The Tower Tarot Card Meaning

When The Tower appears, everyone’s gut reaction is to wince or run away. But this card is often misunderstood; it’s not an omen. The Tower is a blessing in disguise, as it offers an opportunity to shift into the right path.

No doubt, The Tower does mean destruction and chaos. It appears at a time when we feel like our life is falling down, completely and utterly, and without warning. An example of this might be: receiving an eviction notice or finding out that your partner has been cheating again. But if you look closely at these two situations, you will notice that even though ‘the worst’ is upon you and you feel like you’re flailing about, they’re both situations that could have been predicted. If you’re not paying your mortgage, you’ll probably get evicted. If you take back a cheater, you run the risk of them falling back into old habits. So, in fact, even though you feel like it’s a dramatic surprise, most of the time when The Tower comes up, it’s describing a situation that shouldn’t surprise you.

What we consider a punishment might actually be a signal that you’ve strayed from your path. It’s for that reason that The Tower is pretty karmic—heavily tied to the Universe’s plan. The Tower tends to appear when we haven’t been listening to the Universe’s signals. The mortgage bills that were piling up were signs that the eviction was coming. The fact that your partner cheated before was a red flag that you willingly took on. If you don’t listen to the signs, you get The Tower.

So, really, The Tower is more of a ‘reality check’ than anything else. It’s meant to—dramatically—realign you toward your correct path.

Reversed meaning: In a reversed position, The Tower represents a time when we’re reconciling with what has happened and attempting to heal. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re understanding why everything happened. However, we can start to pick up all the pieces. During this period, it’s wise to take time for yourself, find your center, and realign with your core values and next steps. Consider what the Universe’s plan is for you, if it wasn’t what you were doing before. Since The Tower reversed represents a massive detox period, it’s a good time to rid yourself of anything else in your life that isn’t in alignment with who you are. Ultimately, The Tower reversed represents a period of healing.

Astrological significance: The Tower is associated with the planet of war, Mars. In astrology, Mars represents our anger, passions, sex, and desires. It’s also the planetary ruler of zodiac sign Aries.

Now, looking at The Tower in respect to this is pretty simple. The Tower takes action. One might even consider The Tower to be a period where the Universe is expressing some anger. It’s a point when the Universe has thrown its hands up in the air, puts on a war face, and says, “Fine! I’ll make it really simple for you.”

We also have to remember that Mars rules our ambition. So, we might see The Tower as a way to kickstart an ambition for a new or better life. After falling to the ground, we might be even more motivated to get back in the game.

Aries is a sign that knows no limits… or boundaries… in both a good and bad way. Because of that, this sign tends to be fearless and sometimes even impulsive. The Tower can sometimes represent the repercussions of embodying these traits.

Numerological significance: The Tower is the 16th card of the Major Arcana. In numerology, when you add 1 + 6 together, you get The Tower’s number: 7. Now, 7 is a card of imbalance, illusion, and deception. It represents things that knock you off your feet, but for a different reason than you might assume upfront. From the perspective of The Tower, it creates such a negative storm that it’s hard to see how the pain or unfortunate events are just a mask for the real awakening. But that’s all part of the ‘7’ personality. It’s meant to confuse you for a moment, until you find your way out.

Key actions:

• Find the silver lining. There’s always more to the story when anything negative happens to us. Attempt to understand what this situation is trying to teach you or how it’s trying to realign you toward a better path.
• Refrain from thinking of yourself as a failure. The Tower is ridding your life of something that, seriously, was not meant to be.
• In fact, be grateful! Consider making a gratitude list of all the things that you’re grateful to release from your life with this situation.
• Know that something better for you is on the way. Whatever The Tower removes from your life, it’s attempting to make room for something that you will love even more.
• Embrace the opportunity to detox. Brainstorm any other things in your life that are not working at full capacity and find ways to release them.
• Remember that we can’t always see what’s being outlined for us. The point of the number ‘7’, and the point of The Tower in general, is to confuse us for a moment. It knocks us off the railings in order to get us asking questions. As you find the answers to those questions, you will begin to understand the ‘why’ behind the chaos.
• Don’t fret! This is a passing moment in time.

Yes/no meaning: The Tower is a definite NO. It’s a forewarning that whatever you’re trying to achieve is something that isn’t aligned with your path. You would do best to let it go or to find another path similar to it. Honestly, this card is a karmic sign that you’re straying from what you’re supposed to be doing. So, get back into alignment with a different route.

If you receive this card in a reversed position, it could be a ‘yes’, depending on the question. For example, you might ask, ‘Should I start therapy?’ Receiving The Tower reversed (a position that discusses healing) in response to this question would be an emphatic, YES.