Meaning of the "Tower" Card/Snape's Other Secret?/POA foreshadowing

[inkling108]

No: HPFGUIDX 133416

A few ideas--

With the debate swirling on about the meaning of what happened in 
the Lightening Struck Tower Chapter, I thought it might be helpful 
to look at the Tarot card from which the chapter takes its name.

It is trump #16 of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, is traditionally 
associated with the planet Mars, and has been called by various 
names through the ages, including the Tower of Babel, The House of 
God, the House of the Devil (go figure)

Go here for a picture of it:

http://www.facade.com/tarot/description/?Deck=rider_waite&Card=17

If you really want to go to town, check out this 
iconographic/historical essay:

http://tarot.com/about-tarot/library/boneill/tower

Like the HP series, tarot cards are subject to endless and sometimes 
contradictory interpretations, but here are some typical meanings 
attributed to the tower:

Conflict, change, unforeseen catastrophe.  Old notions 
upset...overthrow of existing way of life. Disruption will bring 
enlightenment in its wake -- Eden Gray, Mastering the Tarot

Destruction (is) an idea that conveys the card's usual meaning.  But 
we can also look at this card in a different way, as the lightening 
flash of revelation...In normal usage we can think  of the 
lightening as...some kind of discovery that unlocks a secret or ends 
an illusion under which we are laboring.  --Rachel Pollack, The 
Complete Illustrated Guide to the Tarot.

Here's what I take from this card, in the context of HBP:

If the change is unforeseen, a bolt from the blue, that would argue 
against the theory that Dumbledore's murder was some kind of plan 
between DD and Snape.

If it means shattering of illusions...well, that Dumbledore always 
knows best, the Snape is on the side of the Order -- these illusions 
are now well shattered.

But then, I'm in the contra Snape camp :-)

Speaking of Snape, somewhere on the web (forget where) someone 
observed that Snape's mother, Eileen Prince, would only have to take 
one letter out of her name to become Pince...Madam Pince?  We know 
that Eileen was cross and sullen, not a looker, and we know that 
Snape's house in Spinner's End was full of books.  Does he live with 
his mother?  Think about it:  Severus Snape, Master Spy, Counsel to 
the Wicked, Bringer of Destruction...Mama's boy?  Heh heh.

BTW, finally pegged one of the foreshadowings of HBP in the POA 
movie:  Buckbeaks attack on Werewolf Lupin anticipates his attack on 
Snape in Chapter 28.  Got this on the second reading -- in too much 
shock the first time to notice.
 
Inkling