16. The Lightning-Struck Tower

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THE FIRE OF HEAVEN (lightning).

   

THE LIGHTNING-STRUCK TOWER.

16. ע

16th Hebrew letter (Ayin).

ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE SIXTEENTH CARD OF THE TAROT.

The Ayin expresses the same hieroglyphic as the Vau (6), but materialized. It is the sign of Material sense. Again degenerated, it expresses all that is crooked, false, perverse, and bad.

Astronomically this letter corresponds with the zodiacal sign of Capricornus.

SIXTEENTH CARD OF THE TAROT.

The Lightning-struck Tower.

This card bears the picture of a tower, with its battlements

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struck by lightning; two men, one crowned, the other uncrowned, are falling with the fragments of broken masonry; the attitude of the former recalls the shape of the letter Ayin.

This card contains the first allusion to a material building in our pack, but we shall find the same symbol reproduced in the 18th and 19th arcana.

Here it signifies the invisible or spiritual world, incarnated in the visible and material world.

The 16th card represents the material fall of Adam. He will gradually become more materialized until the 18th arcanum, in which he attains the maximum of his materialization.

The significations of this figure are all derived from this idea of fall, of the materialization of the spiritual letter (Vau).

1. Materialization of God the Holy Spirit. (See 3rd arcanum.)

Entrance of the Holy Spirit into the visible World. The Holy Spirit acting like the God of matter.

DIVINE DESTRUCTION.

2. The materialization of the Adam-Eve, who have been spiritualized until now.

Entrance of the Adam-Eve into the visible World--

THE FALL.

3. Materialization of the Universe-principle--

THE VISIBLE WORLD.

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16. ע

The Lightning-struck Tower.