The Tower, Key XVI, is one of the four cards in the Major Arcana, which represent cosmic fatality. The other three are The Chariot, Key VII, The Judgment, Key XX and The World, Key XXI. Cosmic fatality is individual discord brought into order by fate. It is usually a tragedy, a purging of violent emotions, an unintended consequence of political correctness, misplaced attempts at social engineering, fundamentalist extremism, the loss of self-deception, or an unforeseen occurrence that brings an individual into this type of chaos.
We are living in very tumultuous times. We are constantly bombarded in the media about terrorism as an ever-present threat. We are sharing our world with people willing to turn themselves into human bombs because they have been brainwashed into thinking that they live in a present that is worthless. They are willing to sacrifice their own life for an illusory vision of a better future somewhere down the road. We have our war-like ways, conflicting narratives and parallel opinions. The only thing we like better than blowing things up is building new things. We even like blowing things up just to build new things – just go to Vegas, out with the old, in with the new. We live in the era of Bomb and Buy globalization. Is it any wonder people just don’t get along?
The phrase 'Act of God' refers to acts that God has undertaken and dates back to the 13th century. The Northern Lights are a glorious wonder. Icebergs can be stunning pieces of art. Birds are an amazing example of design, beauty and engineering as are all creatures that we share this world with. An Act of God can be a thing of beauty too, everyone loves a rainbow or a beautiful sunrise or sunset. As one of the favourite hymns of my childhood says “All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.”
Act of God or act of nature is also a legal term for events outside of human control. Force-majeure, is a French commercial term for unavoidable accidents in the transport of goods, from superior force or from the act of God and its use dates back to the mid 19th century. The term encompasses floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornados, ice storms or other natural disasters, for which no one can be held responsible. These are all direct, violent sudden acts of nature that experience, prescience, or care could reasonably foresee or take actions to prevent its effects. These are all natural and unavoidable catastrophes that will interrupt the expected course of events. They are powerful, destructive forces and there are many people who are study and are awestruck by these events. They can create strangely beautiful skies, profound images, spectacular light shows or freeze life to a standstill.
Insurance is designed to put us back in our original position before our loss. We may have insurance for a natural disaster but there is no insurance for what may happen to us on a personal level. We may have life insurance if someone passes over but that doesn’t put us back in our original position of having that person in our lives on a daily basis. We may have accident insurance but that won’t make us whole again if we have been severely injured. Stuff can be replaced, people cannot. Insurance may perform a societal good if they are ethical companies, but it doesn’t do a whole lot for the feelings of loss or grief.
In Physics there are four fundamental forces that have been identified. All work on our world and in the Universe in different ways and all play a part in the workings of a natural disaster.
1. Gravity - This force acts between all mass in the universe. It has infinite range. It is always attractive, and acts between any two pieces of matter in the Universe since mass is its source.
2. Electromagnetic - This acts between electrically charged particles. Electricity, magnetism, and light are all produced by this force. It has infinite range. It can be attractive or repulsive, and acts only between pieces of matter carrying electrical charge.
3. Strong Force - This force binds neurons and protons together in the cores of atoms and is a short-range force. It is basically attractive, but can be effectively repulsive in some circumstances.
4. Weak Force - This causes Beta decay (the conversion of a neutron to a proton, an electron and an antineutrino) and various particles (the "strange" ones) are formed by strong interactions but decay with weak interactions. The weak force is short range.
It is easy to apply these same forces to our inner world. Gravity holds us on the earth but situations we face in our lives can have gravity too. We have all experienced friction in our relationships as well as feelings of attraction or repulsion. We can meet someone and feel the thunderbolt of magnetic, mesmerizing, instant attraction and connection. Meeting this person tears down your stonewalls or turns your frozen heart into a river of tears. Losing this person makes your whole world tremble and shake, throwing you into an abyss. We can have strong or weak characters, emotions, actions, reactions, compulsions, obsessions and even addictions. These same forces in nature create situations out of our control and their microcosmic side within us, and others, can create different types of tumultuous situations also outside of our control.
So what do you do when havoc strikes be it a force of nature or one of life’s unexpected sharp lefts? Do you shelter in place or do you seek an elevation evacuation and get yourself to higher ground? It may all depend on how good the foundation is that you are standing on – literally and figuratively. What values did you build your life on? What materials did you build your house with? Are you strong enough to weather a storm or a catastrophe? How do you handle loss and loss of control? Do you have the resources to rebuild? Can you start over? Where do you begin? People do come together in a crisis that impacts their community or country, but personal crisis we often face alone.
We may feel that life and all of its societal fictions have no real meaning for us. We can develop tragic wisdom and a sense of the uncertainty and impermanence of our system of things. It can be the awakening of deep and contemplative insight. This type of insight and wisdom can paralyze us from taking action, make us feel deeply introspective or we can become resigned to what fate is about to lie, or has already lain, at our doorstep. We may struggle to understand the meaning of time and eternity particularly in how it relates to life and death. We can lose hope and think that the only light at the end of the tunnel is another train wreck heading straight for us or that the ship we are sailing on is made of rotten planks.
These experiences help form our character, our ethical values and can reveal to us the nature of our existence. It can be a harsh reality check and a hard lesson. Hope makes you vulnerable but it can move you forward to better days head. The stone wall becomes a path, ruins become monuments, the sky will still be blue, the green grass will grow again and the river will still flow into the sea. Life goes on and you will too.
Key XVI The Tower of Strength Key VIII:
Shaking Like a Human, Being
(c) Cheryl Lynne Bradley 2010
Forest Fire with Deer Picture
Fire Rainbow or Sundog
