Going
back to the days of Aleister Crowley and others who submerged themselves into
the occult, the individual Major Arcana cards have been assigned to specific
planets.
As a student of astrology and the Tarot, I
do not always subscribe to the traditional correspondences. For example, to me,
the energy of Uranus is a much better fit to The Tower than Mars.
The argument for making Mars The Tower’s
‘ruler’ is that The Tower’s edifice, described as some as the Tower of Babel,
represents man’s hubris and a structure of lies.
The Tower image shows lightning striking
the crown on the top of the tower edifice, the crown being false materialism
and the lightening bolt, the flash of truth striking down the edifice and
violently displacing the crown.
Mars represents ego well. Mars is
dignified in Capricorn where its ambition is transformed into concrete
structure. And the flames emanating from the tumbling structure is consistent
with the symbolism of Mars and its sign, Aries.
Lastly, Wald Amberstone, co-founder of The Tarot School, likens the card’s image as a representation of a phallic symbol at the time of
climax.
Certainly this is Mars.
But the lightning, the sudden flash of
awareness, the crack as the structure tumbles, are hallmarks of Uranus.
Arthur Edward Waite in The Pictorial Key
to the Tarot describes the preceding card, The Devil, as “the fall into the
material and animal state, while the other (The Tower) signifies destruction on
the other side.”
Uranus’ energy is depersonalized. It is
completely a product of the intellect and the lightning bolt is its hallmark.
The sudden bolt of lightning describes the
operation of Uranus as anyone who has experienced a transit of Uranus can
testify.
Uranus is the first planet discovered that
is too far away to be seen by the unaided human eye. For centuries, astronomers
assumed that no planet extended beyond Saturn, hence that planet’s association
with limits and boundaries.
Then in 1781, astronomer William Herschel
discovered Uranus with the result that the prevailing world-view of the
Universe was upended much in the same way that Uranus transits result in upset
and breakthrough on a societal and personal level.
Uranian energy is a bolt out of the blue, coming from
somewhere outside of our individual selves like the bolt of lightning from
above that upends The Tower and its crown.
In my view, Mars is a good descriptor of
the actual Tower in the card, but Uranus better describes the Querent's reality
when the card is drawn in an actual reading.
Thoughts?