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| Oh crap, the Tower!!! |
The other day before I did a reading for someone on shindigtarot.com, the client said, "Not the Tower, not the Tower!" It is almost the tarot version of "No Whammies! No Whammies!" Poor Tower Card. I think that might be the only time you will ever hear anyone, anywhere, say that.
It made me think about those misunderstood "big baddy" cards that no one wants to get. You know the usual suspects. I'll put them in the order of what I think are the biggest and baddiest (your list may include the same cards, more of them, and/or less):
- Death ("Does this mean I'm going to DIE?!")
- The Devil ("I'm possessed?!")
- The Tower ("Oh my, that doesn't look good at all...")
- 10 of Swords (the resolution of a very volatile situation... maybe)
- 9 of Swords (what I like to call the nightmares card)
Of course we all have had some experiences in readings of cards that we, personally, don't want to see. Perhaps a certain card that is the significator of an ex popping up in a reading, giving us a warning that sometime soon he would come a'knocking back at our door. Perhaps you had a reading that stuck with you in a bad way, and seeing one of the cards from that reading takes you back to that time and that bad memory. Whatever the reason, what is it about these cards that make them into the boogiemen of the tarot?
I would say, a) misconceptions, and b) no one likes to hear difficult news. Simple answers, yes, but let's keep in mind the title of this post. I'm not talking about me being "shot" as the messenger, just by being a tarot reader. The messengers in question are those self-same big baddy cards.
Donnaleigh (http://donnaleigh.net/) tweeted a quotation that really hit this idea home with me. The quotation was, roughly, "Nothing is good nor bad. It just is." Again, a simple idea. But I have found lately that "keeping it simple, stupid" is increasingly harder to do in an ever-more-complicated world, but so necessary.
So the next time the Tower comes up in a reading, I'm not saying to welcome it with open arms. But don't blame the Tower for the destruction it's telling you is happening (which will consequently lead to the building of a strong foundation after the dust has settled). Accept the message the Tower carries with it, but do not let the Tower become that message forever.
