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Tower card
From Harper's Globe Wiki
The Tower is the sixteenth trump or Major Arcana card in most Tarot decks. It is actually the 17th card of the deck, although it bears the number 16, as the Fool - the first card - is numbered 0. It is generally considered an ill omen when used for divination.
Card Symbols
A tower on a rocky outcrop, a bolt of lightning, one or two figures falling from the tower, sometimes waves crashing below.
Basic Tarot Story
The 22 cards of the Major Arcana tell a story when arranged in numerical order centering around the journey of development or enlightenment of the protagonist depicted on the first card, the Fool. When the arc of the Fool's journey brings him to the Tower, it is intact and impressive. At the top of the tower live the arrogant and self-righteous, almost impossibly high above those they feel superior to. Seeing the Tower, the Fool is struck with the revelation - almost like lightning - that he, like those in the Tower, believes himself set apart and above from others because of his journey, but he has been deluded by his own notions of grandeur. The force of this insight moves him to cry out loud, and as he does so, an actual bolt of lightning does strike the tower, bringing it down in flames, and its residents fall from its heights. In the wake of the Tower's destruction, the Fool is shaken, fearful, and full of grief, but also profoundly changed. He has torn down the lie he constructed for himself, about himself and can begin to rebuild on a foundation of truth.
Meaning/Interpretation
This card's primary portent is not, as Madison Allen assumes, a person's death. Its themes - externally induced destruction of what seems like an impervious construct and the corresponding chaos and ruin brought upon those that dwell within it - are unsettling, but the focus is mainly on the destruction of the tower. False structures will be suddenly and brutally destroyed, catching those dependent on them unaware and unprepared. This unhappy event is, in the larger scheme of things, for the best for the querent (the person for whom the tarot cards are being read).