Making Friends with the Tower

It's the new year, right?
Let's move out, move forward, move up and move on.

Uhh, except one thing. Just like a body of water disturbed by the motion of a storm, the kind of activity left over from last year is not going to just settle.

It's time to move forward. Yet there's a deep-seated chaos left over from the various upheavals of the last 6-12 months.

2009 was a year of challenge for many. It was a year that demanded motion, whether that be evolution or devolution. It was a time for rattled foundations. The Tower expresses all of this perfectly.



The basic archetype of this card is a tower falling due to its faulty foundations. This expresses the fallibility of a status quo that can no longer support the current situation. Although the Tower connotes a time of upheaval, it is a necessary process which allows us to refine and strengthen our base.

Just as this card was used as a visual expression of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York, it is also incredibly applicable in regards to the earthquake in Haiti. Although this card does not always denote massive destruction, the tumbling down of certain basic assumptions that can no longer support a society or a person come to the forefront.

This card is a reflection of a crisis and chaos.
It is unsettling.
It must be unsettling, otherwise we can not properly resettle ourselves upon foundations that lack the corruption and false assumption that caused the tower to fall in the first place.

And the positive side of the Tower, you ask?
Well, beyond the long-term goal of rebuilding a foundation that reeks of awareness and integrity, there is a hint on the card itself.

The lightning bolt hitting the top of the tower reminds us that by allowing the failings in the status quo to crumble away, while keeping our eyes open to the process, we are now able to see things clearly.

There were things hidden by the 'old way' of understanding. There is a greater clarity now.

You may not like what you are seeing, but you can now see clearly, in the lucid light of understanding. Like that flash of lightning, new understanding, clarity, and the ability to see through previously accepted illusions, are the gifts that come with the Tower.

With chaos comes swift change.
With crisis comes revelation.
With ruin comes transformation.

This is a great week to spend time really focusing on what it is you want to manifest in 2010. Now that many accepted foundations have fallen, now that new insight is rampant and there for the taking, now that epiphanies are rife in the chaotic air of this late January, use your time and energy to refine and better construct the scaffolding around your best and biggest dreams.

It won't be easy.
It will actually be an incredible amount of work.
It will be worth it.