THE TOWER:

Thoughts on September 11, A King’s Downfall And Redemption

by Eric K. Lerner

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On September 11, 2001, a primordial symbol burned through the glassy haze of a warm New York morning: The Lightning Struck Tower. The 16^th Trump, known as The Tower, The House of God, The Lord of the Hosts of the Mighty, became incarnate in 21^st Century televised broadcasts. A plane pirouetting and swooning into glass, metal and flames lingers in our imaginations as the quintessence of terror. The resemblance to depictions of the Tower is uncanny. In this essay, I wish to examine how the Tower is reflected in two historical events: the World Trade Center attack of September 11^th and the downfall of an African Divine King in 15^th Century Oyo, Nigeria.

First a little background on the card itself. The Tower did not always appear in early decks. According to Tom Tadford Little, whose website Tarot Hermitage is an impressive account of Tarot history, the Tower’s place in a deck was often occupied by Fire or the Gates of Hell. He hypothesizes that the Tower itself was a symbol of European nobility. A lightning struck tower carried too grave a political implication for the aristocracy who commissioned many early cards. Little examines the connection between The Tower and its preceding Trump, The Devil:

The connection with the Devil [and Tower] is…understood in terms of his lordship over the world of matter; he blocks the way of the spirit that seeks the heavenly world. … The Devil … shaped the world of matter to be a prison for the human spirits. He erected for himself and his minions a great dwelling extending above the Earth, a kind of false heaven. But when Sophia, divine Wisdom, reveals herself to the enslaved spirits, the Devil's tower shakes and falls.¹

Through The Tower, the vanity and devilish bonds of the Devil are destroyed. That interpretation is evident in some of the tower card’s earliest iterations. For instance, Trump XX, Nenbroto, of the Sola Busca deck depicts a comely young man overwhelmed by a pillar disintegrating amidst a hail of divine fire. On top of the column is a globe symbolic of man’s mastery of the world. Already lying on the ground are a helmet and crown. The lightning bolt pierces the man’s heart through his breastplate and shielding hand. The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that man’s designs are puny when challenged by divine righteousness. False pride and artifice are laid waste. The image warns against living through vain constructions. It is also a forerunner of depictions of the Tower. Many of those depictions level human hierarchy for both king and peasant who tumble out of windows when God vents his wrath.

To me, the Tower card symbolizes the moment when we perceive the world apart from God. We imagine the loneliness and terror of a world without a divine spirit existing in it. Such a world is ruin. The building falls because reason fails. There is no underlying purpose for existence.

According to Papus in Tarot of the Bohemians, the Tower manifests in Three Worlds - in God’s as Divine Destruction, in Man’s as The Fall, and in the Universe’s as the Visible World. The worlds represent extremes of spirituality and materialism. In the case of the Tower, its presence in the purely spiritual World of God elicits the direct action of God through his anger. God withdraws his prescence as The Tower manifests in the two lower worlds. He can no longer be perceived in the World of the Universe (matter.) Divine wrath and punishment lead to a barren extreme, the world with only its edifices. Without Divine energy, earthly constructions are useless and hollow.

Many people felt that God abandoned them on September 11. Household heads did not return home. More than one bereaved family member protested during televised interviews that they could not imagine a world in which their loved one would not return home. Such an event could not occur in a Universe with a merciful god at its center. The list of victims seemed endless, with no distinction made for anyone’s place in society. Both the executive and charwoman perished.

As an ex New Yorker who had worked at the Trade Center many years ago, its destruction seemed unreal. In later years I recognized the Trade Center as a skyline fixture that indicated I was approaching home in my travel up the New Jersey Turnpike. For solace, I tried reading tarot cards on the phone line that day. It was during those exchanges that I began to realize the depth of the tragedy. My callers that day exhibited the usually self-absorbed spiritual poverty that percolates through the 900 psychic lines. I could not understand how little they seemed to care about what was going on. I tried to block out their callousness and focus on my cards. I had faith that I would find integrity and truth among their numerous signs. However, I could not connect with my dog-eared Thoth deck. Increasingly spreads I threw did not make sense. Eventually, a sweet grandmother called. I threw a spread for her that would have been consistent with the lot of a drug addict facing serious jail time. Panic had replaced the spirits who were normally there for me. I felt like someone had just punched a giant hole into heaven.

Since then, I, along with other readers who’ve shared their experiences with me, have come to recognize that the Tower card can represent September 11 for clients, rather than reference a specific tragedy in their lives. This new attribution gives testament to Tarot’s ability to adapt itself to new circumstances. Of course, this is not the first time a period in history defined by a disaster akin to a lightning struck tower. Just think of the poison ashes of Hiroshima, the downfall of the French Monarchy, the burning of Rome. These are just a few examples of events that illustrate The Tower principle.

The Tower underscores a similar tragedy that took place in Oyo, Nigeria in the 1500s. Oyo is the setting for the Oba Ka So myth. "Oba Ka So" literally means the "King does not hang." The affirmation applies to the orisha Shango as a mortal King who brought down lightning on his own castle. (Orisha are demi-gods in Yoruba religion. Belief in them has endured the New World through Santeria and Candomblé.) It is a story of witchcraft, devastation, suicide, apotheosis and a "virgin" birth in hell. I dare say that Shango’s tragedy will inspire an illustrator in his conception of the Tower in a future deck.

The author's own illustration for the  Oba Ka So Myth.

As deity, Shango embodies virility, passion and divine justice. Historically, Shango was the Fourth Alafin of Oyo. His brilliant ascendancy to the throne and leadership ability brought him worship during his lifetime. However, his fiery disposition led to his downfall. Samuel Johnson writes of him in History of the Yorubas:

"He was of a very wild disposition, fiery temper, and skilful in sleight of hand tricks. He had a habit of emitting fire and smoke out of his mouth, by which he greatly increased the dread his subjects had of him" ²

Shango ruled for many years, greatly increasing the size of his realm through his constant answer to the call of battle. It is said that his had three principle wives: Oba (his legitimate wife), Oshun and his favorite Oya. Shango also plied his wiles as a sorcerer making charms. Today his faithful attest that there is no greater witch than Shango. Once he designed a charm to attract lightning. Johnson describes what happened next:

"The palace at Oyo was built at the foot of a hill called Oke Ajaka (Ajaka's hill). One day the king ascended this hill accompanied by his courtiers and some of his slaves, among whom were his two favorites, Biri and Omiran; some of his cousins went with him but none of his children. He was minded to try the preparation he had in hand; thinking it might have been damp and useless, he first made the experiment on his own house. But it took effect, a storm was immediately raised and the lightning had struck the palace before they came down the hill, and the buildings were on fire. Many of Shango's wives and his children perished in this catastrophe."³

Shango was ashamed. It is rumored that a powerful force in state asked him to resign (and thus have to commit suicide.) Whether or not that occurred, Shango had 160 of his subjects slain when he lost his temper because they showed too much concern over him and his situation. Even his use of sorcery was turned against him. His subjects felt that he exerted too much power. Already king, master of all, he could affect events and people supernaturally. That was too much power for a monarch.

Shango began his exodus. His favorite slaves, Biri and Omiran, and Oya joined him. Shango refused advice from both slaves that he return to Oyo and accept the tributes which promised to rebuild his palace and restock his wives. Disgusted both men turned back. Oya visited her family at Ira. Abandoned, Shango hanged himself from a Shea butter tree .

When word of Shango's death reached Oyo, his followers were shamed into action. They took the lightning attractant powder Shango had created and placed it in the homes of his enemies. Soon all who opposed him met horrible deaths in lightning strike fires. His followers proclaimed, "Oba Ko so," (the King does not hang). It appeared that Shango dispensed justice from beyond the grave.

What happened to Shango during his time in Ilé Iku, the house of the dead? There he met Yewa, the beautiful daughter of Olofi, God on Earth, dedicated to remain a virgin. Legend said that they met once before years earlier. Shango entered the secret garden where she was kept. She looked upon him and experienced lust. Olofi realized that he could not trust Yewa to remain pure in the realm of orisha. He sent her to live among dead. (While the deity Oya delivers people to death, it is Yewa who consumes their bodies. She renders the waste of inert flesh into nutrients for the earth.) When he visited the lower depths, Shango seduced the eternal virgin. Their son, Brusina, is conferred on initiates when they receive the mysteries of Yewa. She is nonetheless regarded by the faithful as being an intact virgin. Shango found his way out of the land of the dead by inseminating Yewa –the ultimate eater of men - with the seed of life. His virility manifested in the outermost realm of desolation and loss, and he triumphed. The secret son became a means of the Father's immortality. Raised from the dead, Shango became orisha.

I recognize the archetypes embodied by orisha in Tarot. Of course, many other diverse deities and myths are illustated by the picture card book of life. What is inspiring about Oba Ka So’s relationship to The Tower is Shango’s redemption from the land of the dead. Shango’s tragedy is transformative. He emerges from it as a divinity. When the flawed king dies, it is memory of his leadership and savvy that endure in legend among his people. Even the bloody lightning bolts and tower itself of the 16^th trump are among his own holy emblems! When The Tower appears in a tarot card reading, a savvy reader may wish to recall Shango’s energy, his enormous appetite for life and ability to think on his feet in order to guide the client through turmoil.

In response to the burning towers of September 11, many in the Santeria community turned to Shango for solace. The Lukumi Gathering Discussion Board, a popular Internet Santeria discussion group, overflowed with announcements of drum parties for Shango and propitiatory prayers for him. Shango embodies the dance of life and celebrates it throughout every nerve pathway in his divine essence. He is dressed in flames. Another story about his divine nature states that he was hurled to earth as a baby by a lightning bolt – one more echo of a lightning struck Tower. Shango is the wrath of God. The destruction wrought in the Tower results from specific behavior. Retribution can befall a human actor, a King or even an entire nation.

Historically the United States has committed a long list of evils. We smashed the foundation of Native American civilization in order to erect our own. We built over sacred graves. We handed out blankets rife with Smallpox to women and children. We buried ghost dancers alive…Is there so much to wonder about when dark invaders rain down terror on us from the skies? Part of being able to pick ourselves up involves recognition of what we have done to lead ourselves to this point in time. Recent actions in the Middle East, as well "old history," demand examination.

The Tower dispels comfort. It makes us have to examine what we have done so that we can rebuild effectively. I believe that the bricks and mortar that held the Tower together were coming apart long before lightning struck. Freedom lurks amongst the rubble. We no longer have to waste our precious time and energy trying to hold together an ineffectual construct. Strength is imparted on those who pass through the conflagration.

Tests by fire are part of Shango’s nature. That which has been struck by lightning is sacred to him In Yorubaland, his priests immediately took possession of houses struck by lightning. They plundered the wreckage for a precious commodity: edun ara, the stones created by the fusion of electricity and soil during the lightning strike. (Interestingly, they also gained the property to add to their real estate, and were suspected by many of the dispossessed to direct the lightning attacks to increase their wealth.) Edun ara are rare and valuable. They possess sacred force. They are foci for lightning’s power, and they endure.

In spite of the evil events that led to Shango’s death, he still possessed a spark of divinity to ignite his immortal legend. The Tower’s fire liberates both positive and negative energies from their material form. It is a long established scientific truth that energy never dissipates. Energies unleashed by tragic events such as the Trade Center attack do not simply cease to exist. They continue to be available to us so that we can harness, redirect and even transform them along new pathways. When the Tower breaks apart, we can look at it as symbolic of our situation. It terrifies us. At the same time, it beckons us to recognize its destruction as a turning point in our lives. Even in the coldest depths of hell, Shango was able to rally the vibrant life force that led him to his over-indulgence and disaster. This time, he used it to create new life and transcend his circumstances. When we perceive The Tower card’s meaning manifest in our lives, Shango’s feat contains the seed of truth that can enable us to survive. It takes an enormous amount of energy to effect an edifice’s destruction. That power is still present. We need to find the courage within us to use that force to effect change.

from http://www.voiceofthoth.com/divine7.htm