What it means
Lightning strikes a tall tower and knocks off its crown. Flames burst from the windows and two people fall headfirst. It is the most dramatic image in the deck. As a birth card the Tower points to a life where anything built on a weak foundation doesn't last, which can be a shock and is also a kind of freedom. Tower people often say what others won't, and they have little patience for pretence. The Golden Dawn ties the card to Mars. The lesson is to build honestly the first time, and when something falls, to look at what the lightning showed.
Strengths
Honesty, courage under pressure, a talent for rebuilding, and quick recovery from shocks.
Challenges
Living in crisis mode, burning bridges, expecting collapse, and anger that strikes all at once.
With its partner cards
The Tower always comes with the Chariot as its Soul card. When the Tower knocks a structure down, the Chariot gets moving again. Readers see this pair in people who keep their drive through upheaval and often do their best work right after a collapse. The challenge is not to race off before learning what the fall had to teach.
When it is your birth card
Greer's method adds the month, day and full year, then adds the digits until the total is 22 or less. In her terms the higher card of a pair is the Personality card and the lower one the Soul card. Between 1900 and 2030, the Tower is a birth card for 3.9 percent of birthdays. It always comes as the Personality card over the Chariot, 16 and 7. How often it turns up depends heavily on birth year, since the year makes up almost all of the total: 7.9 percent of birthdays from 1900 to 1959, no birthdays from 1960 to 1999 and 1.1 percent of birthdays from 2000 to 2030. For example, someone born on December 31, 2016 adds 12 + 31 + 2016 = 2059, then 2 + 0 + 5 + 9 = 16, then 1 + 6 = 7. That gives the Tower and the Chariot (16 and 7).
How Cosmic Array reads it
Cosmic Array works out your birth cards from your date of birth alone with Greer's method, so no birth time is needed. The Architect blueprint lists them by name in the same panel as your Life Path, and the two always line up. A set with the Tower always ends in the Chariot, which goes with a Life Path of 7, because both reduce the same birthday digits.