Swati and Chandrakanta Verma

Swati and Chandrakanta Verma
Literatarot
XVI - Torre/Tower
Chandrakanta
The duo of Swati and Chandrakanta Verma have come back together and collaborated for this card to create a digitalized modern visual for a tale of the past that is full of mystery and magic.
Dr Chandrakanta Verma is an entrepreneur, has been a teacher of Sanskrit and Hindi, and the owner of a recruitment firm.  She is a poet and an artist with a great intuition and a love for Tarot. She has done research on literature and including all the seven books of Chandrakanta and Chandrakanta Santiti that are equated by the westerners as an epic comparable to Lord of the Rings. Swati is an entrepreneur and Tarot reader who works with Tarot as a transformational and healing tool. She has conducted numerous workshops and seminars on Tarot and its applications. She has been into the mystical and magickal arts since childhood and has in the last seven years attempted to create more awareness about Tarot as a spiritual tool. She lives and practices in Mumbai and is the founder of Tarot India Network. She hopes to bring out more and more transformation with the use of Tarot as a helping art. Visit www.swatiprakash.com

Chandrakanta and Chandrakanta Santati were written by Babu Devakinandan Khatri in the late 19th century as a fantasy fiction in an Indian context. Chandrakanta is about a prince Virendra Singh, who is in love with the princess Chandrakanta of a rival kingdom. However there is a villain Krur Singh who conspires to trap Chandrakanta into a 'tilism', a magical maze in a fort which is there to guard a hidden treasure trove. Virendra Singh and Chandrakanta have to ensure that their love wins against evil villains and rival 'aiyyars' (shapeshifters), who are super-spies with magical powers and experts in all modes of warfare. Virendra Singh has his own group of 'aiyyars' to support him. The novel is a masterpiece of magic, treachery, deceit, bravery, and above all love at it's best!
In this card the tower is composed of black and white mazes, symbolizing 'Tamas' or duality and darkness, that is complimented by light. They seem burst out due to the lightning bolts symbolizing the knowledge received through the red bolt of 'Rajas' or active energy and the White bolt of "Sattva" or purity. The butterflies symbolize the freedom experienced with this release from darkness. The Purple light emerging carries the transformative powers and the black cat that is seen shape-shifting into nine snakes show those magickal powers which we fear, but at the same time if used on the side of goodness and truth can help one as a friend and an ally.  The Tower card shows the struggles and magical battles for the 'tilism' of our duality and confusions to be broken so that we can come back into the light. The message is that destruction of that which separates you from your final goal is a must and should never be feared.