heart shaped world
| fool | the magician |
high priestess | empress | emperor | hierophant | lovers | chariot | justice | hermit | wheel of fortune |
| strength | the hanged man | death | temperance | the devil | the tower | the star | the moon | the sun | judgement | the world |
First of all, forget the idea of some ultimate evil villain. Think more of impish Puck, or playful, horny Pan, of the ways our mind can wander when we take our spiritual eyes 'off the ball' and lose sight of 'higher things'. The 'devil' of folklore - before the more fundementalist factions blew him up out of all proportion - is very Pan-like and a spirit, often a wood spirit, with the special duty of punishing naughty children. As recently as the 1930s he can be found on Christmas cards accompanying St Nick on his gift-giving rounds. Not an all-powerful deity or anti-deity, the puckish spirit could be met at a crossroads where a pact could be made - clearly the origin of the tale concerning Robert Johnson's miraculous blues abilites.
To bolster themselves, the big hitting religions have allowed him to become associated with our superstitious ideas of an underworld complete with fiery furnaces, where sinners - and especially unbelievers (sinners can repent) can look forward to eternal torment.
Such ideas come from the times when the religions espousing them were keen to increase their numbers and to retain their hold on their members - the times of the crusades, of the Inquisition, and of today's fundementalists of various ilks come readily to mind. The Tarot devil belongs to an earlier time and is that part of us which, although expressive and creative, pleasurable and fun, can become an obsessive pursuit, blinding us to other things.
There are two cards in the deck that give rise to
nervous laughter. This is one of
them. One of the problems this card
highlights is the tendency to demonise.
When things go wrong, when we do bad things, it is not some external
force that has made us do it – the act of not taking responsibility for our
actions is a failing. Our need for
security, for things, materiality, money can become an obsession and leave us
slaves to a false or faulty belief system.
This can manifest as obsessions with people, the need for attention,
even as addictions – for example we falsely believe that a cigarette will at
once make us relaxed, look cool and feel calm although we know, on some level
that the reverse is nearer the truth.
The Devil stands for all forms of bondage, including subservience to our
own baser urges (and I’d include EastEnders and Big Brother in this).
One of the
big problems for people with this card is that The Devil just isn’t a very
acceptable symbol for anything. You need to readdress the idea of where we get
our morality, our ethics from because it certainly isn’t from the Bible or any
of the ideas of good and evil set out in there. We actually take very little
guidance from the Bible, cherry picking from a few ‘moral’ tales which, if we were to
follow them all would see this world as being significantly more dangerous and
warped than it already is! Our inner guidance on issues of morality and
altruism is much more connected with our innate sense of survival, and this in
terms of species above individual concerns.
This card is very positive when looking at issues of binding obligation
and long term commitment, often linked to our need to ensure our security and
reproductive chances. It is a warning
about the dangers of obsession in these areas. So lots of words to come to one
simple point - Sex and Shopping...
