Arrogance

“The greatness – is just one of the manifestations of nullity”

Direct Position

Sixteenth Arcanum describes a person faces unexpected changes in life. Whoever is a cause for changes could make the questioner mad and angry.

      A person could face destruction at work, break up in relations, loss of property, or contagion (when we talk of sickness it could be uncurable). The questioner can also face deception, shame, and disgrace feeling sorry for his afflictions and doings or due to gossip. Sixteenth Arcanum tells about the events that he can not change at will.

• The Tower of Babel, The Overthrow
• Almshouse
• Heavenly fire
• The Thunderbolt
• Astral coercion
• Strike of Destiny
• Number 16
• The letter Zayin
• Path 27 (from Hod to Netzach, from the Majestic to the Force)
• Planets – Mars, Pluto, Uranus and Saturn, Chiron.
• Scorpio, Aries
• Occult Meaning – Destruction

Brief Description

Adversity. Element. Deterrence. Suppression. Taboo. The danger of being crushed. Inflated Ego. Arrogance. Templates. The spirit of competition. External circumstances.

Reversed

The collapse of the plans, the loss of faith, unpleasant surprises.

Strong dependence on the prevailing circumstances, which currently cannot be reversed. The possibilities are limited. Depressed personality. A person goes the same trail, the same way, — ignoring the reality and clinging to the status quo. A person stubbornly denies crisis, tensions in the relationship, or even perpetrated the violence, as if it does not exist. A person thinks it is better to solve the matter peacefully, avoiding scandals and conflicts.

Traditionally, a meaning is of Tower is the tyranny, oppression and captivity; deception; shame; harassment; and even persecution. In the French tradition, the reversed tower symbolizes imprisonment, because according to legend, Napoleon pulled out this card on the day of a  departure to the island of St. Helena.

Council to Inquire

You became the cause of all your troubles and this unpleasant situation and circumstances.

General Meaning in a Spread

The Tower is traditionally considered one of the most severe cards in a deck.  Jester, Wheel of Fortune,  Death and a Six of Swords calls the sudden and unexpected change. In most cases, the Tower brings change that is not a surprise! The situation is long overdue “end of the world”  expected to come. A person has been waiting for!

Liberation? Again, the tower is not an exclusive carrier of this meaning. Freedom usually calls for Judgement day, Sun, and Stars cards.

The best keyword that describes the Tower is “crisis.” In a sense, this is a punishment for what has happened before. This card liberates the exile of the Devil. An ancient name, the name of the Tower was a House of God; in medieval Italy the title was The House of the Devil, turning under celestial thunderbolt in place of God’s presence. The Tower is liberation from everything that is false, and, in turn, a development of aspirations through the destruction. There is a loss of balance, which laid on a false foundation. The Tower is the orderly evolution; it heals our souls from everything that is toxic and poisonous. It destroys every stagnant situation that hindering his personal growth.

At the same time, the blows of fate may seem the same tragic and incomprehensible. Few people can take these cleaning operations with enthusiasm, but everybody needs those situations.

We can see how the walls are collapsing: so no matter what we hide behind the walls is coming out. You are opening a new chapter of your life where changes happen very quickly and painfully.

In the simplest sense, the Tower symbolizes the unexpected end of the current situation under

the influence of external forces. Tower pulls a person out of circumstances that limit him and breaks his existing state of affairs.

Sometimes the situation can be entirely in line with expectations and desires of the questioner so that the tower is not always so wicked.

Next, to the positive card, the Tower informs about the decay of the existing evil, foretelling an end of a black strip of life and liberation of a heavy load. It’s time to go into the future under the roar of the wreckage of the past.

The Tower can mean a sudden change in his way of thinking. A person finds a painful revelation that undermines the very foundation on which he stood, a radical break-up of the previous views on his life.

Depending on the spread and on different positions of the card, significance and importance of the Tower card will change. It could be the destruction of the external circumstances or internal shocks.

In the future position, the Tower card serves as a warning that what we’ve considered stable and safe, may suddenly falter.

Fundamental changes are coming, and the air smells of the storm.

In the past position, the Tower says that anything antiquated is collapsed.

Here is How a Person Might Feel

Thunderstruck

Most likely, a person is shocked. He or she is struck on the spot by some news or events, and all that he had planned before and had hoped for, suddenly changed. Maybe he is actively trying to get rid of something and acts as a destroyer, but again, a person feels there is a reason.

When the card Tower appears in a spread, it means that something dominates you. It can be a natural disaster, health problems, or someone presses on you his authority.

The higher you fly, — the harder you fall. This is especially true in the context of self-esteem and the desire to assert yourself at the expense of others. Your credibility could be undermined. Pride goes before a fall.

The best thing that can promise card is the destruction of illusions, though it brings untold suffering.

The tower is a stress test which revealed all of our weaknesses. The Fall of erroneous beliefs under the pressure of reality, the overthrow of values that ensured for our confidence and a sense of security (in the emotional material or spiritual sphere).

In a sense, at the XVI The Tower depicts a prison consisting of rigid, impervious changes and at the same time highly exalted notions. Sullen walls of the Tower locked up by unused powers, unrevealed emotions and paralyzed energy.

Towering to the sky Tower of beliefs where a person believed he was securely protected, suddenly tottered and shattered together with an old, antiquated picture of the world.

A person can be “righteously angry” at himself or herself with the rage of destruction and liberation. A person can feel disorientation, existential fear, a stunning realization of himself – that he is not a man he imagined him to be, and not he feels grasping at the air, like falling figures on the card.

In A Spiritual Sense

In a spiritual sense, the Tower symbolizes consequences of what a person “the devil has beguiled”,  even if a person is trying to deny it.

Tower also is similar to a mystery of Phoenix, who reborn from the ashes and renewed. It can recover and change after a cleansing crisis.

The tower is the world axis, which represents the spiritual evolution aimed to Olympian heights. Esoterically, this is shown as a secret interaction between the thoughts (representations) and the words. The human soul, to a created inside, was manifested outwardly, turns inward. The spoken word destroys the old inner integrity, and truth, the person ceases to understand the meaning of what was said and creative touch to the essence of things. It is paradoxical at first glance, the phrase “An expressed thought is a lie.” The real power of the word is silence. It depicts the collapse of arrogant intellect, encroached on gaining a secret knowledge.

A person could lie to himself for a long time about his true desires, then he started lying to others, and finally, he feels ashamed thinking the God himself punished him.

Tower confirms the likelihood of being punished in the literal sense, namely, getting into a prison, a hospital or to become a hostage. All that seemed stable and unshakable, including relationships, can crack.

In Personal Relations

Sometimes Tower passes a conflict into relations, and sometimes it brings indomitable sexual impulse, sometimes it could mean conflict and sex together,  but in any case, it is an explosion and release of long overdue accumulated and overwhelming feelings. The Tower is the hour of the blast. Reins are torn, patience bursts, — in short, the margin of safety ends.

Her is a very severe test of love or friendship. The ancient word “collapse as a result of wrongful judgments and abuse of free will” absolutely accurate – whether a person enters into “purifying storm” or burns everything into”ashes” is yet to be decided.

The tower carries considerable sexual energy. Lightning sometimes takes the form of Scorpio, and Tower is also a phallic symbol. It symbolizes a power of emotions that have long been kept inside but finally gained its freedom. The Tower can bring to a person a sudden crazy love which “jumped in front of a person like a killer and struck a person at once! So struck by lightning, like a Finnish knife strikes. “Direct card associated with erection and ejaculation! (Inverted, respectively, with the problems in this respect, as it may lead to a secret birth of a child). Expect sex – very spontaneous, very passionate, unexpected and sometimes a bit violent. That passion may destroy the lives of two people trapped by the sudden love – when the desire is gone – both people open their eyes and look around after an atomic explosion, and they are terrified.

“A time when a person decides to do something he has never done before, following the principle: now or never — just for the sake of happiness following awakening that was sleeping for so long in the depths of once being. ”

The Tower in Combinations with other cards

Strengthening

19. Sun: inspiration, bright illumination, revelation, health problems, depression. Also, this combination is considered to be a warning not to borrow and invest.
5 of Pentacles: a tough time, especially in monetary terms.
13. Death: “rapid impact of powerful forces.” Accidents, injuries, painful incident. Traditionally, this combination is a disaster emergency, both as direct meaning and figuratively.
9 of Pentacles: a pile of problems

Weakening
7. Chariot: Victory, control
14. Temperance: commonality, meaningfulness
17. Star: serenity, peace,
Six wands: approval, pride, success.
With Fool – danger because of carelessness, negligence

With Magus – the price paid for permissiveness

With the Empress – selfishness and the risk of being alone; threat of bankruptcy

With the Emperor – the need to defend your interests and protect your gains

With hierophant – a spiritual quest have gone astray; the crisis of faith may involve entering into a persuasion or listening to gossip or wrong advises

With Love – the need to rapidly take an important decision

With Chariot – a terrible warning of an accident on the road.

With Hermit – loneliness due to unjustified conceit Vysk

With Wheel of Fortune – significant and unexpected changes are going to happen soon in your life

With Force – you will be surrounded by powerful and not particularly friendly people

With a Star – no matter what shocking events occur, – everything works out for the better. Serenity and tranquility of a Star calm the storms of the Towers.