The cracks in our foundations 🏰 The Tower Reversed

Tarot for the week of 13/02/23 🌩 Narrowly avoiding collapse and maybe even rebuilding a little...

Feb 14, 2023

Hi y'all

Happy Valentine’s day. I’m a little late but things have ben hectic since my beloved arrived in country.

I wrote this on the tube. On the newly completed Elizabeth line. Well, new to me at least.

It seems in the year I have been gone from London new tubes and busses have sprung up. Like a body growing new arteries. New organs. Buildings I have known have been torn down and rebuilt into towering unrecognisable heights. But within it, the city seems the same.

A little dirtier, a little angrier. Still mine. Ours.

I'm on my way now to pick up my beloved from the airport. To take him through the place I was lucky enough to grow up in. To explore all this newness with him. This trip to London means that for us, farming is just one short month away. And while that thought is ever present, I am trying to be fully present. To take in London in all her glory before I leave again.

What has helped somewhat is the February almanac from Danica Boyce. Chatting the various European folklore associated with this liminal time, her latest episode but me hard. The images of the wolf and its association with wildness, balance, and this time of false spring. It all fit together so well.

Tarot for the week of 13/02/2023: The Tower Reversed

Yikes!

I know you’re not supposed to say that when you’re being all professional but with The Tower, it's hard not to. When people first start reading the Tarot, they see the Death card and panic. Soon they are usually told that no cards are bad and that each has its positives and negatives. But still, the Tower pervades as a bad omen.

In this card we see a tower struck by lightning. Its top ablaze, its power taken down, and from its battlements fall two people. The sky an ominous black; clouds and violence. Coming just after midway in the journey of the Major Arcana, it's very much a "dark night of the soul" with this card.

I actually wrote about The Tower in a piece I am writing for Heroica. In it I discussed my career path, weaving in the tarot to the tumult. The Tower came in as I finished my degree in biochemistry, or so it felt. As I realised I wanted nothing to do with academia or little experiments and lab politics. The Tower symbolised the total shaking to my core. The disruption of my foundation as I scrambled for guidance. For any idea what to do with my life.

Personal experience aside the Tower is a vital card. Without disruption, without tearing down of what is not working, how can we possibly hope to build anew? If we don't tare out broken systems at the root they will proliferate.

With the tower in the reverse position, it feels like top-down change is unlikely and movements may come from below. From the strength of those united against a common foe.

To tie this back in with the wonderful podcast I listened to this week, we have for so long, rejected the idea of the wolf. The wildness within. And yet what we do to sheep is far crueller than the wolf does. Breeding them in captivity just for slaughter. At times it feels like capitalism does the very same to its people.

In the spirit of “reject modernity, embrace tradition”, it's time for us to cast off our fear of the wild, of the unknown. Because it can get much worse than this, but dreaming and building towards a new world needs a ferocious tenderness. A will to survive. And a whole lot of hope.

So this week, as it feels like much may be crumbling. Remember that the old must make way for the new (or the even older). And that what doesn't work will be uprooted. Though there is more upheaval to come, that which survives it is built of stronger stuff.

Journaling Prompts for 14/02/23

This week ask yourself:

Where am I feeling a little shaky? How are my foundations being rocked? What have I taken for granted? Who or what have I not relied fully on upon? Where do I feel I am growing too fast? What can I fall back on when all feels lost?
What systems do I chafe against? In what ways can I resist them? How can I find ways to renew myself and others at this time? What feels like its crumbling? How can I rebuild with more fairness?

As always, I would love it if you would let me know how this resonates with you.

Xandua Tarot

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