It is clear by looking at the card that experiencing the Tower is tough.

The energy of the Tower can take many forms. Being fired, loss of a home, nasty and abrupt ending of a relationship, failure, a big fight. All of them are  accurate examples of the tower in action.

What do they have in common?
A sense of shock. Everyday life has been shaken at the foundation level. The very things that gave us confidence are gone.

Sadness and fear are the theme of the day.

“What does not kill you makes you stronger.”
Many people believe that. So, what can we learn from a Tower experience?

A lot, I think. First, the Tower is number 16, which reduces to 7, meaning introspection. When going through it, you have to accept it and not deny your part in it. Yes, it is an abrupt end that seems to come out on nowhere.

In reality the death card, number 13, comes first.
Something was not right. We had the chance to make changes to correct it, but for what ever reason we did not, so the universe did it for us.

Does knowing this make the experience less painful? No, it does not.
But, understanding that something at the foundation was broken should.

The Tower is often a humbling experience, where the ego takes a hit.
Perhaps we built things too fast. Perhaps we were arrogant and not open to other people’s ideas, or way of doing things. Perhaps we had become too comfortable and our achievements had become our jail, restricting us from learning and growing and doing new things. Maybe we were beating a dead horse.

The destruction brought up by the tower gives us the opportunity to learn from our mistakes and/ or go in new directions.

The image  is from the Sacred Rose Tarot deck by the very talented Johanna Gargiulo- Sherman.