xvi the tower

The tower is in your mind. It's the stronghold where we keep all our most unshakable, essential, and precious illusions.

When the tower is struck by lightning, it leads to great disillusionment, in the most literal sense. And quality of life really goes to hell for a while.

I don't know anyone who isn't reminded of the events of September 11, 2001 by any of the numerous modern versions of this image.

This trump during its long history has  not always been a tower. In fact, none of the other 21 picture cards has had  as many different images and names as this one. 

It's been called "the Fire," "the Arrow," "the Lightning," "the House of the Devil," "the House of the Damned," "the House of God," and "the House."

The infamous and legendary "Wicked Pack of Cards" book reports that in some early texts it was called "Hell," and say this was probably its original meaning, "although it possibly may rather have represented purgatory" ("Wicked Pack," p. 46).

Its presentation has included, besides the lightning-struck tower, an undisturbed tower with no human figures present, a burning building with corpses on the ground in front of it, a hell mouth spouting flames, into which a devil is pulling a man or woman, and a young man being struck by lightning.

Of all the images of trump, my fave is by the early Marseilles-deck artist and tradesman, Jacques Vieville. It was very early, and the only Marseilles deck I know of that doesn't always follow the "standard" designs. It also does not have the names of the trumps printed at the bottoms of the cards, a practice begun by the Marseilles tradition.

Vieville's card shows a young veck  walking through a lightning, fire, or hail storm toward a tree under where  sheep are sheltering.

Possibly, the meaning of this trump, like its succession of images, has evolved over time, was characterized by a lack of clarity early on, has been a source of confusion, and alone among the trumps was not clearly conceptualized by its originators.