and wood type. So it's harder to get used to. At first.

And there is the sneaky little secret after we fall from The Tower. For after we land, life cannot be thought of the same way. We think new thoughts, see things a new way, learn dirty little secrets or find ourself on a totally new path. Hard to switch gears, but onward to a better journey. The broken tower is left behind as we walk toward the sandy shore.

I usually do a daily tarot card draw for myself each night before turning out the light. My preferred deck of choice for this is the Motherpeace deck, partly because it sets a feeling of mood rather than giving me intricate details, but also becauseit is just so gentle. It has a way of saying the tough things with a soft edge. It knows how I feel inside, so there is little for me to figure out in a self-reading.

Motherpeace Tarot

Last week I decided to do something I'd never done before for myself. Instead of a daily review, I decided to draw a card for the next day to see what the energy might hold. Stupid girl.

I drew....you guessed it. Key 16. The Tower.  

Noooooooooooooooooooooo! I wince, look away...and when I turn back the blasted card is still there. The Tower. With a deep sigh I took out the Little White Book (LWB), and assured myself, "Surely this deck has some saccharine way of making me realize this is just a little burp in my day. Maybe my alarm clock won't go off. Maybe the dog will poop on the new rug."

I open LWB to page 13 (is this an omen?), and it reads: "The lightening bolt of illumination strikes hard, throwing everything into chaos and confusion. This allows for a restructuring based on truth, and releases the personality from false consciousness and depression. The Tower, like the Hindu Goddess Kali, signifies a liberation that hurts even as it frees."

Sweet dreams! Well, that'll give me a 9 of Swords kind of night, thankyaverymuch. I guess even Motherpeace has its days.

Needless to say, tarot was right. The day did turn out to be a Tower Day. Three attorneys did await us unexpectedly in the morning , causing a complete rescheduling of all our booked patients until the situation was resolved five hours later. The stress level was extremely high until the situation was properly diffused. It wasn't anything we did. But the intensity of the day was unmistakably "Tower."

On the way home, afraid to get into my car (will my tires need reconstructing today, too?), I stopped at a store and picked up a tool we needed. Got it home, it wouldn't turn on. Brand new and busted. Grrrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaaat. I should have known. Note to self: buy nothing of value on a Tower Day.

 When this card comes up for a querent, a poker face is a great asset, of course. But remember, restructuring is necessary in every life. From it come great lessons, the enlightenment we surely would have missed without the illumination that the bright lightening bolt shed some wattage on. Hints of a reorganization can create a positive spin on what might be a process that is challenging to work through. Some experiences were just not designed to be fun, but they are necessary.

And truly, when we come out the other side, there is a new layer of learning added to our character. Yes, it's hard. But you get through it and in the end, the rain stops. So, yeah, perhaps The Tower is a great way to scare the neighbors...but when it comes to building character, few cards here bring out our true colors and create quite a stir within the soul.

Once you've brushed the crumbs off yourself when you've had the experience, remember: The Star is what comes next...and with The Star comes hope. Always make a wish upon The Star.

Because even Emily Dickenson prophesized in her poem:

"Wastes of Lives --resown with Colors

By Succeeding Springs --"

The Spring will bloom, the roses will blossom, and new color will be borne in our lives.

Wishing you a gentle journey,

Donnaleigh

** The gorgeous cards above are from (top) The Lebanese Tarot and (center) The Motherpeace Round Tarot Deck