Starting right off with a 'dark' card!
In this version of the Tower, there is a city scape in the ackround with buildings that have been destroyed - half fallen down, dark smoke pouring out of them. A dark cloud zaps lightning at one, and the remaining sky is a deep, bruised red.
In the foreground, standing in rubble of buildings and metal framework, is a man with a sledgehammer raised to his right shoulder - he looks like he is about to swing it, and his facial expression seems to be a person yelling.
At his feet, a golden crown lies in the rubble.
Behind him, a fresh shoot of a small plant is growing - already, the breakdown of 'civilization' in this card is creating room for nature to reassert herself with new life.
On second glance, I'm not sure if that is smoke rising from the destroyed city, or a dark tornado whipping through causing the destruction.
Maybe it doesn't matter - when things fall apart, it's is sometimes difficult to separate the cause from the effect.
The keyword is striking me...'demolition' is a conscious act - it is not simply wanton destruction and it doesn't happen to you.. it's something you do. There are layers of things happening here... the outside force of the weather bringing down the city, and the intentional demolition being done by the figure.
Sometimes, in the face of a disaster, demolition is a necessary response. Sometimes things have become so damaged that they are unsafe and in order to rebuild, you have to first intentionally complete the destruction in order to haul away the debris in order to start fresh.
The crown on the ground speaks to me of not standing on your royalty here... not simply looking about saying 'this is my kingdom' and trying to hold it together when it's well past the point of viability. Sometimes, rulership means knowing when to take it apart.
The plant is the sign of hope here, and a reminder of reality... life IS and growth will happen with even the tiniest bit of room to let it happen. And for all the monuments we build and rebuild, the end of our constructs is not the end of life - they are not the definer's of life on earth. Nature is reality, and will assert itself and it is hubris to think we are more powerful than it is.
What does this mean for me today? Well... my house looks a bit like a tornado came through. I''ve got a clutter problem that is stemming in large part from a lack of space to put things away... I think I need to stop pushing the rubble around and get rid of some stuff, as well as break down my existing storage plan and start over.
I'm not sure I'm going to actually get through all that today, but it does define the nature of the problem.
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