Legend: The Arthurian Study Group - The Tower

Sophie-David

Note: There are two Tower references in the Judgement thread at Posts #15 and 17.

This is a link to The Tower graphic.

RedMaple said:
do you know this poem by Rilke?

I live my life in growing orbits
that move out over the things of the world
I don't know if I shall ever achieve the last
but that shall be my attempt

I am circling around God
around the sacred tower
and I don't know yet
if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a glorious song
Its that pesky synchronicity again! I had never heard about this poet before this week, but was just reading about his work Duino Elegies in the book The Wounded Woman: Healing the Father-Daughter Relationship by Linda Schierse Leonard, pages 134-135, page 139 also. Speaking of water, as we have been, the author was refering to "the image of rain as redemptive, symbolizing the tears of transformation...the source of sorrow and joy was the same "carrying stream"...Rain is an image of the cycle of growth."

Yes, that is a powerful verse - I am not familiar with it. Now when I see "sacred tower" I think of Mary Magdala, whose last name means "The Tower" as in "The Exalted One", and who some see as the feminine counterpart to Jesus. Yes, I like your image of "the sense of your life getting larger and larger as you realize your connectedness to everything", and if Mary Magdala is the tower in the centre, well that's OK too.

My own metaphor for growth is that of a leaf circling in eddies as it is carried along in a stream. As the leaf processes through it's cycles, perhaps each its own small Fool's Journey, it continues inexorably on the bigger Fool's Journey which is the soul's progress through incarnation. Actually, I see one Fool's Journey as encompassing another, and so forth, like the Russian Faberge Eggs.

BTW, it may be that my Judgement dream about "my ship coming in" may be referring to this new part of the Legend dreams, now that last night I started the minors with the Ace of Spears: The Grail Lance. There was not an image of the ship - which incidentally I feel may be the Titanic, a ship which concludes its voyage by completely submerging, another death/transformation? - but vaguely remembered dreams in which Sophie was in some way initiating a new process. :eek:

Cheers
David
 

RedMaple

WalesWoman said:
I think the Tower is a great image for God...shaking us out of complacency, the lightening bolt of illumination, to discover what is real and what isn't, the battle of "good & evil", forcing us to look with and discover our realities and burn away the baggage we store in the attics, that gather dust and more webs. The things that bind us and blind us as well.

I hadn't thought of Rilke's image as the Tarot Tower before now -- only as a kind of phallic image. (I first read the poem before I was doing Tarot.) But, yes, of course. I would say all the Majors are images of G-d, don't you think?
 

Lyones

Originally posted by WalesWoman
I think the Tower is a great image for God...shaking us out of complacency, the lightening bolt of illumination, to discover what is real and what isn't, the battle of "good & evil", forcing us to look with and discover our realities and burn away the baggage we store in the attics, that gather dust and more webs. The things that bind us and blind us as well.

Originally posted by RedMaple
I hadn't thought of Rilke's image as the Tarot Tower before now -- only as a kind of phallic image. (I first read the poem before I was doing Tarot.) But, yes, of course. I would say all the Majors are images of G-d, don't you think?

This is an interesting concept ... and most probable considering the history of tarot and the fact that in a lot of decks, a particular 'god' is depicted in each of the Majors (for instance, the decks following on the lines of Greek and Egyptian myths) ... I was wondering if the Majors were in someway an attempt to mould the Hebrew/Christian God with those of other religions - to unify them, and so to unify the people with different opinions and beliefs, to bring everything under one umbrella, as it were - in this deck, I'm thinking it would fit in with Merlin's reasoning for uniting Uther and Igraine (and has probably been the plight of many leaders down through the ages) - with The Universe card being the ultimate goal, signifying unity, being liberated from ridgidity of one concept and bringing the change that will maintain balance and peace.

Originally posted by Sophie-David
Yes, that is a powerful verse - I am not familiar with it. Now when I see "sacred tower" I think of Mary Magdala, whose last name means "The Tower" as in "The Exalted One", and who some see as the feminine counterpart to Jesus.

I've always thought of the story of the Tower of Babel for the Tower card - being brought down from the heights and making all men equal (because of their differences, strangely enough), but the story of Mary Magdalene seems to equate to the same thing, except, as far as I remember, she chose to humble herself to Jesus, who raised her up to the level of the disciples (who I understand were not happy about it), and I think the story fits very well with the concept of the tarot Tower. In the tale of Vortigern's Fortress - Vortigern, the usurper, cannot even get his structure up properly because of the dragons fighting beneath the surface - Merlin's revelation of this and his prophesy of the future made Vortigern realise that he was not as safe as he thought, not his intelligence, nor his might, can save him or his castle from destruction. When I see this card I'm always glad that good has a chance to triumph over evil, but when I begin to think of how it pertains to my own life, I'm mortified ... and I guess that's the object of it.
 

WalesWoman

sophie-david said:
Speaking of water, as we have been, the author was refering to "the image of rain as redemptive, symbolizing the tears of transformation...the source of sorrow and joy was the same "carrying stream"...Rain is an image of the cycle of growth."

This made me think of the RWS Star, which in nothing like the image in Legends. Which makes me think of other cards with rain in them...but that sort of takes us out of the Majors. But it does seem to relate well with the images in Temperance...the water flowing from the stone man's mouth into the overflowing cauldron, to be scooped up and carried away in smaller portions...

Sorry, maybe I'm too much like the Page of Spears, hopping from one interesting thing to another...lol I think we were talking about the Tower and Death still.

Lyones said:
In the tale of Vortigern's Fortress - Vortigern, the usurper, cannot even get his structure up properly because of the dragons fighting beneath the surface - Merlin's revelation of this and his prophesy of the future made Vortigern realise that he was not as safe as he thought, not his intelligence, nor his might, can save him or his castle from destruction. When I see this card I'm always glad that good has a chance to triumph over evil, but when I begin to think of how it pertains to my own life, I'm mortified ... and I guess that's the object of it.

I guess that is it, we can't intellectualize, rationalize or make excuses any more and have to face our illusions and the dragons within ourselves, burn the baggage and build from the ground up. Which I guess would be what the Judgment card is blowing out of her trumpet. The shake up for the wake up call.
 

Lyones

Originally posted by WalesWoman
The shake up for the wake up call.

Yeah! :) Like warning to pay attention, or not to get comfortable with your situation because it's going to change, a mess that needs to be cleaned up, or "what just happened here?".

The dragons fighting below the surface caused earth tremors, denying Vortigern his goal - the fortress, a place of safety, a place to defend himself from, the place he could have been master to indulge in his dreams of grandeur. With the dragons' release we can actually see the conflict happening, it is not only stressful, but destructive ... it's easier to deal with things when they are out in the open, we can see what's causing the problem.

With the dragons being red and white I think of the little cartoon devil and angel, the devil says "do it, it's not bad", the angel says "you know that you shouldn't" and the conflict and confusion that goes on inside the poor human character they are whispering to - sometimes head-on collision, sometimes tug-o-war. The devil and angel, as with the two dragons, never seem to agree. It also seems that the dragon's feud goes on forever, and although they are battered and their environment is laid waste, they are oblivious to everything except the battle ... and perhaps the dragons symbolise Vortigern in this way too ... he creates wars to the detriment of his land and people and can see nothing but what he wants - he's not worried about the consequenses to his country, as long as he thinks he is safely in power.

The legend says that the dragons only started fighting again after 500 years, was it possibly because their sensitivity to elements and currents of waring energy in the land stirred them up?
 

WalesWoman

I like this duality concept, having to look at the polarities of the situation, the self, the voices in our heads that won't shut up and let you just accept everything at face value. But all that warring tears you apart physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Strength conquers it with love and gentleness, The Hanged Man with Acceptance, Temperence with blending and transmuting it to something unique...oh man I keep thinking of more and more cards about balance and harmony. Justice, Wheel, Chariot, Emperor, Lovers

But the Tower...there is no half way meeting, it's gone far beyond that, it's either change or change anyway. There is no fixing this without beginning from scratch.

Another thought I had with this is the physical tangible qualities, like earthquakes, volcanoes, and tidal waves.