Today I am using the Hermetic
Tarot, a black and white deck chock-full of symbolism. The cards I threw are The Blasted Tower
reversed, and The Lovers.
The Tower (Fire
(hot/separates and dry/shapes, and spontaneous, impulsive, energetic change),
Mars (action, spontaneity, aggression, drive), Phe (mouth or speech), and the
Path between Hod (which provides analysis and communication) and Netzach (which
offers the stimulating factors of emotion and inspiration)) is one of the Major
Arcana cards that talks of adjustments.
This one tells of a violent or explosive correction in the way things
are going that usually happens after more gentle corrections don’t bring the
needed result. The destruction
caused by The Tower is actually clearing away the old and expired, so new
growth can begin, but it might not be fun to experience. The Tower also shows us what can happen
if we cement ourselves into our beliefs.
I love what Oswald Wirth says about The Tower in his book, Tarot of the
Magicians: “[The Tower] . . . is less a temple, a house of God, than a sacred
building of a body mistakenly identified with God.”
The image on
this card is terrifying. Lightning
bolts rip apart a tall, ornate building, sending people plummeting down. Even the sun in the upper right corner
of the image is frightening.
Instead of rays, we see sharp triangles like the multiple rows of teeth
found in a shark’s mouth. It looks
like a pyramid is being shot into the building amidst the lightning bolts; to
either side of the building is a tree of life, one white and one dark. The building itself is tall, and kind
of over-fancy. To be honest, it
doesn’t look like it would be sturdy even on a good day, but it would be eye-catching.
The Lovers
(Air, hot/separates and wet/adapts, quick and animated, intellectual, problems
or challenges; Gemini, “I think,” curious, talkative, sociable, dual; Zayin,
double-edged sword; and the Path between Tiphareth, the hub of the creation
process where energies harmonize and focus to illuminate and clarify, and
Binah, female receptive energy and the origin of form and structure) tells of
duality, union, and personal choices.
This card is about love, but it is also about our personal values and
how they affect our choices, and the promises we make to others. The traditional image on The Lovers
offers three people: a man, and two women (one representing virtue and one
representing sensuality). The
Lovers presents the two halves that when united with balance are greater than
the sum of their parts; in other words, The Lovers is about a unity that is
necessary for fertility and creativity to have an effect.
This is not
your typical Lovers card. In this
image we see Andromeda, chained to a rock and being attacked by a fierce
dragon, being protected by Perseus, who is attempting to slay the dragon with a
sword. There is a small bow and
arrow at the top of this card, shaped like a heart. According to the LWB that comes with this deck, the bow and
arrow shows a connection to the Temperance card. Interesting. In
this deck Temperance is seen as the result of, or the fulfillment of, The
Lovers.
My Tower is
reversed and in this deck, a reversed Tower is warning of an ongoing entrapment
of some kind. Yes, the card is
reversed, but I am being told that danger is approaching. Without a willing rendering of balance,
the ugly and uncomfortable adjustment will happen. In fact, it might happen anyway. But my reversed Tower is being paired with a card of love
and connections. Perhaps this love
presented by The Lovers will heal me once the adjustment has taken place. Or perhaps love itself will be my
motivation to strive for balance so I can prevent the coming adjustment, and
the possible collateral damage that could harm the ones I love. Now that is a reason to get
going!
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