I seem to have heard the term Tower Time being used a lot lately, referring to these ‘interesting times’ we are living through.* Sometimes it seems like Mother Earth has recognized humans as a virus that’s making her ill, and like a person with a virus throwing every over-the-counter remedy she can find at her cold, Gaia is throwing disease, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, war, and whatever she can at us in order to stop us before her fever (Climate Change) does more permanent damage to her body!

I’d sure like to think we are not an infestation of earth, that we have something to offer other than inadvertent damage, but it’s easy to see that ‘natural disasters’ are hitting us more often than they used to, and to wonder why. Whether we are the cause or not, we still have to deal with or try to live through the current chaotic pattern. Yes, things do seem to be falling apart, and as usual, it’s not just the people who instigated the problem suffering, but innocents who are less well insulated from the damage.

The Tarot tower represents sudden, drastic change, showing lightning striking a tower as a king and priest (or magician or queen) falling, indicating that no sort of power will help. In the traditional Colman Smith Tarot, the sky contains yod symbols, signifying that this isn’t random disaster, but directed by GOD. This may represent the Tower of Babel, or some other attempt of humans to dominate nature. It’s easy to see how this symbol comes to mind for the current period. Whenever the Tower comes up in a reading, the response is usually “Oh, shoot” (or something more emphatic). Yeah, this is not a problem coming up, it’s already happened, and all we get to do is figure out how to deal with it. As many of us are familiar with Tarot symbolism, calling it Tower Time is a good shortcut to convey this meaning in the pagan and magickal community.

On the other hand, symbols being what they are (massively multi-leveled). I have to look at other tower symbolism. In the Lenormand deck the tower signifies a refuge, an institution such as a hospital or headquarters, or a place where you can gain perspective, see the bigger picture. It has none of the aspects of catastrophe inherent in the tarot symbolism, but rather trades on more traditional images of strong, and tall structures. Likewise in Egyptian symbolism, the Djed Tower represents stability, with connections to the spine, and Osiris. Other interpretations suggest it may be a tree, but either way, it was a common amulet and architectural feature. In the modern world towers are generally seen as indications of the power and money of the builders, and the cleverness of the architects- the taller they are, the more status they generate (as well as the more income they can generate from the same square footage). I think it’s clear that the Tower represents a stable structure and in tarot the Tower is assumed to be the struck tower, the symbol that what Man can build, Nature or God can tear down.

So we’re back to Tower Time, and what lessons we can bring to this situation from what we have learned spiritually from these symbols. One important thing is to not waste energy on guilt or blame. None of us is responsible for this situation, even though we all have to find our way through it. Collectively there may be a level of hubris involved, but in this we are like so many people were twenty years ago when the twin towers fell. There was a mighty loss of innocence, a loss of the feeling of invulnerability, that it couldn’t happen here, it couldn’t happen to us! Much of the insecurity in the American culture in the last two decades may be fed by that insecurity, and attempts to feel that untouchable again. But what has been seen cannot be unseen. What has been learned, cannot be unlearned. This time is a time of universal initiation into a greater sense of awareness about the world, about how we are all interconnected, and vulnerable together. We cannot ‘lock ourselves in a tower’ and let the rest of the world fall, because we are part of the world.

The Tower in the Wild Unknown tarot caught my eye because it depicts a tree struck by lightning- stepping aside from the tower representing human attempts to dominate nature. The Tree is simply struck because it is the tallest thing around, and the most direct conduit for the unbalanced energy to be grounded. As we have considered in earlier blogs about lightning rods and trees, when you are a conduit, energy flows through you. This is why those of us who have honed our skills feeling and conducting energy have become aware of the imbalances first, and may well be called on to participate more directly in dealing with the violent re-balancing of energies than others who are more spiritually unaware. It’s going to be hard to see this as a reward for the work we have done, but more like ‘no good deed goes unpunished’. Think rather of the wisdom from comic books (or modern mythology) “With great power comes great responsibility.” It’s probably going to feel a bit better to be able to do something to help those around us, rather than simply feel helpless and confused. We can ground ourselves in helping others, because frankly, a lot of this is going to be very uncomfortable. But we also know that after the initiation, there is the new awareness, the rebirth into a new and better life. This is a huge change, and we may not see it through to the new world, but we can be a part of helping get others through it with as little pain, and as much spiritual awakening as possible.

*I am not sure who started using this term, and if you know, I’d love to hear! Let us all know in n the Facebook group. My best guess is John Beckett who described an online course Navigating Tower Time – Magic For an Era of Change in January 2021