The Tower XVI in the 5-Card Spread with the Rider Waite Tarot

The Tower as second card : Challenge / Obstacle
in the Rider Waite Smith 5-Card spread

In opposition, The Tower highlights resistance to change or a panic-stricken fear of loss.

The consultant may be clinging to an internal or external structure that is crumbling. There may be a refusal to admit an uncomfortable truth, an attempt to maintain an illusion of control at all costs.

This position may also indicate a fear of chaos, an inability to deal with the unexpected or to accept instability.

Sometimes, the Tower in opposition points to a fall that has already occurred but has not been integrated, as if the shock were still ongoing, unprocessed.

It may also reflect a situation where the deconstruction has been violent, unfair or too rapid, and the consultant is struggling to recover.

In other cases, it is the avoidance of a necessary collapse: we know that change is inevitable, but we do everything we can to postpone it, at the risk of the collapse being even more severe.

The warning here is clear: if you don’t let go of what needs to fall, life will do it for you — with greater force. It is therefore essential to look at what is faltering, what is no longer holding, and accept that it will collapse. Better a conscious demolition than a forced implosion.

The Tower as third card : Advice
in the Rider Waite Smith 5-Card spread

As advice, The Tower urges you to accept collapse and stop resisting what is falling apart. It is time to let go of masks, facades and illusions, even if it takes courage.

The card advises you to be radically honest, to see things as they are, not as you would like them to be. If a structure in your life is collapsing, there is no point in rebuilding it immediately. First, you must accept the emptiness, the fall, the disorientation.

This advice is a call to embrace chaos as a necessary step towards truth. You are invited to face what you are running away from, what you are trying to maintain artificially.

It is also an invitation to free yourself from what is holding you back, even if it hurts in the moment. Perhaps it is a relationship, a work environment, or an idea you have of yourself.

The Tower tells you: ‘This is not the end. It is a purification.’ What you lose, you do not lose through the cruelty of fate, but because it is time to make room for something more just, more aligned, more true.

The Tower as fourth card : Outcome
in the Rider Waite Smith 5-Card spread

In the outcome position, The Tower announces an outcome marked by a fall, a break or a radical transformation. This could be a separation, a resignation, a shocking revelation, or an external event that profoundly changes the situation. The outcome will not be stable or comfortable: it will involve a necessary disintegration, a salutary shock.

What ends here is final — and probably irreversible.

However, this ending opens a new chapter, free of lies, illusions, or artificial structures. After this shock, the consultant will be able to rebuild on healthier, more solid foundations.

This card does not predict a ‘smooth’ outcome, but it guarantees a form of naked truth, a salutary stripping away. Sometimes this truth comes unexpectedly, brutally — but it is liberating.

The result will therefore be a breaking point which, if handled well, will allow for a freer, more conscious rebirth. The consultant will not emerge unscathed, but they will emerge more authentic.