The Shock of Collapse

Well yeah. Here we are. We can’t avoid The Tower. It may be the darkest and most disturbing card in the entire tarot, followed closely by the Ten of Swords. Keep in mind though, tarot doesn’t have any “bad” or “good” cards. They are tools for self-reflection and your personal experience and interpretation plays a big role. Context is important in how the cards relate to your particular situation and season of life.

That said, The Tower can feel like Jason Voorhees bashing the door in with a machete. There is nothing gentle here, no easing into change. This is destruction, upheaval, and the shattering of illusions in their most basic form. The Tower doesn’t ask for your consent. When it happens, nothing is ever quite the same again.

In the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, the card shows a medieval stone tower struck by lightning, with flames erupting and people tumbling from its top. It depicts a snapshot of chaos. But I wanted to pull that symbolism into something more unmistakable and relatable. My Tower is a cold and impersonal corporate skyscraper. It’s the ultimate monument to control, and to the systems we build and then believe will protect us forever. And it’s violently burning, from the top down. I can’t help but see this as a symbol of modern capitalism.

I wanted this burning to extend beyond the image itself into the surrounding structure. When the Tower falls, there are no boundaries between “what’s happening in the card” and “what’s happening in your life.” It scorches everything.

The building has exploded and two business people are in freefall, but I wanted them facing the building, reaching back toward the institution that just destroyed them. They’re not just falling, they’re desperately trying to cling to the very structure that’s cast them out.

We all do this. We cling to what’s crumbling. The toxic job we hate but can’t imagine leaving. The relationship we know is over but keep trying to fix. The belief system that no longer fits but still feels safer than the unknown. We hold tight even as the fire burns our hands, convinced that if we can just grab hold again, everything will go back to the way it was.

But The Tower is here to make sure it won’t.

The Fool’s Journey, and Why This Hurts So Much

In the major arcana, The Tower comes right after The Devil. The Devil shows you the chains, those illusions, attachments, and dependencies you’ve built your life around. But that doesn't always lead to action. Sometimes we stay bound because it feels safer than the unknown. That is when The Tower steps in. It forces the break you would not make on your own.

This is the moment when the structure holding something in your life together collapses. You may have believed you could fix it from within or that the cracks were not serious. The Tower is the wake-up call that some jobs cannot be saved, some relationships cannot be repaired, and some beliefs cannot be reconciled. They have to fall, no matter how much you wish they wouldn’t.

As the 16th card, in The Fool’s journey, The Tower represents the climax or turning point of the story. It doesn’t get any worse. I love that it’s followed immediately by The Star, a beautiful card of renewal, clarity, and calm. Tarot never sees destruction as an end. It is the clearing that makes space for something more honest to take root.

The Brutal Gift

It’s tempting to see this card only as bad news. But there’s a reason it shows up in readings beyond just delivering doom. The Tower reveals what’s hidden and forces it into the open. If you’re falling from a burning building, there’s no ignoring the truth of the matter.

Sometimes this is external: a sudden layoff, a breakup, an accident, a natural disaster. Sometimes it’s internal: a revelation that rewires how you see yourself and your life. It could be a moment of clarity where you rethink your place in life. However it appears, The Tower can bring clarity to what you couldn’t access while you were inside the tower walls. It might possibly lead to a profound life awakening.

Getting back to my illustration, the figures facing the building speak to the hardest part of Tower moments: the pull of the familiar. The appeal of staying in our comfort zones. We mourn the structure even if it was a cage. We grieve the loss of the illusion as much as the reality. The Tower asks us to stop reaching for what’s crumbling, and instead, look to the sky and see what else is possible.

A Moment You Might Recognize

A woman I once knew spent twenty years at the same tech company. It wasn’t her dream job, but it paid well and she felt comfortable. She ignored the rumors of layoffs, believing her seniority would protect her. Then one Monday, the email came. There was no meeting or chance to say goodbye. Her tower collapse was harsh and uncaring.

She told me later the hardest part wasn’t losing the job that she really never cared much for. It was realizing she had built her entire identity around being part of that company. Without it, she didn’t know who she was. That’s The Tower. It takes the structure and the story you’ve been living in and pulls them out from under you. It forces you to rebuild, this time examining what you really want. Today she spends her days as an artist!

What I’ve Learned From This Card

Personal Takeaways:

I always freak out a little when this card appears lol

The Tower makes my stomach sink. Not because I believe disaster is inevitable, but because I know how much this card can change the way I see things. It asks me to face big perspective shifts, especially the ones I’ve been avoiding. And even the good shifts can be uncomfortable.

The Tower doesn’t have to cause anxiety

This card is not always about catastrophe. Sometimes it’s a mental breakthrough, a sudden truth that frees you from years of subtle weight. I’ve learned to see it as an invitation to stop patching the cracks and start imagining what could stand in their place.

Archetypal Truths:

The Tower isn’t just destruction, it’s an eviction notice

Sometimes the spiritual, emotional, or even physical space you’ve been living in was never really yours. It feels like you’ve just been renting space in someone else’s dream. The Tower throws you out because you don’t belong there anymore.

The Tower can be your own making

It’s easy to see this card as an external force, like fate striking you with lightning. But sometimes we are the architects of our own Towers. We overbuild, we over-identify with a single role or achievement, and we ignore warning signs until collapse is inevitable.

The Tower exposes loyalty to harmful systems

The figures in my card aren’t falling because they want to. They’re falling because the system spit them out. Yet they’re still looking back. This is the uncomfortable truth about human loyalty: we often become attached (even dependent) on what hurts us.

The Tower levels hierarchies

When it falls, it takes everyone. The CEO and the receptionist both pack their boxes on the same day. The long-term couple and the newlyweds both watch their relationships unravel. Collapse does not discriminate. It is the great equalizer.

Some Ways The Tower Can Show Up in a Reading

Love and Relationships:

This can be the card of breakups, shocking truths, or betrayals. But it can also signal an awakening where you see a relationship for what it truly is, and can’t unsee it. If you’re holding onto codependency, or a dynamic that is breaking you, The Tower will pry your fingers loose.

Sex and Passion:

Sometimes, this is the destruction of sexual illusions, realizing that a connection you thought was purely about desire was actually about control. It can also be a moment where your understanding of your own sexuality or identity changes.

Work and Career:

Layoffs. Restructuring. Industry collapse. The sudden realization that the ladder you’ve been climbing is leaning against the wrong building. The Tower in career readings says: stop assuming your job will always be there to hold you. What would you do if it wasn’t?

Money and Finances:

Financial upheaval, unpaid taxes, market crashes, unexpected expenses. The Tower forces you to confront where your sense of security really comes from, and what happens when that safety net is gone.

Family and Friendship:

Long-held family myths or dynamics can crumble. Secrets come to light. Friendships may implode under the weight of truths that can’t be ignored. The Tower clears away relationships that were never as stable as you thought.

Personal Growth and Spirituality:

The Tower can be a spiritual crisis: a moment when the beliefs you’ve lived by no longer fit. It can also be a radical awakening where you realize you’ve been living inside a construct, and the real world is bigger, messier, and more beautiful than you imagined.

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The Tower is not the card you want, but it’s often the card you need. It reminds you that not all destruction is meaningless, and not all endings are tragic. When the walls come down, the sky opens up, you get to choose: will you keep facing the ruins, or will you finally turn around and see what’s beyond them?

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