The Tower as Intentions: To Break It Open, Whether or Not They Meant To

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Tower as intentions is a plan that will bring something down. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed, and why it is sometimes a mercy.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Tower as intentions that are disruptive, whether deliberate or not. In an intentions position the card suggests the person means to do something that will change everything between you suddenly: a confession, a break, a truth, a move that brings a structure down. Sometimes they intend the collapse. Sometimes they intend something else and the collapse is what it causes.

This is the struck tower with the figures falling. Somebody intended something. The lightning did not ask what.

The Tower upright as intentions

Tina Gong's the Tower guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with sudden upheaval, revelation, chaos and awakening. When the card lands in a position that asks what someone intends toward you, I read those meanings as the shape of their plan rather than as a promise about what they will do. Feelings and intentions are different questions; the Tower as feelings covers the first, and this page covers the second. The Major Arcana overview at Biddy Tarot is a useful second reference.

Upright, I read the Tower as a person who intends a rupture: to tell you something that will change how you see them, to end something abruptly, to break a false front that cannot stand any longer. The intention may be honest to the point of destruction. It may be a crisis in their own life that is about to land on yours.

What I would not read into it is stability of any kind. Whatever the person intends, they are standing in rubble or about to be, and intentions formed in the Tower tend to be revisited once the dust settles.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the disruption is aimed at you rather than at their own life, that it is bad, or that what falls will not be rebuilt in some form. No card lets a reader see another person's plans. What a card can do is describe the kind of intention that fits the person's behaviour, and give you something to check against what they actually do.

The Tower reversed as intentions

Reversed, the Tower as intentions describes collapse avoided or postponed: a person who intends to prop up something that should fall, to hide the crack, to keep the truth from you a little longer. The intention is to delay. The lightning is still coming.

In your own question, ask whether the person seems to be clinging to how things were, or whether a shock has been narrowly avoided and left them wary. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

The Tower as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, the Tower as intentions can suggest something has shaken their view of you or of the breakup and they intend to act on it suddenly: a message, a confession, a reappearance. People in the Tower reach for whatever is nearest. What they intend once they are back on the ground is a different card. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

The Tower as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card describes someone whose intentions toward you are being formed in the middle of a crisis, theirs or the one between you. Give the dust time to settle before you build on anything they say in the storm.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for visible disruption: they are not themselves, they say things they would not normally say, they seem thrown. A Tower intention looks like someone whose composure has gone. What they intend in the first calm week afterward tells you far more.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, what seems to have shaken the person, and what you need them to intend once the shaking stops. The third note is your protection.

For comparison, Death as intentions and the Devil as intentions describe different intentions. The the Tower card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Tower as a person and the Tower as a yes or no cover the other questions people most often ask of it. For a personal interpretation, my guide to a love psychic reading online explains how I work, and the three-card tarot listing and customer reviews are worth reading before deciding whether to order.