Iconology of the Tower Cards
by Dr. Robert O'Neill
Abridged by Jean-Michel David
The Early Tarot Images
Figure 1
There are five surviving images of the Tower from the
15/16th centuries (Fig. 1). Four of the towers are square
with doorways and four show rocks, hail, or masonry falling.
Three show flames coming from the top of the Tower and
apparently originating from the Sun in the upper corner.
One shows a couple falling and another appears to have
an animal partially concealed behind the tower. Images
of the Tower similar to those in Fig. 1 occur occasionally
in religious art and are common in the Apocalyptic tradition
but do not occur in the traditions associated with Petrarch
or the Dance of Death.
Religious Art
The image of the burning tower is not common in
religious art but some examples can be found. Voelkle and
L’Engle (Illuminated Manuscripts: Treasures of
the Pierpont Morgan Library 1998, p. 31) show an illustration
from a German manuscript c.1360 that depicts Lot fleeing
Sodom with burning towers in the background. [...]
Cavendish (The Tarot 1975, p 122) shows a painting
from a psalter of 1424 depicting the building of the tower
of Babel. The workmen at the top are arguing and one is
shown falling in an inverted position with pieces of masonry.
Flint (The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe 1991,
cover) shows an 11th century illustration of Simon Magus
falling headlong from a square tower.
The Apocalyptic Tradition
The destruction of earthly kingdoms and the fall of Babylon
are recurrent themes in Revelations and the artistic
renderings of these themes appears to explain the Tarot
images. For example, in Revelations 8:7, the first
of seven angels blows its trumpet "… and, with
that, hail and fire…were dropped on the earth…" and
again Revelations 16:20 "…and hail…fell
from the sky on the people."
This Apocalyptic reference to hail and fire may explain
the falling circles and flames seen on two of the early
Tarot (Fig. 1)[...].
There are two places in Revelations where the
fall of Babylon, as a symbol of evil, is celebrated. Revelations 14:8 – "A
second angel followed him, calling "Babylon has fallen,
Babylon the Great has fallen…" [...]. The concept
of ultimate punishment being dealt to material evil caught
the medieval imagination and there are a number of illustrations
of these verses that appear to be related to the early
Tarot. [...].
A 14th century Parisian Apocalypse depicts the fall of
Babylon and an angel ordering the merchants to leave the
burning city of Babylon (Revelations 18:4-12).
The image confirms the association of Devil and Tower.
[...] An earlier manuscript of c.950 shows the destruction
of Babylon with burning buildings (Voelkle and L’Engle op.
cit., p. 79). A Dürer woodcut of 1498 (van der
Meer Apocalypse 1978, fig. 199) shows towers falling
in the background and the harlot of Babylon in the foreground.
Several other passages in Revelations relate
to the destruction of the cities as symbols of material
power.[...]
These passages were illustrated with images such as a
14th century depiction which shows falling towers, an inverted
falling man, and a doorway. A similar image can be found
in [...] van der Meer (op. cit., fig. 151). [...]
Similar images can be seen in an Anglo-Saxon manuscript
c.1255/60 (Grubb Revelations 1997, p. 49).
Figure 8
The symbolism of the falling towers and men is quite
old in the Apocalyptic tradition as exemplified by a Spanish
manuscript of c.950 (Fig. 8) that shows the basic theme
together with a direct reference to Babylon and illustrates
the celestial significance of the event by showing Stars
in the sky overhead. That the Spanish Christians associated
Babylon with their Islamic rulers is evident from the shape
of the towers in Fig. 8 (Seidel, in McGinn 2000).
Iconological Analysis
We have mentioned in earlier chapters [on the site] the
iconological association of the Death/Devil/Tower symbols
and the Devil/Tower association. For example,
Grubb (op. cit., p. 57) shows a tapestry c.1373-81
that depicts Towers falling and Devils.
A figure from a 14th century Apocalypse shows the Devil represented
as the seven-headed dragon, falling Towers, hailstones
as shown on some of early Tarots (Fig. 1) and with Stars and Sun in
the sky above.
Another 14th century manuscript shows the falling Towers and
hail together with the Moon and the darkened Sun.
A similar image from another 14th century manuscript (Deuchler et
al. A Forteenth Century Manuscript in Facsimile 1971)
shows the falling towers together with the Stars, Moon and Sun.
This association of images has two important implications.
First, the juxtaposition of images of 13 Death -
14 Devil - 15 Tower - 16 Star -
17 Moon - 18 Sun seems to confirm the
relationship between the sequence of Tarot images in the
type B ordering and the Apocalyptic artistic tradition
that influenced so much of the religious art of the times.
Second, although the juxtaposition of these symbols conveys
little significance in the 21st century, it is hard to
believe that a 15th century viewer did not saw the apocalyptic
implications of this sequence!
[N.B. The common sequence inserts Temperance between
Death and the Devil, thereby their altered numeration.
ed.]
Interpretation
So how might the 15th century card-players have seen
the Tower card? As an urban resident of a city-state in
northern Italy, the players would have been intimately
aware of the tower as a symbol of power – the ultimate
phallic symbol. Perhaps the players would have been proud
that the towers of the castles and cathedrals of their
city were tall and strong – a sign of their own personal
contribution to the city’s prestige and prosperity.
At the same time, the players had been saturated with
sermons about the vanities of this world (Rusconi, in McGinn
2000). The players would have heard about the predictions
of the Antichrist and the imminent apocalypse. Even if
they might not recognize the name of Joachim of Fiore,
still the friars led them to expect the overturn of the
current regimes, both laic and ecclesiastical (McGinn The
Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism 2000).[...]
[...] Perhaps we should not be surprised that the Tower
card appears in only one of the decks painted for the aristocracy?
Perhaps the nobles, subjected to the same fiery Franciscan
sermons, were a bit nervous about the implications of the
crumbling tower of power?
Robert O'Neill is the author of the classic book Tarot
Symbolism, pre-orders now accepted for the special publication by the Association
for Tarot Studies.
This article first appeared on Tarot.com reproduced
abbreviated with permission of the author.
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