The Tower...
On my recent Rites of Passage road trip through Wyoming, I brought with me 8 archetypal allies to explore, study & engage with as I move into these “End of Day Times”
I started my immersion with the Hermit & High Priestess, powerful forces that offered a solid foundation upon which to engage my journey. The next set of teachers I'm apprenticing to are "The Tower" & "Death", extreme energies to dive into, but perfect & appropriate for these times.
Writing & creating SoulCollage cards for this Tower blog was intense! It feels good to finally have this piece completed & out into the world where it can breathe into a new level of being.
May this blog introduce ideas & inspirations for your fall, as we plummet, individually and collectively, into the new reality of life being crafted now.
Card Representation
The Tower is card 16 in a Tarot deck. It is often portrayed with a tall building collapsing after being hit by a strike of lightening. There are two people falling from the tower, descending rapidly into their next reality.
The Tower represents an experience of destruction & crisis, a sudden change, a massive upheaval. Stability crumbles. Life changes instantly. You are falling. There is no turning back.
Often times the Tower is worked with on a personal level, such as during the collapse of a marriage, career or one’s health. And while this card still ties into the personal, there is a large collapse happening now, on a collective level, around the world, which makes the Tower card exponentially appropriate for these times.
Lighting Flash
The lightening bolt in The Tower card references the suddenness of catastrophe. The immediate and unexpected portal crossing the collapse ushers into being.
In many ways, the pandemic was a lightening bolt for humanity. It was instant, far reaching, and forever changing of the systems & structures we have built on this planet, often times at the expense of it.
And while there have been large scale global events in the past, the lightening fast speed of technology & communication portals available now adds an extra layer of lightening bolt intensity to our collapse. This card is not metaphor…it is happening now. We are all in it.
The Collapse
To build the Towers we’ve been living in for decades, we as a human species have over exploited planetary resources, human & otherwise. And in return for our living here, we have created high levels of toxins & waste in the very eco-system that sustains us.
Our focus on constant economic growth & our obsession with endless consumption has & will lead to the collapse of our current model of industrial civilization. Our systems & structures for living on this planet, and with one another, are no longer sustainable. We are facing a massive evolutionary crisis as a human species.
From government systems to healthcare, to the education of our youth & the care of our elderly, to the supply chains we create, both domestic & foreign, the Tower is bringing them down.
Pieces are falling. Piles of ruble are building up around us.
It’s not fun, it’s not easy, but it's needed.
Part of the Problem
From a larger perspective, I understand how the reshuffling of so many pieces in our world is needed. And while I see value in the collapse on a collective level, on a personal level, I have feelings of sadness & depression over the loss of so much for so many. I also feel guilt & shame over my contribution to the mess we as humanity have brought to this planet.
I am part of the problem. I am a contributor to the harmful residence humans are on this planet.
I am one of the masses that has contributed to building & sustaining the unsustainable structures we’ve been living in, especially here in America.
There are so many wasteful & toxic aspects to my living model. I see & know this, yet, change is challenging. I have attachment & deep preferences for the many comforts & conveniences in my life. I don’t want to lose them, even though I know that’s what's needed for increased health & vitality, both for me, and the planet as a whole.
…and this is just me, one person. Bringing about change to organizations & institutions around the world that exponentially rape & pollute the planet is even more challenging!
The Tower has a lot to take down!
Poem
it’s 3:23 in the morning and I’m awake because my great great grandchildren won’t let me sleep. my great great grandchildren ask me in dreams what did you do while the planet was plundered? what did you do when the earth was unraveling? surely you did something when the seasons started failing? as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying? did you fill the streets with protest when democracy was stolen? what did you do once
you
knew?... — poem by Drew Dellinger
Tile Mosaic
The Tower leads me to reflect on the art of tile mosaic; taking pieces of broken tile & creating a new image from the fragments. As Towers of society collapse all over the world, they are smashing into pieces that we can use as resources in the rebuilding process.
Often times the Tower card is shown with only the top of the building collapsing; the crown, the mind, the ego. The whole building is not crumbling, there's still a foundation in place. This makes me think there is good in humanity, and that on the other side of this collapse, there is hope that we can individually & collectively access a deeper source of heart & soul in a rebuilding process.
I may not be alive to see the “what’s next” version of what gets built after this collapse, since it will take generations for the new model to emerge. However, I can be aligned now with integrity & service as things crumble, and participate in the creative process of picking up pieces in the ruble to build a new way. And if reincarnation is a thing, my efforts now will influence my future life too.
Tower Wisdom
The fall is beyond our control, and so the deep medicine of working with the Tower is how to surrender to the shift, and be in the awareness & evolutionary benefits the collapse has to offer, which is easier said than done.
We are posed with a problem, which in essence is an opportunity. The drastic social change happening now due to our global collapse supports the creation of new ways of living and relating with one another. As sacred activist Andrew Harvey says, "In the great death, is a great birth."
To bring closure to this blog, I will share a few more words from Andrew Harvey who has written many books on this subject matter.
“We are in apocalyptic times. The whole of humanity and every form of life is threatened. And while this great death is escalating at a terrifying speed, in the middle of this chaos, a great birth is happening, which takes place in & through the crisis.
As more people wake up to the nightmare & horror of what is happening, and the glory of the potential birth, more people will be called into the core of their lives, to fuse deep spiritual awareness with clear wise radical focused action in the world."
