No. 17

Tarot 17

The Fire picture is also called the Tower, Tower of God, and more. A stone building struck by lightning with its top aflame and bodies tumbling out of that suddenly created ruin, goes back to the very earliest printed tarot cards (the Rosenwald and other decks, ca. 1500). In the earliest decks the building is a castle, and in Italy in the 1400s and 1500s, the picture was usually called "Fire", and there is no suggestion of an underworld.

Other Italian picture captions from the 1400s are "The Arrow", La Sagitta, and the Thunderbolt, la Saetta, In the Belgian and Bolognese tradition the picture is called "Lightning" or "Thunderbolt" also, and the fiery lightning bolt is shown striking a person or tree. Underneath the tree is a startled shepherd and a flock of sheep.

The core idea of the card seems to be fire or lightning shooting down from the heavens. It was the French title from the Marseille deck that gave rise to the modern name of the card, "The Tower".

Possible Alignment

In the coding system that is applied, the Fire (Tower) is placed in the same fifth life field (area) as the Emperor.

Emperors and Castles (and their towers) tend to go together.

Raining fire on some stronghold, solid and tall, might work from time to time.