The Tower
By Gene Aronowitz
Back in the late 1980s, on a visit to Woodstock, New York, my wife, Linda, had her deck of Tarot cards with her and suggested that this would be a good time and place for a reading. Dubiously, but in the spirit of Woodstock esoterism, I agreed.
We sat down under an ash tree along the bank of the Millstream. Linda placed a piece of silk cloth on a large rock, asked me to lay both hands on the deck and think of a question. No specific issue came to mind, so I simply thought: What is in store for me? She asked me to cut the cards, then distributed 10 of them off the top of the deck in a specified pattern, each position determining the implication of the card resting on it. The card in the position that signified what is likely to occur soon was The Tower. We looked at each other. That card is particularly unwelcome, for it can connote caustic change, the collapse of current ways of life, crisis, conflict, and catastrophe. Getting that card in that position can be very upsetting, but to me, it seemed far-fetched. Everything in my life seemed to be going along smoothly. My relationships with my wife, progeny, and friends were positive, and I was pleased with the way my work life was going. I had many successes in the past and had solved the problems for which I was hired in the position I then occupied.
But within weeks after the reading, my job began to curdle. My Board President told me she was concerned about my relationships with Board members. She said I was not communicating with them personally, as had all three of my predecessors. They saw me as distant and aloof. I had been hired for my management skills, but once I had taken care of the problems those skills were to solve, these other unexpected requirements emerged. My interpersonal skills with family and close friends were good, but with others, not so. No matter how hard I tried, I could not do what was expected, and the more discouraged I became. Once, while brooding in a chair at home, Linda said I looked like I was sitting inside a walk-in refrigerator.
After several months of bleak progress, the Board President called me and asked if we could meet that afternoon. She was terse, and the tension in her voice was unmistakable. When we met, her face was flushed, and her eyes darted around the sparsely furnished room.
“Gene,” she said, “it’s not going well.”
“I know," I said. "I've tried. But what you want me to do is not in the cards. It’s just not me. It seems like you think it’s time I left. Is that what you’re saying?”
Beginning to tear, she said softly, “I guess it is.”
I strutted out of the room but once on the sidewalk, my shoulders drooped, and my chest heaved. I gave up a great job for this, I thought. A doubling of my salary had attracted me. The job change made sense since I had mortgages on two houses, hefty child support, three kids in college, and one expected to enter the following year. But now, although the financial obligations persisted, the job didn’t. It was over.
They gave me a reasonable severance package, and I established a consulting practice. However, progress was slow, and after the initial infusion of money ran out, the challenge of meeting my immense obligations was terrifying. Missing payments or even being late was unacceptable because I wanted to maintain the excellent credit rating I had earned. I borrowed from a credit union to meet large expenses, often borrowed from a friend to repay the credit union, and, sometimes, if necessary, borrowed from the credit union to pay back my friend.
But one time, that didn't work. A mortgage payment was due in two days, but both loans were still outstanding. I had no idea where else to get the money. I was like a duck on a rotisserie as I tried to sleep that night. But then, seemingly miraculously, I got a call the next morning from a former employee who was then an agency executive. He asked if I was free to help them on a project. I said I was and met him that afternoon. I was stunned when he asked if I would like to be paid in advance. I considered this a sign and asked Linda for a follow-up Tarot reading.
When she laid out the cards, The Tower appeared once again, but this time in a different position and, therefore, with a different implication. Linda smiled and said that this time, its position signified that the destructive influence on my life was ending, and the future looked more promising.
And so it was. I had become well-known for my consulting skills, and as my reputation swelled, so did my income.
At that point - eight years after the first Tarot reading in Woodstock and five years after the second, Linda suggested it was time for a third. Mystified by the divination capabilities of the first two, I enthusiastically said, “Sure! Absolutely!” When she dealt the cards, The Tower, incredibly, showed up again, but this time in the position that indicated that my troubles were now in the distant past. There are 78 cards in the Tarot deck. The odds of that one card coming up in those three positions in that sequence is astronomical, 474,552 to 1.
If I was skeptical before the first reading, I was a true believer by the third, but I vowed to stay as far away from the Tarot as possible. I have no interest in knowing if there are still other misfortunes lurking around to make my life miserable. If they come, they come, but I always have enough to worry about without worrying about lurking misfortunes.
