If dispersal of confusion is slow in coming, do not fret. The lightning-struck TOWER will break you out of the prison created by the DEVIL. The TOWER arrives very suddenly and leaves just as quickly--it seems to come out of nowhere. DEATH and the HANGED MAN may linger, but the TOWER acts swiftly. Like DEATH, the TOWER is needed to destroy the restrictive structure that no longer serves your best interests for growth. This may be very upsetting to experience, but the result is total liberation. It is truly like breaking out of a prison. Ruled by Mars (Greek Ares), the god of war and courage, the TOWER often expresses itself as an upheaval. It is a battle quickly fought and quickly won--or lost.

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Tower Tarot Card Meaning: With Mars as its ruling planet, the Tower is a card about war, a war between the structures of lies and the lightning flash of truth. This is a card about anything we believe to be true, but later learn is false. This realization usually comes as a shock, hence, the violent image.

The Tower is a card about change. Just as with the Devil and Death, the Tower is not as frightening or as ominous as the pictorial representation in most decks. Trying to hold too tightly to the status quo can be disastrous now. Roll with the changes.

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The Tower shows a tall tower pitched atop a craggy mountain. Lightning strikes and flames burst from the building’s windows. People are seen to be leaping from the tower in desperation, wanting to flee such destruction and turmoil. The Tower signifies darkness and destruction on a physical scale, as opposed to a spiritual scale. The Tower itself represents ambitions built on false premises.

The lightning bolt breaks down existing forms in order to make room for new ones. It represents a sudden, momentary glimpse of truth, a flash of inspiration that breaks down structures of ignorance and false reasoning. Notice the lightning bolt is oriented left to right (from the perspective of the card), from heaven to earth, and from Spirit to material. The falling figures correspond to the chained prisoners in the Devil card. They fall headfirst, because the sudden influx of spiritual consciousness represented by the lightning flash completely upsets all our old notions about the relations between subconsciousness and self-consciousness.

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DIVINATORY MEANING: Explosive liberation from the ivory tower that you set up to remain safe. Release of control. Sudden change of behavior. Don't bother to resist because change will happen so rapidly that you will immediately find a whole new world. There will be a new cast of characters in your life...