The Rising of the Star

I stopped writing about Tower Time a few years ago because people were tuning me out. But Tower Time didn’t go away – it’s going to be with us for a very long time. Still, that doesn’t mean our focus should be on surviving a lightning strike day after day, year after year. That’s not sustainable.

And it’s not necessary.

There are signs that a shift is in the works, and I think it’s time to change our emphasis.

But before I talk about that, I need to tell three very short stories.

Story 1: The falling Tower is only the first segment of a longer arc

After my last post on Tower Time, Byron Ballard – who coined the term – said “The Tower has fallen.”

My first reaction was that it’s 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’s a long way from disappearing. And the spiritual and magical aspects of Tower Time are getting stronger, not weaker.

Tower Time is a high-level metaphor for what is and will be a long, complex process. There are many “towers” – 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’t reach Empire levels again until the 1930s.

Our conversations around Tower Time are not intended to be a schedule of future events – that’s not possible. They’re intended to provide context for what we’re experiencing and inspiration for how we can best respond.

I think it’s time to shift how we think about where we are in this long process.

Story 2: We have someone to vote for

I strongly supported Joe Biden’s re-election campaign. I’ve 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.

Instead, within 24 hours all the potential candidates endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Within a week virtually all Democratic leaders had endorsed her. She’s been breaking fundraising records and much of the money is coming from first-time donors.

People are excited about Kamala Harris in a way I’ve 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.

This isn’t an election post… not entirely, anyway. What’s important here is that there’s a huge difference between supporting a candidate because the alternative is unthinkable and supporting a candidate because you like them and their policies.

Now it’s not just a case of who we have to vote against. Now we have someone to vote for.

Story 3: The Magical Battle of Britain

I read The Magical Battle of Britain on the trip to Mystic South. I’ve written about the historical event before – it’s 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.

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.

It’s an interesting primary source for a historical event that’s already become part of myth.

The actual Battle of Britain was an air campaign that ran from July through October of 1940. Nazi forces had taken over France and the Low Countries – 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.

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.

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.

The rising of The Star

These three stories were floating around in my head when I got to Mystic South last week.

Even though I felt like Byron’s 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.

I turned in a little early on Friday night, but before I did, I got out my Tarot cards and asked “where are we in Tower Time?”

The first card that came up was The Star.

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.

I’ve always felt like The Tower would be followed by the 8 of Cups – or as I sometimes call it, the “I like it here, why do I have to leave?” card. When I asked Ashley Bryner to create artwork for my Navigating Tower Time course, I described what I was looking for by saying “The Tower, and then the 8 of Cups.” Ashley did a great job of illustrating that progression.

The 8 of Cups may well be a future stage in this very long process – Tower Time is not the Fool’s Journey. But I’ve already seen people making the “16 is followed by 17” connection and saying The Star comes next.

And it appears that it does.

The Star

The Tower is a card that screams in your face. The Star is much more subtle.

A naked woman kneels with one foot in the water – representing the unconscious mind – and one foot on the land – representing the conscious mind. Her nudity represents both her vulnerability and her confidence – she feels safe enough to be naked outdoors. She pours the water of unconsciousness from two pitchers, one back into the water – back into her unconscious mind – and one on the land. The water poured on the land divides into five streams, representing the five senses.

There are seven small stars and one large star in the night sky – all eight stars have eight points. There’s a tree nearby and mountains in the background.

And there’s more – what do you see? What details call to you? There is no one “right” meaning of this or any Tarot card. There are the consensus meanings, but there is also what speaks to you when you draw a particular card in the context of a particular question.

The Star is not a card of bold action. It’s a card of meditation and contemplation.

And that makes it the perfect guide for this point in the arc of Tower Time.

What shall we build from the rubble of The Tower?

We can’t go back to some golden age, whatever your idea of a golden age happens to be. In any case, golden ages were never as great as our memories and our myths say they were. We can’t instantly undo the damage done by the courts and pick up where we left off in 2016. We can only move forward from where we are, here and now.

Where do you want to go?

What do you want to build?

And perhaps most importantly, what are you willing to build, and to help build?

Put one foot in the water and one foot on the ground – skyclad is optional. Let the waters flow from your unconscious to your conscious mind and back again. Meditate. Contemplate. Evaluate.

It’s good to think big.

It’s better to think local.

I’m a socialist and not a libertarian, but if we count on government to solve our problems we will always be disappointed. Let’s elect good people to do the things government does best, but let’s focus most of our attention on building the kind of communities and families we want.

And the kind of lives we want for ourselves. Never underestimate the power of simply being who and what you are, and what you’re called to be.

We need to work together, so we need to have conversations about what to build next.

But first we need to pay attention to The Star and meditate.

Tower Time goes on

Dion Fortune told the members of her order to begin visualizing the future they wanted after the war was over. But the war wouldn’t be over for another four years.

There are more towers that will fall. I’m optimistic about the election, but lots can happen between now and November 5 – and in any case, Kamala Harris is not a savior. No matter who wins the election, the American empire will continue to decline. I’m convinced the spiritual and magical side of Tower Time is about to get a lot more intense, although I’m not sure exactly what that means (yes, I will write more about this in the near future).

But Dion Fortune was right. And what was right in 1941 is right in 2024.

Maintain your spiritual practice. Keep forming and maintaining relationships in this world and between the worlds. Work magic. And for the love of all the Gods, vote!

But it’s not time for the 3 of Pentacles yet. Or the 8 of Pentacles.

It’s time to start contemplating and visualizing what we want to build next.

It’s time for the rising of The Star.