The Tower Tarot Card Meaning – Upright and Reversed

The next card in our series of Major Arcana tarot card meanings is The Tower. Keep reading to discover what it means when The Tower shows up your tarot card reading.

XVI – The Tower

Ruler: Mars

The Tower Tarot Card Meaning

Along with Death and The Devil cards; The Tower is another card that often causes an uneasy feeling we see it in a spread. The Tower tarot card is about unexpected upheavals, unexpected shocks and unexpected events that turn our lives upside down. However, this is all to create new opportunities and make us a stronger and wiser person. 

The Tower Upright

The changes that occur when the Tower is in a spread are usually sudden and may give us a jolt. Depending where The Tower falls in a spread it can also represent problems and delays with things like buying a new home or issues related to the home.

The Tower represents tyranny and revolution and the overthrowing of your existing way of life. This card also encourages you to see the discourse as something to force you into a new and better direction. The Tower can also mean this is a phase and it will pass so a new direction and opportunities can emerge from it. 

The Tower represents disruption and confusion – it’s a card of major changes. Depending where it falls in the spread it can mean disruption of a routine. When we see this card it is saying to us it’s time to stop doing the same old tired things. It can portend ruin, disturbances,  dramatic upheaval, widespread repercussions of actions and or a change of job and residence at one time.

The Tower card means now is the time to re-evaluate things; that this change is necessary and that better will come from this turmoil. It’s actually a blessing in disguise depending on the other cards in the spread.

Tower Reversed

There isn’t that much difference with the Tower reversed except that the cycle is coming to an end. Reversed the Tower is indicating it’s almost time to start rebuilding.

Reversed, The Tower can mean negativity. It indicates there are restrictions and some sort of imprisonment whether its physical, emotional or spiritual. Depending where it appears in the spread, the Tower reversed can mean that there are drastic changes that are robbing the person of their freedom of expression.

It can also mean bankruptcy or going to jail; imprisonment literally. The reversed Tower can mean sudden changes that one cannot control.

Click here to discover the meaning of all the tarot cards in the Major Arcana.