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<\/a>Story 1: The falling Tower is only the first segment of a longer arc<\/h2>\n
After my last post on Tower Time<\/a>, Byron Ballard \u2013 who coined the term \u2013 said \u201cThe Tower has fallen.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n My first reaction was that it\u2019s too soon to say that. Climate change is just getting started. Christian Nationalists are getting more daring in their attempts to encode their religion into law. The Anglo-American empire has been in decline for many years, but it\u2019s a long way from disappearing. And the spiritual and magical aspects of Tower Time are getting stronger, not weaker.<\/p>\n Tower Time is a high-level metaphor for what is and will be a long, complex process. There are many \u201ctowers\u201d \u2013 some of them will fall in a day, some will fall in a year, and some will crumble but never truly go away. Rome took centuries to fall, and the city never disappeared even though its population didn\u2019t reach Empire levels again until the 1930s.<\/p>\n Our conversations around Tower Time are not intended to be a schedule of future events \u2013 that\u2019s not possible. They\u2019re intended to provide context for what we\u2019re experiencing and inspiration for how we can best respond.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s time to shift how we think about where we are in this long process.<\/p>\n I strongly supported Joe Biden\u2019s re-election campaign. I\u2019ve been generally pleased with his performance in office, but mainly I saw him as a proven way to make sure Donald Trump never sees the Oval Office again. I was deeply concerned when he decided to withdraw from the Presidential race. The Democratic Party is known for shooting itself in the foot, and word was that a lot of people wanted to replace the entire ticket.<\/p>\n Instead, within 24 hours all the potential candidates endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Within a week virtually all Democratic leaders had endorsed her. She\u2019s been breaking fundraising records and much of the money is coming from first-time donors.<\/p>\n People are excited about Kamala Harris in a way I\u2019ve never seen before. Some are comparing it to the excitement around Obama in 2008, but that was tempered by the disappointment of those who really wanted Hillary Clinton instead. This is stronger and more focused.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t an election post\u2026 not entirely, anyway. What\u2019s important here is that there\u2019s a huge difference between supporting a candidate because the alternative is unthinkable and supporting a candidate because you like them and their policies.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s not just a case of who we have to vote against<\/em>. Now we have someone to vote for<\/em>.<\/p>\n I read The Magical Battle of Britain<\/em><\/a> on the trip to Mystic South. I\u2019ve written about the historical event<\/a> before \u2013 it\u2019s a foundational story of the modern Pagan movement. Some years ago I heard Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki talk about it. Dolores was too young to participate, but her mother and aunt did and shared their stories. But somehow I never knew about this book until very recently.<\/p>\n This is a collection of letters from Dion Fortune to the members of her order The Fraternity of the Inner Light, who were working magic to protect Britain from invasion during World War II. The letters gave instructions for group meditations and workings. Some gathered in person, while many more participated remotely due to wartime travel restrictions.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an interesting primary source for a historical event that\u2019s already become part of myth.<\/p>\n The actual Battle of Britain<\/a> was an air campaign that ran from July through October of 1940. Nazi forces had taken over France and the Low Countries \u2013 Britain was next. The bombardment campaign was designed to force Britain to negotiate a peace favorable to the Nazis, or failing that, to diminish their defenses in advance of a land invasion. The Nazis failed, in large part due to the heroism of the pilots and support staff of the Royal Air Force. But also because the people of Britain refused to surrender.<\/p>\n The war continued after this battle was over, as did bombing raids over London and other sites in Britain. World War II would not end until 1945.<\/p>\n In 1941 Dion Fortune instructed her group to stop focusing on defense and start concentrating on what they wanted to build after the war was over.<\/p>\n These three stories were floating around in my head when I got to Mystic South<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n Even though I felt like Byron\u2019s proclamation was too soon, I understood there was something to it. I read what Dion Fortune had done with four years of hard fighting left to go. I saw the tangible changes when people had someone to vote for instead of just someone to vote against.<\/p>\n I turned in a little early on Friday night, but before I did, I got out my Tarot cards and asked \u201cwhere are we in Tower Time?\u201d<\/p>\n The first card that came up was The Star.<\/p>\n In the Major Arcana of the Tarot (at least in the commonly used Waite-Smith system) The Tower is 16. The Star is 17. The Star follows The Tower.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always felt like The Tower would be followed by the 8 of Cups \u2013 or as I sometimes call it, the \u201cI like it here, why do I have to leave?\u201d card. When I asked Ashley Bryner to create artwork for my Navigating Tower Time<\/a> course, I described what I was looking for by saying \u201cThe Tower, and then the 8 of Cups.\u201d Ashley did a great job of illustrating that progression.<\/p>\n The 8 of Cups may well be a future stage in this very long process \u2013 Tower Time is not the Fool\u2019s Journey. But I\u2019ve already seen people making the \u201c16 is followed by 17\u201d connection and saying The Star comes next.<\/p>\n And it appears that it does.<\/p>\n The Tower is a card that screams in your face. The Star is much more subtle.<\/p>\n A naked woman kneels with one foot in the water \u2013 representing the unconscious mind \u2013 and one foot on the land \u2013 representing the conscious mind. Her nudity represents both her vulnerability and her confidence \u2013 she feels safe enough to be naked outdoors. She pours the water of unconsciousness from two pitchers, one back into the water \u2013 back into her unconscious mind \u2013 and one on the land. The water poured on the land divides into five streams, representing the five senses.<\/p>\n There are seven small stars and one large star in the night sky \u2013 all eight stars have eight points. There\u2019s a tree nearby and mountains in the background.<\/p>\n And there\u2019s more \u2013 what do you see? What details call to you? There is no one \u201cright\u201d meaning of this or any Tarot card. There are the consensus meanings<\/a>, but there is also what speaks to you when you draw a particular card in the context of a particular question.<\/p>\n The Star is not a card of bold action. It\u2019s a card of meditation and contemplation.<\/p>\n And that makes it the perfect guide for this point in the arc of Tower Time.<\/p>\nStory 2: We have someone to vote for<\/em><\/h2>\n
Story 3: The Magical Battle of Britain<\/h2>\n
The rising of The Star<\/h2>\n
<\/a>The Star<\/h2>\n
<\/a>What shall we build from the rubble of The Tower?<\/h2>\n