Major Forces 18: Destruction

The Destruction card represents upheaval, chaos, and the raw, often painful power of transformation through crisis. The imagery of burning branches surrounded by a raging inferno evokes the intensity of moments that seem to unravel the very fabric of your life: emotional collapse, spiritual disillusionment, losing a job or family member, natural disasters. Destruction rarely arrives gently. It shatters what we thought was permanent, exposing the tender truths we’ve kept buried beneath certainty and structure. And yet, like nature’s forest fires, destruction clears the path for new life. Beneath the ashes lies fertile soil, rich with the nutrients of past experiences, pain, and wisdom. What feels like an ending may in fact be the cracking open of something more resilient, authentic, and alive.

In the creative process, destruction can arrive as burnout, as the collapse of a long-beloved project, or as a disorienting shift in your sense of identity or purpose due to an unexpected life event. It can manifest from external upheavals — losing your job, your community, or your bearings — or in internal revolutions: sudden awakenings, breakdowns, or breakups with parts of your former self. When everything is in flux, creative flow can feel impossible. But it can also be reborn in these moments, wild and unapologetically free. Destruction can strip away the inessential, leaving behind only the truth of who you are and what you’re meant to express.

If You’re Feeling Blocked:

The Destruction card asks you to examine what you’re afraid to lose. Are you clinging to a creative identity that no longer inspires you? Are you resisting change, not because it’s wrong, but because it’s unfamiliar? Destruction doesn’t always look like fire. It can come as increasing boredom, a lack of passion, or the unraveling of something once cherished. It can come as the loss of motivation or the sudden realization that what used to excite you now feels hollow.

When your creative flow feels blocked, this card invites you to burn away what no longer serves you. That might mean abandoning a project that’s drained your spirit. It might mean confronting the fear of failure or irrelevance that’s kept you from starting something new. It might mean daring to destroy the illusion of control and allowing chaos to play a role in your process. Creation and destruction are two sides of the same sacred rhythm.

Start small: redecorate your creative space, rearrange your schedule, release an old expectation. Try a medium you’ve never used before. Show something in your art that scares you. Allow imperfection. Embrace mess. Let something fall apart on purpose—then pay attention to what rises in its place.

Ask yourself: What am I afraid to lose? What in my life or creative practice feels heavy with stagnation or false security? If everything I know were to disappear, what truth would I still carry? And what would I build from that truth?

Destruction hurts—but within its flames lives a wild and honest freedom. Let go. Let it fall. Let it clear the way.