Deviant Moon - XVI The Tower

Skimo

A few thought to share about the Tower of the Deviant Moon tarot.

This card is showing us the three front faces of a huge tower, with windows and a door (hexagonal shape?). The tower is standing on a small black sphere (sattelite?)

A flying black-grey sphere (Death star?) on the upper right corner is sending a golden ray on its top, destructing it.

A character with a white face, dressed in green is falling from it face directed towards the floor. He has a white right hand and a black left hand. His shadow is projected higher on the tower wall (light coming for the floor? is the tower higher than the sun?).
Another creature, with a black face, dressed in red, also with a white right hand and a black left hand, lay his back on the floor, his legs hidden behind the tower. Looking at the tower pieces that may fall on him.

Behing the sky is ranging from beige to black, crackeled, pinpointed by tiny stars.

Keywords : Destruction, distress, falling walls (what are they hidding?), huge change.
 

moonlitkim

I drew this card today as a card of meditation, to bring myself out of my nervous state. What a card to draw! :p

Two things come to mind: the Tower isn't being completely destroyed here. Only the top right corner is crumbling, and perhaps the small metal roof. The rest of it is still pretty much intact. Most other Tower cards that I've seen have the top half of the tower in peril.

Also, the Tower entrance is not big enough for a human to enter. It is about the size of one of the people's hands. The Tower itself is only about a foot or two taller than the people themselves.

While we may imagine that the Tower is huge, and the destruction is great, it is an illusion. The reality is that the Tower was never as awesome as we imagined it to be, and the destruction paves the way for something better, as we are brought back down to earth.

~MoonlitKim
 

Umbrae

"a lightning blast from the sky strikes the tower. two sinners plummet to their death below as the structure falls to ruin."

well now once they be deaded they'll fit through that door just fine now won't they?

This card shows us the moment before collapse. Once it begins, it will be complete.
 

callistoluna

A ray from the moon focuses a beam of light onto the tower wall blasting a hole in the side. The person who lives in the tower has jumped out of the other side in fear of the collapse only to realize that he is still falling and will still crash.

He puts his hands out to slow the fall - one black and one white. In carefully cultivating his Tower, he has been on the fence for too long having no strong opinions of his own and he has realised (too late!) that what he has built is a facade. The moons rays signify the illusion has been cut through and that if the ray is strong enough to blast a hole in the castle walls, then it wasn't very sturdy to begin with.

Another man is on the ground and can see the shattered and crumbling tower falling on top of him. It is possible that he wasn't in the tower when it was struck and was trying to get out before the collapse but now he is caught in the falling debris. Sometimes even those who share in the illusion (wittingly or not) can be hurt in the inevitable destruction.
 

LizA

I see changes from the result of destruction or fragility, which can be minor or major life changes. Long standing foundations are starting to crumble - now is the time to assess the situation, act and implement changes and accept this.
 

staroflondon

i drew this card last week as the base of the week. after 'living' with it this week, i'm still trying to figure it out. I think it's more subtle since the whole tower isn't destroyed, rather it's the right top that is crumbling and being blasted. The ray of light appears to me as if coming from an eyeball - such as an insight, an eye opening experience, a blasting through an illusion. from darkness light is created and breaks down barriers between inner and outer realities.
I'm still perplexed by the figures in the card. One is active, trying to save himself, and the other passive, accepting his fate. Which is more productive in order to come through the destruction? And why only two figures?
The environment is very strange as it appears on top of a hill - maybe a globe - and there are cracks everywhere in the background (again the weathering or stormy environment - lightning? cracks in the facade coming through)
It's definitely a forceful change that is inflicted and not invited - and it appears structural - almost like a bodily change or rebuilding from the inside out.
The more I work with it, the less clear it becomes.
 

BrooklynRider

The number 16 has a number of connotations:

Construction (building a fortress) and destruction (destroying the fortress). It also symbolize the achievement of material power. For some, it is the number of Karmic evolution.

The tower has no windows indicating that those occupying it sought protection and were closed up from the greater world outside. Protecting, hording, and lording over all their material treasures. For why else does one build a castle or fortress, but to protect that which is of greatly worldly value?

The tower has no windows; only arrowslits. It has one way in and one way out. It is closed off. It sits on a barren hill from which anything of value has been swept away.

My first impression of the "laser" was that it came from a deathstar, but I don't see any other pop culture (Star Wars) references in the deck imagery. I would consider it more of an all-seeing eye. The power coming from the heavens.

The building is an Octagon, which symbolizes baptism, renewal, regeneration. The man in green is not dead. How often do we see a person following a disaster that states, "I lost everything, but thank God I'm alive"? The destruction of the material plane brings us back to the spiritual plane.

This card doesn't necessarily portend destruction as much an end to isolation, selfishness, and materialism. The destruction of a windowless fortress brings light or enlightenment into the life of the person occupying the tower.

The cracks in the sky seem to signify the end of the world as it is known. Leaving the person in a barren place that can be re-imagined and rebuilt.
 

Eeviee

A ray from the moon focuses a beam of light onto the tower wall blasting a hole in the side. [...]

[...]
My first impression of the "laser" was that it came from a deathstar, but I don't see any other pop culture (Star Wars) references in the deck imagery. I would consider it more of an all-seeing eye. The power coming from the heavens.[...]

I see @callistoluna's Moon as an Eye, just as @BrooklynRider does. Also, the LWB reffers to the "beam of light" as a "lightening blast". Just an FYI! ;]

Re: @BrooklynRider's statement "My first impression of the "laser" was that it came from a deathstar":
-Without looking closely I saw "Spaceship" too! Being a SW fan, I love that you saw the Death Star! x]

To me, the lightning blast is definitely emitting from an eye... It links itself to the Thoth's version of the Tower which also has an eye striking lightning.

The eye comes from the Kabalah, where the Hebrew Letter "Aiyn" translates into English to literally mean "Eye" (and is associated with IV - The Devil Card). This is the eye of "seers" and "inner vision"; just as @BrooklynRider alludes to.

The Lightning coming from the Eye fits nicely for me as I see The Tower as a personal "Revelation" of sorts.