Change is a big theme in the Tarot because without change we become stagnant and diseased. We can not flourish or grow. While Death represents change in its inevitable but gradual and eventual form, The Tower is change thrust upon us in a sudden and often cataclysmic fashion. Is this a negative card? Hardly. Although change is necessary, we tend to resist it. It is difficult to abandon ideals and beliefs that we have come to cling to and rely upon, even when they are outdated or even detrimental. We build spiritual and emotional dams against the rushing waters of change. The Tower represents those dams bursting and letting the floods rush through. Although this may be shocking to us when it happens, the change is a necessary purge of all the old and hrmful teachings, beliefs, ideals and ideas. They are washed clean in proverbial fire and blood, allowing the new concepts to take hold and be accepted.