The Tower of Destruction: 2020

Original Writing by Kathryn Ravenwood

A shining, solitary tower sits high on a mountain peak with a golden crown topping its splendor. Suddenly, perfection is devastated by a bolt of lightening. The crown is split away, the tower burns and two desolate figures fall from the devastation. Disaster has struck. All is lost. Or is it?

The tower warns us against the false security of building structures that separate us from a balanced life on Mother Earth. Each brick is part of the mindset seeking to create a facade, a barrier against the “other” the unknown, the scary monsters under the bed that threaten some imagined sense of safety and protection created by fear (the preceding card in the Tarot is the Devil - Fear). A brick originally laid down as security has multiplied into layers of greed and avarice.  Reliance on leadership has morphed into authoritarianism. If one layer or level is good then surely another and another are better until the builder has locked himself into a lofty tower on a mountain top completely isolated from the world below. He may feel safe but the shelter he so carefully pulled around him has made life stagnant. The tower has isolated him from creative activity and interaction. Security has become a prison, protection has turned to illusion. Each brick was laid with a  tunnel vision of ideas, viewpoints, a controlling and even self-righteous behavior to protect the identify crafted along with the tower. The work became a tribute to an ego that is now fully invested in all the irrationalities of building and maintaining this monstrosity. The associated consciousness of this delusion is restricted and has shifted to everything “out there” rather than what is inside.

Nothing is forever. The Universe demands change to keep the energy flowing, to prevent stagnation, to provide for new growth. When things start to get stuck the Universe will send warnings. Yet, even as tremors and storms threaten, the invested ego of the tower builder ignores the pending doom and puts up more layers of hatred, illusion, barriers against change. Finally the stuck energy has to go somewhere and it bursts out in a fiery explosion. The fall of the tower is traumatic. it is not possible to hold it up with the actions of the past. 

In the image of the card we see small flames falling from the sky. These are the Hebrew letter Yod. Yod creates the world to come. Each Yod is a transformational force propelling us to new levels of experience. The falling figures’ hands are stretched out as if to reach for the ground below, directing this new experience into the currently unknown outcome of the fall. The golden crown blows off the top inviting a higher consciousness to replace the restricted and ego based focus of separateness, false science and reasoning, fake news, and irrational fantasies of will and power.

When the fire has burned the old forms and the devastation begins to be fully realized, Yods’ promise of new experience is available. How it will be used depends on the new consciousness, awareness and lessons learned. 

Are we out of warnings or do we still have time to come down from the Tower and live in harmony with one another and our Earth? Can we use communication from the the heart to bridge the gaps of separation and division? Can we raise our own consciousness to a higher level to embrace love and kindness without the ego being offended? Can we lay aside the tools of pending destruction and plant gardens?

 

There is always hope if we but call it to us. With the tower out of the way, we may  be able to see our path more clearly. 

....Kathryn Ravenwood  9.2.20