The Tower Card

I'm currently studying the Tower myself, and the dove and serpent have me a little puzzled. On the subject, Crowley himself says:

"These represent the two forms of desire; what Schopenhauer would have called the Will to Live and the Will to Die."

I can understand the Will to Die being on the Tower, butthe Will to Live is somewhat less obvious in this context of destruction.

Septimus Rivit said:

I can understand the Will to Die being on the Tower, butthe Will to Live is somewhat less obvious in this context of destruction.

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Crowley's alternative title for this card was WAR.
In one sense all life is war. We can only exist if we destroy other things for our own benefit. Eating food is an example of my Will to Live by the method of destruction.

A quick qabalistic thought.....

The ninth qabalistic sephira Yesod. The Foundation of the Universe.
Hebrew spelling: YSVD = 80 = Peh = Mars = The Tower / War.

Septimus Rivit said:

I can understand the Will to Die being on the Tower, butthe Will to Live is somewhat less obvious in this context of destruction.

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My first thought is that the Will to Live is expressed in human reactions to destruction. If you find yourself in a burning building, your first instinct would be to head for safety, saving yourself and hopefully others. I'd wager that would be the case even if you'd been contemplating suicide not long before. The easiest way to find the Will to Live might well be in the threat of its being taken away unexpectedly.

The Serpent and the Dove are also present in the Hierophant card, though in very different form. Maybe it's his tower being destroyed? With, of course, the promise that it will be built up again, in a new form for the new Aeon.

The Will to Live/The Will to Die... Can one exist without the other? Living has so much more meaning when you know that dying is on the horizon. And dying becomes something quite different when living seems like worse than death.

War is a time when people come face to face with death on a daily basis -- WWII and the blitzkrieg would have brought death to the forefront of the minds of Lady Harris and Messr. Crowley on a daily basis. But one would think the Will to Live would be challenged and reaffirmed every night that the curtains were pulled and the blackout imposed... And the bombs dropped.

I know someone who grew up in Nurenburg during WWII -- she remembers vividly the bombing of that great city by the Allies. She still has nightmares about it, but she also has the strongest sense of life of anyone I know. I was trying to recall Schopenhauer tonight -- I'm afraid my there's a wire crossed in my brain as I could not recall specifically his thoughts on the topic.

Does anyone have it handy? Haven't looked at it since early graduate school -- much reading ago. Seems worth revisiting as Crowley mentions it.

Julien

There is the dove and there is the serpent; choose ye well.
For me (on one level) the tower represents our ego and that WILL be destroyed, one way or another - eventually.

The dove is the 'Blessings of God' or that spiritual force that resides 'above' and gives its energy to the form below, or grace if you like.

The serpent is the spiritual force in man that rises 'up' to meet 'God'. Or aspiration, I suppose one could call it.

The three together (and taking the 3 together shanges the meaning of the tower (from that as above) to a map of the Kundalini with Ida and Pingala as the dove and serpent.

SerpentaAzothi said:

Do you think this was foretelling the current crisis were in, and thus the very act of 911? Anyone have any comments? Looking forward to it.

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No, because compared to other world disasters, the events which occured in September in 2002 are slim pickings. It was only a 'big deal" (in terms of widespread public knowledge, not tragic life loss, of which is most definately was a tragedy...) was that it caught people totally off gaurd and was quite bold.
The Tower depicts a 'knocking down" of our current fortifications to make way for more spiritually sound ones. By fortifications I mean our super-ego.
And by spiritually sound I mean a mindset that is directed by unambiguious will.

at least that is my take on it. But I definately don't believe for a second that Harris drew a comic panel of 9/11. It would totally trivialise the card (and tarot) if she did.

SerpentaAzothi said:

Hi, I noticed in the eye in the tower card, is actually a sun. If you glance at first its an eye, but look closer, its very apparent, was wondering if anyone noticed that? Also I noticed the building in the card thats being destroyed is being crushed with a hand, It alludes to hermit card, since yod is the hand. Yod is king, suit of fire. So then got me thinking the tower equates to the king of wands. To me the tower represents war, the very war the world plunges itself into, in various instances. Do you think this was foretelling the current crisis were in, and thus the very act of 911? Anyone have any comments? Looking forward to it.

Serpenta

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The idea that the tower card predicted 9/11 by its very existence seems silly to me. I am sure there were readers who predicted 9/11, although I don't know who they were, I don't usually work on a world events level, and I don't know any readers who do. Most focus on more personal matters. Although I know some of the psychics at the website I work at can see things like that.

My IDS!

This is a very busy, and very orange, card! Like the Emperor, who is Aries. And this is Mars. Makes sense. A great open eye in the sky shoots a large lightning bolt which strikes a tower, throwing out 4 people, who are depicted as geometric forms (Cubist?). Below is the mouth of hell, with teeth!, shooting forth flames. Are they going to fall into the mouth? To the left of the eye is the dove with an olive branch, the dove of peace; and to the left is a snake/dragon with a sun-like halo.

Crowley gives this card the alternate name War (presumably for Mars). (We also have to remember that WWII was going on when the deck was created.) The card is also referred to in the Book of Law as the House of God, an old name for the card. The Hebrew letter is Pe, meaning mouth, thus the mouth of hell here (and not in the Devil?). In the too much information department, Snuffin says Crowley used the letter Pe in his diary to refer to oral sex. And points out that the card can refer to a sex act—tower, shooting out, mouth. And I think I saw something about the eye, too, in nicky’s thread . . . But are we brave enough to use this info in a reading?

This is obviously a card of destruction, and it’s not just fluffy to say that the old has to be destroyed before the new can come about. Like Death. The poor people are just geometric forms because they are dead. They are just earth now with no life in them. 4 people for the 4 elements?

Some folks see it as a “bolt from the blue,” and enlightenment or at least rude awakening. The eye reinforces this. There is also a connection to the third eye of the Devil. When your third eye is opened, you don’t see your old life in the same way, and you may go so far as to “destroy” it.

I know I’ve told this story before, but I will again very shortly. I had a vision of the Goddess sleeping. As she slept, the universe went on around her, but when she woke (opened her eyes), the universe was absorbed back into her. She is all, and when she is awake, she knows it and embodies it. In a way the Universe is destroyed.

The dove and serpent come from the Book of the Law. Both are love. Crowley says they are will to live and will to die. And if you know that life and death are just two sides of the same continuum, you don’t have to choose between them. Practically, the dove is always useful in a reading. “This card shows an unwanted or upsetting change or shock, but when the shock is over, peace will come.” I don’t know if that’s the intent, but it works! The truth is probably more that life and death, shock and peace, always exist and are always replacing each other in everyone’s lives.

Snuffin, on the other hand, says the dove is Christianity’s Holy Spirit chased away by War, and being replaced by the lion-serpent (Beast) of the new aeon.

In a reading: A sudden unexpected turn of events that might be uncomfortable or upsetting at the time, but that may clear the way for a better future. The time to let go may soon be at hand. Things will go better for you if you let go!