What's Resonating This Week: #8
I don't know what this is going to be about...
Howdy, folx. Welcome to another edition of What’s Resonating This Week!
I realize we’ve missed a week—or maybe two. I’m honestly not sure. And I really can’t be bothered to look right now.
My intuition has told me it’s time to write, and I’m not sure what’s coming, but I’m here for it.
Things have been quite intense lately. It’s been coming at me from literally every direction. I’m becoming deeply acquainted with the energy of The Tower. Life currently feels like a continual series of Tower moments.
What’s that you say?
You’re not familiar with the Tower?
Well, pull up a chair. Let’s begin.
The Tower Rules Everything Around Me
Let’s start with the image on the face of the card. You may not know what’s happening, but it looks terrible. If you allow yourself to get sucked into the image, it can be pretty terrifying.
I’ve always been terrified of falling from a great height.
I’ll never forget when my friend Ken took me up in his four-seater plane for an aerial tour of St. Louis, Missouri. As we were taxiing down to the short runway in Creve Coeur, Ken looked in my direction and said into the headset microphone:
My passenger door tends to come open in flight. But it’ll be fine. Just stay buckled.
Yeah.
Let that sink in.
And then we were in the air.
It was breathtaking.
As in, I don’t think I breathed the entire flight.
Back to the card.
These two people have either been pushed out or jumped from a tower that looks to be both on fire and collapsing. The mental images of people jumping from the burning towers of the World Trade Center before their collapse on September 11, 2001, are immediately fetched by my subconscious mind.
They’re falling.
They know they’re going to die in a few seconds.
And they get those few seconds to think it over.
This is the energy of The Tower.
Alexa…tell me about The Tower
Lately, she’d be a little bitch and refuse to answer.
So I asked ChatGPT to give me her stochastic understanding of the traditional interpretation of The Tower in the Rider Waite Smith deck:
The Tower in the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck traditionally represents sudden upheaval, chaos, and the dismantling of established structures. It often signifies a dramatic change, one that feels disruptive but is necessary for growth. The lightning striking the tower and figures falling from it symbolize the destruction of illusions and false beliefs, forcing a confrontation with reality. Although the experience may be painful, it clears the way for new insight, transformation, and ultimately, personal freedom.
It sounds so matter-of-fact.
Doesn’t it?
…feels disruptive but is necessary for growth…
But what if I don’t want the disruption right now? What if I’m growing quite well on my own? Why is this necessary?
…figures falling from it symbolize the destruction of illusions and false beliefs, forcing a confrontation with reality…
No. My fucking world is falling apart. Everything I thought I knew is a load of bullshit. I don’t have a working mental model for the world right now.
…although the experience may be painful, it clears the way for new insight…
Did you hear me? I’m fucking falling. Any insight I have will be worth billions when I’m transformed into pulp on the pavement.
This is the energy of The Tower.
It’s Been Hard, But I’m OK
I won’t bog you down with the details, and some of them I’m just not ready to discuss in this context. Maybe later.
But the last few months have been a lot.
And the last few weeks have been even worse.
I’ve been feeling some hard feelings. Some of them I’ve composed into poetry. I’ve vented some of them to my ancestors, deities, and spirit guides. Some of them have likely transmuted into my recent gastrointestinal challenges.
And some of them I’ve channeled into this letter.
But I am OK.
Eastern philosophy introduced me to the practice of non-attachment.
Many pages have been written about the subject of non-attachment. I’m not going to give you very much—just a bite.
We can’t choose whether or not bad things will happen to us.
But we can choose not to suffer.
If we detach ourselves from the outcome of any situation and experience it, lean into its flow, ask it questions, and learn its lessons, then we retain agency.
We hold onto our power.
And that’s how I’m choosing to experience the energy of The Tower.
And Now For Something Completely Different
That’s all for this edition of What’s Resonating This Week! Catch you next Tuesday!
You are such an incredible writer and storyteller, Matt. This is so good. 💗