The Tower - Time For a Big Change

Here we see Poseidon rising up out of the sea coming to the famous Labyrinth of King Minos to reclaim his White Bull. He's mad as hell, and he's not going to take it any more. Poseidon is about to crush the kingdom.
A rather dark story, but not a hopeless outcome as the Tower represents the values of the past that have enslaved us, and there is a need to take a serious and honest inventory of ourselves in order to spare ourselves of any further anguish.

Not unlike the two Major Arcana cards, The Devil and The Death card, the message expressed in this card id dependent on the attitude of the individual who is presented with an immanent situation that calls for some kind of radical transformation. And depending of the attitude of the individual this will determine a positive or negative resolution.

Generally I see The Tower as a card of transformation and change, that comes from new beginnings and the tearing down of the old order. A very suitable card to draw in this New Year.

I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions, as I'd just set myself up for failure. I do gratefully determine to, as I have over the past 24 years of recovery, one step at a time, to live one day at a time, in the present moment, living life to the fullest extent that I can. I maintain my conscious contact with the God of my understanding asking the Creator for help everyday.

Step By Step - Jesse Winchester
 
Step by step
All the happy Saints go marching in
And if a Saint step out of line he'll have to start again
'Cause Jacob's golden ladder gets slippery at the top
And many a happy-go-lucky saint has made that long long drop

[Chorus]
If I'm late don't wait
Go on without me
I may tarry awhile
'Cause I need to know
Before I go
How come the Devil smiles

If I'm late don't wait
Go on without me
I may tarry awhile
'Cause I need to know
Before I go
How come the Devil smiles

[Verse 2]
Free from care, free from fear
The Saints are trooping in
The children play all around the throne innocent of sin
A trillion voices sing the name the mortal may not know
And Heaven's wall's too high to hear the trouble down below

The Tower of Pickled Eggs

I don't ever recall drawing this Major Arcana card, The Tower. I know I haven't seen it before in my daily draw. But I do know it's a very relevant card for me today, having learned from a recent experience, after completing a lot of diligent hard work and then easily concluding that circumstances aren't always as they appear to be. The reason I say that was easy to conclude, is a result of having continued to trust my intuition and have the discernment to understand and accept what has happened and was meant to be, and to know  there are better things to come.

I'm actually further ahead than I was before and I'm now relieved of the stress that I was feeling. I think my increased cortisol level was simply a message from my intuition doing it's job, leaving me with that nagging pull or sinking feeling in the pit of my gut. I wasn't exactly sure why, what it meant and how it was going to all turn out, but I kept trusting that all will be revealed, and happily, it was.

When we experience periods of confusion, it can be very stressful and can be compared to going through that Labyrinth of King Minos, and we wonder when that scary, horrible, and gross creature, the Minotaur is going to show up and do his dirty work.

What has all this got to do with pickled eggs you ask? I'll tell you.
 I just finished making a batch of pickled eggs. I carefully placed them in the refrigerator, after making them, where they have to stay for two days before they're ready. Oh I've made them before, but I was usually in a big hurry to make them, skipping steps and certainly not following any recipe and I sure as heck didn't wait for two days for them to be ready!

This batch of pickled eggs I've made today, are going to be like none other I've ever made. I'm absolutely confident they are going to be delicious after paying very careful attention to detail. I took my time and followed the instructions in the recipe, right down to how to properly boil and even peel the eggs.

Discernment, intuition, having trust in that still quiet voice within my psyche, and practicing acceptance is rather like making pickled eggs. You really need to have the perfect combination of ingredients. You also need to follow the recipe if you don't already have one that you know that works because you know it like the back of your hand. It needs to be a recipe that's been trusted, tried and true, so you can be confident in knowing, you'll have the perfect pickled eggs.

Having patience, taking the time to pay attention to detail is essential in order to get the kind of result you want, or perhaps even something better than you expected, and you'll be a better person for it.

The collapse of the Tower, representing the collapse of old forms, outgrown ideas, and attitudes that don't emerge from the whole self, but are "put on" like a costume to impress an audience, need to fall away, to make room for a better attitude that's no longer confined to that Labyrinth and you can say to yourself, bring on those pickled eggs! They're ready and so am I! If you want the recipe, just ask, I'll be happy to share it with you!