The number 7 symbolises the search for God, faith or spiritual enlightenment. The Tower represents the negative characteristics of the 7, ignoring its restful nature and trying to commune with God via other unnatural or man made methods. The major religions of the world all have a day of rest and prayer on their 7th day. The number 7 is the number of rest, inaction, study, introspection, research and spiritual life. In Tarot The Tower is card number 16 of the Major Arcana which numerology reduces to 7 (1 + 6). In contrast The Tower pushes us off the edge un-willingly. This is the core meaning of The Fool, which urges us to take a risk. Mistakes are one of the greatest teachers we can learn from but too often the fear of failure keeps us from that class room. We make an assumption on limited data and then test it to see if it fails or holds firm. In a more positive light this card may have the meaning of testing a hypothesis.
Those beliefs are sometimes tested and, like the lightening bolt striking The Tower, they crumble and fall. Everyone has their own set of beliefs that they hold to be true because they are part of our identity, or because we have been taught them at school or church or through reaching our own conclusions. It can be a card that warns us of being sanctimonious. The Tower of the myths is a psychical construction but The Tower in tarot is more often a metaphor for beliefs that we hold in high regard or that make us think we know best. If there is a common moral to each of these myths, which relates to the meaning of this card, it is that those who are arrogant enough to believe they can stand high on their own constructions and reach heaven, or know God, will eventually fail and fall. Nearly every ancient culture has a comparable myth from the far east to Africa and central and south Americas. The biblical Tower of Babel is one of many mythological man made constructions that were fabled to have been built in an attempt to reach heaven and God(s).
The Tower has a complex and varied history in its depictions from the early days of tarot to the present day as well as in the mythology behind those many depictions.
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