The Tower of Babel

The tower of Babel, ca. 1556 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

"Nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do"

Be mindful of what you lend your imagination to, for it is in that realm that semblance takes form and receives the first breath of life into illusion and delusion. ~cizz

Genesis 11

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east (the ancient times) that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.



When we consider the spiritual symbology in the stories written and translated in the bible it's an amazing feat that the keys to understanding these spiritual mysteries and meanings are also to be found written within the same texts. As the story of the tower of Babel places emphases on language and speech another interesting verse to consider would be Proverb 25:2, "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter."

Why is it so interesting? Because the authors are telling us that god has concealed (covered and hidden) spiritual things. When we uncover the hidden layers of words used in translating this verse we find that "a thing" and "a matter" are the same, dabar  which means "speech". The same "one speech" that is mentioned in our story of Babel. The word speech is the story or chronicle of a subject, so the tower of Babel is about everyone having and speaking one and the same story.

The way the authors wrote this story/speech gives a visual image to help in understanding what is spiritually occurring, so what exactly does "one language and one speech" mean? Here is the visual, "you build a speech from the confine and limits of your language as you build a tower within the confine and limits of your city".

So the one language is a representation of  the city they are building, as the tower is representation of the one speech/story being built. And here is my modern version of the speech,

"Go to! Let us all ascribe to this one belief of fear and terror that we shouldn't be separated and scattered over the earth (literally, the phrase "go to" means ascribe to or set in place). How badly do others want you to ascribe to their beliefs, their standards and rules, their religion, and all that they believe is true, etc...?

The people were building a tower and believing a speech/story within the limits and confine of their city and language, those two limits where based on fear and terror. (the word city is translated from iyr  which means excitement or anguish "of terror". They wanted to make a name and have their top ( the word top is translated from ro'sh which means "chief or head" of man, city, nation, place, family, priest). What chief  head interpretation of stories do we each personally cap our own tower with? Parents, teacher, school, friends, social groups, religious groups, the country you live in, the ancient ways of the land you walk and sit upon?

Can you see the story/speech coming together in the image we find in the tarot's Tower trump?
As A. E. Waite 'ascribes to' the interpretation (i.e. language and city) that the two falling figures in the card image are those of the "literal word" and "false interpretation", for me personally, I can sense negative energy rising from the word "false" and thus it begs that I put in something positive to weigh and balance out that energy, if you grasped my opening statement to this post then you should be able to understand that nothing and no-thing can actually be accurately labeled as "false" -- as we all have something called magic or magick which is our capacity and continuous state of imagination that extends "life breath" to and into everything we can imagine and place an image onto. I would switch the word false to "limited interpretation".

So, back to the subject of our tower and our crowning, ruling, governing tower top, that caps and restrains the limited interruption of a speech/story -- which in this case instills fear and terror -- then says this tower and its crown are your only way to build and reach the heavens on a spiritual level.

"And the LORD came down to see the city (terror and fear) and the tower (speech/story), which the children of men builded"

The story goes on to say that their language (city, terror, fear) was confounded and that they left off building that city, i.e. their limited way of interpreting the story was removed and the story tellers were scattered abroad the whole earth.

A. E. Waite and Pamela Coleman Smith Tower Trump

As the tower trump shows, only the capping crown of the tower is toppled down, the tower (speech/story) still remains intact. All the bricks (although some build with stones, the same stones they use for weapons) that went into making the tower are still there as in the bible story makes no mention that the people left off building that tower/speech/story to reach into the heavens (they left off the method of terror in the building), the people were scattered over the face of the earth and we now have many languages (even unspoken languages!) to build our own personal spiritual tower and story upon to reach into the heavens, remember you are your own tower cap nothing wrong with designing your own crown and don't be surprised if your first attempt in crafting and designing doesn't fit your tower, don't get angry in the night of a storm and blast your friends and your own azz off the tower, remember the stairs or ladder, calmly, gracefully descend and when your feet are placed firmly on the ground gently raising the dust into the sun light of the breaking new day, hold your misfit crown up into that light and see it's beauty and all the love and passion that went into making and crafting it and if you decide to place the crown making aside to wander off into the wonder and awe of this magickal creation that is okay too. We have many types of crowns, some prefer simply twigs, leaves and flowers, while others care nothing what so ever about crowns.  

A crown only becomes thrones when it is being forced on with the demanding expectations that one must wear it. ~cizz

(Scatterings!)

"Magick and its supports and puzzle pieces are all around us. Each new direction of study of the mysteries leads back to and overlays upon itself. Astrology gives meaning to lunar and solar magick. Qabalah gives depth to each phase and facet of our spiritual selves and the process of initiatory experience. Sacred geometry tells the riddles of the magickal symbols. Alchemy gives the recipe for transformation and sacred attunement. Herbology reveals the truths of the natural world and the invisible allies we have that guide us. Tarot taps into the subconscious realms of the visual world. Energy practice pulls us intimately into a consummate union with the fabric of our world in connection and conjunction with the cosmic and universal dimensions."

Quoted from:
A Witch's Sacred Journey

Building a Tower of Dust

The Tower card is representative of another scary and dreaded trump in the tarot as it depicts sudden change and a quickening of situations. Most will wring their hands in anticipation of total destruction coming out of no-where, yet pay close attention to the image as it shows only the top of the tower has suffered the damaged of destruction.

One of the key concepts A.E. Waite placed on the tower was the end of a dispensation of the current social, religious and/or culture structures, as Aleister Crowley  (Thoth Deck) ascribed a strong symbol of the change of aeons, time and culture together.The two figures we find plummeting from the top and crown of the tower in the Waite-Smith deck are said to be Nebuchadnezzar and his vizier being ejected from the Tower of Babel.  A.E. Waite ascribes the "literal word" and "false interpretation" to the two falling figures.

 The tower trump suggest that the ruling things and way of rationalizing have become too restrained and limited as the tower scene is high above the clouds built upon a spiritual blue -- almost indicative of the ice of frozen and stuck spiritual growth -- jagged mountain top, the dark night in the back ground would indicate all that makes up the crown of that particular tower has only served to block the reflective light of the Sun that we normally find in the Moon and Stars (which are absent from our trump card). The gold lightning rod is indicative of a quick and sudden moment of enlightenment, epiphany and revelation that clears our way and sight to moving onward in our quest. The tower trump represents the defining moments in each of our lives that has us face our monsters, egos, fears, worries, -- and any limiting and restraining obstacles -- then helps us to get to over them. A flash of quickening in our spiritual growth as we make our way toward divine fulfillment
Because the tower has association with Babel, language, speech and communication, it can also be indicating a sudden revealing realization of misunderstanding, misrepresentation and/or false impressions.

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The key value is 16
The element of Fire
Planetary association is Mars 

The Dust Of Death

The Radiant Waite Smith Deck

The death card is one of the scary trumps in tarot and yet when we put aside our fear of it, "Death" has a lot to show us as the card image brings together many of the other trump designs to suggest that death is present throughout the tarot journey. He slowly rides upon a majestic pale steed with glowing red eyes, skull and cross bones are depicted on the reins he holds in his right hand, in his left hand we see the black Mystic (Rosicrucian) rose flag stretched out  in front of and before him, being flown in the stillness atop a measuring pole (stick). His red feather of passion is held steady and downward in the still of the moment, he is the one we find engulfed and suspended in the pause between inhaling and exhaling, the stillness that is forever present with us. Death is the one that guides us onward and forward, the bridge between inhaling and exhaling, it is he in whom we meet each night as we suspend and travel with him into the next morning, he is ever so faithful and absolutely nonjudgmental in his steady passage and strides forward.

With each pause, Death gives us the opportunity to measure ourselves with his measuring stick before he carries and guides us onward and forward into the next breath or the next morning being depicted in the background of the card, the familiar two pillars with the Sun suspended in the rising and setting position. In the card we also find our Emperor has been struck down and the crown of our Tower has been toppled, was our Emperor waging war against our ever so present companion we have in Death, did he wear himself out completely with planning and devising strategies to thwart our steady rider? 

There is our Hierophant, standing before the pale steed praying and negotiating, is he making promises? Is that what the hidden PE on our armoured death skeleton in the Radiant deck symbolizes, for what does that P/E stand for today? 

Price Earning, like in the stock market? 

Or is it an old symbol? 

Greek or Hebrew?

 PE, mouth or better said "speech".   

A look at one of the original copies of the card where Pamela Coleman Smith painted the Hierophant crying tears of blood in his praying before death.  In the original card image Pamela captured the stillness of the scene yet maintained the constant flow and motion of the water, even having the turbulent and separated pond waters to wash over our Emperor's body and continue its flow toward our child (Sun), in which one of our "Keys of Heaven" has calmed the waters before it clothes our Sun.    

Next we have our lady of Strength on her knees with her head laid back and on her left shoulder, her eyes closed in the stillness and quiet of peaceful submission, resting in the pause before the next breath. Then we have our child (Sun) gathering his own strength from his mother, holding on to her right arm firmly with his right hand enabling him to fearless look up and see the smiling face of a familiar and ever so present friend, the Knight of Change.