Tower cards and 9/11

Bhavana

These are two decks I have been using a lot recently, the Intuitive and the Silicon Dawn, and it has occurred to me that with both decks, published after 2001, the tower card is definitely reminiscent of the WTC on 9/11. You can see a physical resemblance, you can see the papers floating in the air, and on the Silicon Dawn card, there are even 2 towers. Not a surprise that artists are culturally influenced, but it is kind of eerie to see. It also sort of changes my view of this card, which I have tried in the past to see in a positive light...but if compared to 9/11, that is extremely hard to do. I don't think anything positive came out of that day. Even the resurgence of patriotism that we saw afterwards was very short lived.

I don't have a lot of decks compared to most of you, but was wondering if anyone else has any decks published since 2001 that show a tower card that was obviously influenced by 9/11? The tower in Haindl deck also has a similar look - but that one was published in 1990.
 

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KMilliron

These are two decks I have been using a lot recently, the Intuitive and the Silicon Dawn, and it has occurred to me that with both decks, published after 2001, the tower card is definitely reminiscent of the WTC on 9/11. You can see a physical resemblance, you can see the papers floating in the air, and on the Silicon Dawn card, there are even 2 towers. Not a surprise that artists are culturally influenced, but it is kind of eerie to see. It also sort of changes my view of this card, which I have tried in the past to see in a positive light...but if compared to 9/11, that is extremely hard to do. I don't think anything positive came out of that day. Even the resurgence of patriotism that we saw afterwards was very short lived.

Education and experience. That's the positives I've always seen with the Tower card, even more so with the 9/11 reference. Before the attack most people didn't know squat about the outside world. Now we do, and we can learn from it and move on, or we can hide from it and pretend it didn't happen.
 

Kreative-Dragon

my own personalized Tarot deck has a picture of 9/11 for the Tower. It was actually the first card I made for the deck, and the line that I put on it was "ignorance is bliss?"
Wasn't there also a World events deck that was being created that featured it? Gonna have to see if I can find it.
 

Suzanne A

Before 9/11 most Americans felt safe from terrorism--it can happen other places but it won't happen here. Now we know that no one is immune from determined criminals who are willing to give their own lives. It's a harsh truth, but arguably better to be looking at the truth, however hard, rather than living in a structure of built-up illusions. This is the territory of The Tower, sudden, often catastrophic change that makes us reconsider what we know and how we live. Using the symbol of the WTC certainly represents the darker side of The Tower and reminds us of the shock and loss of that time. Perhaps there were some consequences that were positive--lives dedicated to preventing such losses in future, friendships made between people who were brought together by that tragedy.

I find myself rather surprised that I personally have not identified The Tower with 9/11 before. Thinking of it this way makes me realize even more how important it is HOW you respond to Tower-type events. Not to get political here, but Americans have a lot to think about regarding how we responded to those events, and whether we could have made better choices in some respects.
 

Grizabella

If you want eerie, have a look at the Haindl Tower card. That deck was created years before the Twin Towers were attacked and it couldn't look any more like that incident if he'd painted it on scene. It even looks like papers flying around in the air like there were that day.
 

Zephyros

Well, not all cards have to have a positive light. The Tower is an unsettling card, one that I have had show up in some of the most unsettling times of my life. Sometimes bad things just and do happen, it is what we do after the "apocalypse" that makes a difference. 9/11 was horrifying, and it is hard for me to see anything good coming of the act itself, which is what the Tower talks about, destruction of the foundations we believe in.
 

Bhavana

If you want eerie, have a look at the Haindl Tower card. That deck was created years before the Twin Towers were attacked and it couldn't look any more like that incident if he'd painted it on scene. It even looks like papers flying around in the air like there were that day.

Yes I know!! Amazing, isn't it? When I first got the Haindl, I thought of the WTC as soon as I saw the Tower, and I right away grabbed the box to see when the deck had been created, because I was almost positive it had to be AFTER 9/11....but it wasn't. Spooky. But then, the Haindl deck has a lot of depth and yes, even eeriness - things I have not yet begun to see. Love it, up there with my very favorites.
 

Bhavana

my own personalized Tarot deck has a picture of 9/11 for the Tower. It was actually the first card I made for the deck, and the line that I put on it was "ignorance is bliss?"
Wasn't there also a World events deck that was being created that featured it? Gonna have to see if I can find it.

I'd love to see your cards.

Before 9/11 most Americans felt safe from terrorism--it can happen other places but it won't happen here. Now we know that no one is immune from determined criminals who are willing to give their own lives. It's a harsh truth, but arguably better to be looking at the truth, however hard, rather than living in a structure of built-up illusions. This is the territory of The Tower, sudden, often catastrophic change that makes us reconsider what we know and how we live. Using the symbol of the WTC certainly represents the darker side of The Tower and reminds us of the shock and loss of that time. Perhaps there were some consequences that were positive--lives dedicated to preventing such losses in future, friendships made between people who were brought together by that tragedy.

I find myself rather surprised that I personally have not identified The Tower with 9/11 before. Thinking of it this way makes me realize even more how important it is HOW you respond to Tower-type events. Not to get political here, but Americans have a lot to think about regarding how we responded to those events, and whether we could have made better choices in some respects.

yes, I agree with your points - and with the rest of you on what the tower card stands for. I have never really looked at it as a catastrophe card - but more as something happening that may change our beliefs in a dramatic way.
 

Lee

I have a somewhat different take on this trend. I feel that it's not helpful and not appropriate to put large, recent social events that result in the deaths of thousands on tarot card images. From the tarot perspective, it makes many readings too heavy -- it places a crushing burden on the reading. From a real life perspective, it trivializes the event -- by using the image on divination tool, it allows us to distance ourselves from the humanity involved and to think of the event in a self-satisfied manner as a "lesson." I felt the same way about the 5 of Cups, I think it was, in the Blue Rose Tarot (a deck which I found admirable in many ways) which shows an AIDS quilt.

YMMV and all that.
 

photokat

If you want eerie, have a look at the Haindl Tower card. That deck was created years before the Twin Towers were attacked and it couldn't look any more like that incident if he'd painted it on scene. It even looks like papers flying around in the air like there were that day.

I almost forgot about those flying bits of papers - and I was right there when it happened.
My friend visited me in New York 3 months prior .... one morning she woke up and told me she had a dream that meteorites or something similar had crashed into both towers of the WTC - the scenario she had described looked pretty much like it happened 3 months later on 9/11.
I suppose that collective consciousness has definitely manifested itself in tarot as well for sure.