'Tis the season for eclipses and towers! Eclipses can be felt weeks before and weeks after they occur and they represent major change. Lately, the energy of the eclipse can be compared to the Tower Card. Mercury goes retrograde on Thanksgiving, around 2pm, and continues until December 13th. This happens right before a solar eclipse on a new moon. A lunar eclipse will occur soon after on December 10th, on a Gemini full moon.
Prior to these eclipses, many have been weeding out and shaking off people, jobs, habits and things that have not been healthy for us or do not feed us in ways that used to. The new moon on the 29th will mark new beginnings and new perspective. When this card is present people may experience career changes, relationship changes; they may travel to new states/countries, leave a job, sell a business/home or develop illness or health conditions that impede on what we expected. 
The tower card represents change, upheaval, crisis, devastation or what we are afraid of. The tower card can leave you bare, open and exposed to the world. It's the most avoided card in the deck. Some decks eliminate the tower card because, superstitiously, people believe it can be a bad omen. If it appears in the past position, it means that the person is rebuilding themselves after a major life change. If it in the future position, it is simply a warning to be prepared, but also to let go. We can't predict when change is coming and we can't avoid it, so it's best to just move through it instead of letting it anchor us.
The tower card also has some interesting phallic imagery happening in
the scene. The lightening bolts can represent a dismantling of
patriarchy: a feminist spark in one that catches fire in many; or a
questioning of the current system that does not serve us anymore. The
Death Card comes after: Something breaks and then something dies. If the
tower is reversed, we try to hold on because we can't take the
uncertainty of everything crumbling beneath us.
For all the negativity written about this card, I prefer to think of it as the card of cleansing and strength. In the Herbal Deck it is compared to garlic. One of my favorite flavors. It's strong enough to fight viruses and ward off vampires. I've been chopping it raw and sprinkling it in my home-made salad dressings. I also dip bread and butter in it. Garlic is amazing. It's good for the immune system, sometimes a little tough to stomach, but so good for our health. If we can just manage to re-frame our notion of change from bad, strong and smelly to good, strong and healthy, then me might start to appreciate the lightening bolts in the Tower imagery. It's easier said than done, but some healthy comfort food (garlic bread), a little yoga, and some good friends can always help.
