Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

XVI. The Tower (The Lightning)

Brotherhood of Light Tarot: Arcanum XVI. The Lightning

Arcanum XVI. The Tower (The Lightening)

The Tower arrives with a flash of insight—when all is revealed in an instant. The smoke and mirrors that formed phantoms of the black magician dissolve right before our eyes. As a bolt of inspiration relays this revelation, we find the lightning foreshadows our demise. Now we stand by a spectator, as the fleeting frame of our current consciousness vanishes from sight. Despite our attempt to stand our ground, the Tower will soon come crashing down. We may cry—Eureka!—as we begin the fall that frees us from contradictions that once built up the wall. But the fate of the tower is unleashed with life-enriching power granted by the flash of lightning, which harbors a personal wisdom or truth. One is often shocked, as it arrives a form of energy—the electromagnetic exchange that alters the very essence of our human quality. The lightning strikes a chord that awakens sympathetic passions that pour out the aspirations of the soul, as waves of insight flood our understanding and clear the chaos that littered the old. The fertile, the enriched, the level soil permits seeds of inspiration to grow deep roots within the common ground. May enlightenment arrive upon the death of one’s own hubris.

If this is your card, you may suddenly come to see the error in your ways. The news is heard as sudden catastrophe sweeps the atmosphere of the scene—a storm’s ‘a brewing up ahead! Just when you thought you had come out on top, the flaw of your fate awaits. Watch out, as an unexpected adversary arrives to shake you from the tower of babel that secured your bias inside. You may survive to cry out in great peril, yet purge that which suffers through growth of character. To plant a tower to pierce the clouds, one must first lay the foundation of humility.

cc: James Loesch

Leave a Reply