16-The Prisoner – Upright Salem Deck

Your Chosen Card – The Prisoner Upright Salem Deck

When upright, the Tower suggests that you need to critically evaluate the structures that are confining you or limiting your life. If you don’t do so voluntarily, the universe will find a way to force change upon you. Longstanding routines that have been hindering your progress need to be abandoned. Unanticipated changes may at first appear traumatic but in the long run can open the door to renewal. There’s an old adage that says every crisis presents an opportunity. Unexpected and sometimes drastic alterations in one’s life course are often accompanied by sudden and profound insights into the nature of one’s reality and belief system. Concretely, such events may include separation, divorce, job loss, school failure, financial setbacks, an upsetting medical diagnosis, and so on.

Keywords Upright: A bolt from the blue, a sudden revelation, abrupt changes, unexpected news that seizes your attention, disruption, overthrow, upheaval, forced change, a call to action, unanticipated events, sudden enlightenment, liberation from limiting structures, purgation, an opportunity for new growth, purification, the need to act before it is too late.

Key XVI: The Tower
Myths/Archetypes: The Tower of Babel. Thor, the Norse god of lightning. Zeus of the thunderbolt. Buddha under the Bodhi Tree. Hades abducting Persephone.
Astrology: Mars, the god of wars, bloodshed, destruction. (Mars rules Aries and Scorpio)
Numerology: 7 (Chariot) = 1 + 6 (The Tower)

Hebrew letter: Pey or Pe (an open mouth; a Hebrew word meaning mouth, word, vocalization, speech, or the edge of something; also, to speak, blow, or scatter).

When The Prisoner is upright you can pretty much take it that life is going well but that’s when life takes us by surprise.  If The Prisoner is unclear it may help to choose a card from the Major Arcana to provide more insight into what it is The Prisoner is trying to tell you.  If you had a particular issue in  mind, or want to seek clarification on something else, you can also choose again to get more guidance.

This chosen card is part of your upright card reading for The Prisoner using cards from the Salem Tarot Deck. You will find many more tarot pages that will be of great help if you need tarot card meanings. Use the search at the bottom of the page. We have some amazing tarot books for you to browse. Please see below.


Here are some snippets from a few of my favorite books

Portable Magic
Book Details
Portable Magic: The details of Tarot suit symbols do not remain absolutely constant throughout their history, but vary from place to place and from deck to deck. These minor differences are reflected in the names given to the symbols. Wands are sometimes called Rods of Staffs. Cups are sometimes called Chalices or Goblets. Swords are sometimes known as Daggers or, more rarely, Pins. Pentacles are also called Disks or Coins. The names for the suits employed here are those used by both the Golden Dawn and by the popular Rider Waite Tarot.

Tarot Books

Complete Book of Tarot: Mars, the red planet, is the god of war, bloodshed, and macho masculinity. He is assigned to the Tower, trump XVI. Mars is a planet of assertiveness, strife, conflict, aggression, force, warfare, and domination.

Elements of the Psychic World: Sir Walter Raleigh, executed in 1618 on the orders of King James I, makes an appearance now and again, and has been seen as recently as 1983 by a Yeoman Guard on duty in the Byward Tower. The bungled execution of Lady Salisbury is said to be re-enacted on Tower Green on the anniversary of her death in 1541. The executioner needed several attempts to sever her head and she screamed and struggled between each attempt. Her screams of terror are heard from her ghost about the time of the anniversary of her death.

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Elements of the Psychic World: Sir Walter Raleigh, executed in 1618 on the orders of King James I, makes an appearance now and again, and has been seen as recently as 1983 by a Yeoman Guard on duty in the Byward Tower. The bungled execution of Lady Salisbury is said to be re-enacted on Tower Green on the anniversary of her death in 1541. The executioner needed several attempts to sever her head and she screamed and struggled between each attempt. Her screams of terror are heard from her ghost about the time of the anniversary of her death.