Tarot and the Archetypes: The Potentiator of the Spirit
The Potentiator of the Spirit, also known as the Blasted Tower in Tarot represents the danger and the blindness that accompanies rigid structure and hyperspecialization. It presents the law of the Tower of Babel.
The Tower of Babel is an archetypal story told in many forms across many different cultures. The story tells the tale of the world existing as one people who attempt to bypass Nature and replace the transcendent. But their attempt fails when God sends lighting to strike the tower, destroying their attempts. The people attempting to build the tower are then scattered across the earth and are unable to communicate with each other.
The underlying theme is, as the famous alchemical proverb states, “Only Nature can overcome Nature”. The story illustrates that hyper-adaptiveness inevitably leads to destruction.
Evolution cannot happen when one is complacent. Growth cannot happen if one cannot see that one is stuck. Insights cannot be gained when one's thinking is blocked by rigid specialization.
Progress, whether individual or societal, is often thwarted due to hyper-adaptiveness and specialization. In other words, it's easy to get stuck in a “box” if you adapt yourself too rigidly.
This archetype shows us that on the path of spiritual evolution, moving from the dark night to the light of the sun, one who is working from the rigid structure of Ego will inevitably be met with “thunderbolts from above”. These thunderbolts provide a means to remove the obstacles to further progress. However, at potentially great cost to the one who built the tower.
The more rigid the structure, the harder they fall. The deeper the arrogance, the greater the rebuilding that’s necessary.
The potential afforded by the lighting is such that it not only destroys the “towers of rigid structure” built-in arrogance by the lower mind but also provides the brief light that illuminates the darkness, showing the entity what it is and what it is not. It has the potential to show the folly of the tower.
Ra says, “the original potentiator was light in its sudden and fiery form; that is, the lightning itself.”
The destructive power of lighting can also illuminate and the often tragic consequences of being struck by lighting also allow us to see clearly, if only briefly. This clarity invites one to seek further, beyond the rigid towers.
The Potentiator of the Spirit represents the fragile nature of the separate Ego and the fructifying effects of Spirit upon the material world. It represents our personal apocalypse. Apocalypse in Greek means “an unveiling”. The Blasted Tower is an unveiling but it often comes at a price.