The Tower

This is not the Tower of Babel, although this has been a common suggestion. Nowhere in the early literature was this tower struck by lightning, and certainly not in Gen. 11:4-9. Midrashic interpretation does suggest that the top third was burned, but no lightning is mentioned. In other versions it was simply abandoned. Yet Lightning or Fire from Heaven (Le Feu Du Ciel) was an early name for this Trump, along with The House of God (La Maison de Dieu). Despite this, however, the confusion of tongues and dispersion of peoples is consistent with the core meaning of this card, and so is a deep concern with the pride of man exceeding the limits allowed by the powers that be. Nature has forces that dwarf ours in scope and power, even the tiny forces like erosion and genetic mutation, since these have geological time in which to do their work, while we do not. When our pride, arrogance, and shortsightedness urge us beyond our limits, it is not divine wrath, retribution, or retaliation that we need to watch out for. The simple consequences of human stupidity are apocalypse and havoc enough, backed by natural forces obeying the rules we ignore. We might wonder if any specific tower was on the first card designer’s mind. It could have been a wish for the fall of papal Rome. We might also wonder if someone hadn’t noticed that the tallest buildings got struck the most often by lightning, and that those were the houses of the Lord with their proud, erect steeples. But it’s physics plus ignorance, not divine wrath. This Trump was already well along in its existence when it picked up the astrologi- cal planet Mars for a correlation and patron. Here, we also add a similar correspon- dence with Bagua 4, Zhen, Thunder. This altered the meaning some, internalizing or ‘subjectivizing’ the card, making it easier to identify with the lightning instead of the tower or its overthrown inhabitants. But we can still find ourselves on the wrong end of this process. What we might want to do to avoid this is find enough humility to integrate some physical science into our plans to express our towering magnificence and glorious erections, and use sturdier stuff than self-congratulation for foundation stones. Among the ideas we can draw from physics is that power seeks a grounding, and that power is more easily drawn than produced, and more easily conducted than contained. We can note that the jagged edge of the lightning actually tracks its shortest route, since this goes where resistance is least. Power likes gradients and differentials, so we can be more careful where we build up our charges. Where passing through resistance, things are going to heat up. And all of our efforts at combating gravity are only grants of potential energy to the forces of collapse. To make the most of our linking with Mars, we want to be thinking more in terms of our empowerment than our personal power, and maybe reread Sunzi’s Bingfa, and even take a course in jujitsu or aikido. Playing the warrior here suggests there is something in opposition, something to purge or overcome, something to deconstruct or dismantle, clear away or open up, or help to fall, or ground. Maybe we open up some possibilities, or clear away some errors, or indict some malefactors. Righting a wrong or an error is not a disaster, except to the wrong or erroneous. We will be more effective here if we side with powers greater than those we oppose, and belong to the larger forces of liberation and evolu- tion. This might remind us of JFK’s words, “Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” Our defensive walls are also prisons, rigid structures are brittle and build up forces, restrictions create sin, prohibition organizes crime, and resistance makes heat. Mars at his best will move like a fluid. Changes will be as abrupt as the thing which is changed is off course, and unpleasant in proportion to the distance of a thing from where it needs or ought to be. And in the end, we will want to move with the time, as the Spanish say: “El tiempo y yo, contra cualquiera de los dos: Time and I, against any two.” Much of our delusion these days will use the word sustainable incorrectly. Nature and natural law will define what this means, although it might take ten-thousand years, and this will be the last word, and will deconstruct what doesn’t belong. The best defense and security is good health and good practice, in accord with ius naturale or natural law. The Lightning Struck Tower is an education for us. It can be a sudden revelation or an exposé, even an apocalypse. As the great Anonymous wrote, “A mistake that humbles you is preferable to an achievement that makes you arrogant.” This will usually involve some unlearning on somebody’s part. One might rediscover glasnost and perestroika. Or a paradigm might collapse and cause a sea change in science. From one side this might be called a calamity, from another, a big relief. It’s probably best to go with relief when we want to take the long view and learn how to build better structures. Anything unexpected here is due to imperfect expectations.