AstroLogic*Gal

Daily Tarot- Thoughts on The Devil: August 18th

The Devil tarot card represents the next step in the seekers journey. It is the phase in development where one must tap into the darker elements of the collective unconscious to further grasp one’s concept of humanity as a whole.
At this stage in development, one is no longer confined to the reality of his ego. He can now go much deeper and make contact with the creative forces of his unconscious. He is ready to explore the primitive psyche of humanity. In essence, the seeker must face a new challenge. In a tarot reading, the Devil encourages us to resist the power of our primitive natures. This is a process where one must come to terms with the negative side of mankind. It is the side of us that can be violent, cruel and power hungry. With this awareness, one can deepen his experience in his journey. He has the capacity to develop deeper compassion and forgiveness for the darkness and misery we are capable of inflicting on to others. At the same time, this can be translated to one’s personal journey. One can forgive oneself for behaviors and actions that have caused harm. The Devil can initiate the acceptance of self and others as they are in their entirety.

In a tarot reading, the goal of The Devil card is to encourage us to rise to the occasion, to find the parts of our selves that are capable of giving back to the world as we know it. The assignment in this part of the journey is to assimilate the darker yearnings of our natures, and at the same time, not be consumed by them. These yearnings must, ultimately, be channeled into an energy that focuses on improving the world. The Devil teaches us that all elements of the collective unconscious must be accepted and appreciated. We all have deep yearnings that may seem dark and unproductive. The important thing to remember is that we do not have to become a slave to them. Our instinctual powers are a part of life, but we certainly do not want to be chained by them. Ultimately, we must move beyond their binds by giving back to humanity as a whole.

The negative aspect to the Devil card is when the seeker becomes too attached to the dark forces of the primitive psyche. Often, great power comes from the darker side of our natures. Unfortunately, this power can lead to extreme self-centeredness, where one perceives the world as a means to an end.
When the Devil appears in an upright position in a tarot reading, typically, there is the need to stop thinking of yourself and start thinking what you can do for others. You may feel imprisoned by your own ambitions and motivations. These are things that you feel that you must have in order for your to feel content and whole.
Often, the Devil card reveals that we are too attached to material goods, relationships that aren’t working, drugs or alcohol, or our financial positions. Perhaps your fears are binding you to situations that make you unhappy. In terms of relationship readings, the Devil suggests that you may need to take a good look at your relationships. Your attachments to others may be harmful or unhealthy. Are you staying in a relationship out of fear? Does your partner control you? Do you feel you need to leave your relationship, but can’t?

When the Devil card comes up in a tarot spread it may suggest that you are using your power in a negative way. You may need to review how you have been interacting with others. Are you being manipulative or threatening? On another level, the Devil card refers to the prisons we make for ourselves. Perhaps your fear is enslaving you. Often, when we are in extreme fear, we simply can not move forward. We may be chained to our pasts. This can also be said for old wounds of the past. The tarot card meanings of the Devil Card urge you to confront the darker parts of yourself. This is a good time to explore your fears, limitations, and unhealthy attachments. It also suggests ones need to explore past trauma that has bound them to their own pain.

Temptation
Self-indulgence
Restrictions or bondage
Co-dependency
Facing your demons
Feeling confined or stuck in a situation


The Devil is the personification of the animal, instinctual and even bestial parts of us. Pre-occupation with matters connected to the Devil can lead to degradation and sheer ugliness, but by identifying and accepting the darkness within we learn to discover that it is simply the dark side of our light. When the Devil card appears, most people tend to feel that there's trouble ahead - and often they associate this card with the doing of evil, and therefor fear it as well.
But, in some ways, this is a misunderstanding of the principle the card truly represents in life. Certainly it can appear to indicate evil acts, trouble, strife and conflict - but on most occasions we have more control of events than we might at first believe. And it is our lack of belief that causes most of the problems.

You see, one of the Inner mysteries of this card is that it relates to our basic instinctual needs - those things which confirm to us that, like it or not, we are animals. Our survival needs, like hunger, thirst, protection, warmth, safety are ruled by the card, as are our sexual desires and needs.

However, for some mysterious reason we have allowed ourselves to become separated from many of our base-line instincts, even sometimes relating in a negative or distorted fashion toward them. Our ability to think has got in our own way here.

As a result, we build multitudes of problems around what should be the fulfilment of our own animal instincts - eating disorders, sexual disorders, alcoholism..the list is extensive. Even if we don't actually have a disorder as such, we can have hang-ups, inhibitions, insecurities, fears.

And it is these thought patterns, and the behaviours that go with them that cause the Devil card to have such a bad reputation. The important thing to remember here is that, this being the case, by shifting our viewpoint, altering our perspective, we can change the way we feel about the things in the Devil's domain. And in achieving that, we set ourselves free to be who we are.

So on a day ruled by the Devil, look deeply at your responses and feelings about this area of instinctual response. Look into your fears, and try to see if they have any basis in reality. If you find inhibitions in these basic areas, try to examine them. Locate their source..and then try to let go and move on. Remove the restrictions and limitations that narrow the boundaries of your horizon.



Rosanne: The Devil gets the Letter Ayin, which originally meant eye, and the zodiacal sign of Capricorn. It's simple letter means Mirth and its esoteric title is The Lord of the Gates of Matter. It is on the 26th path between Tipareth and Hod= Beauty and Splendour, where the 6's and 8's live. The Torch on the card is fire, the wings are air, the body of the devil is Earth. This is our world of the elements. Mirth- because we should not take this reality of material condition as the true reality, it is the inner world that is important- our spiritual world. The world as we see it is our senses and desires etc etc and the Devil is what ties us to that. The Words Temptation and obsession are what comes to mind- The False Spirit. This path straddles between the Creative world and the Formative world- at beauty (Tipareth) we meet our higher selves with Harmony (the sixes) and at Splendour (Hod) we meet the earthly mind- what we understand through our senses. Good place for the Devil to walk.

Venicebard: In researching Kabbalah far deeper than either occultists or rabbis (may they be blessed) have, I tend to think the Hermetic version's version of the paths is correct as to letter, but incorrect of course as to assignment to trumps, since the bardic numbering whereby the assignments were made by tarot's designers (I can easily show) is quite different from the speculative modern methods of associating letters and trumps.
The upshot is that LeDiable, being XV in the Marseilles, is reysh, R-the-elder in Irish tree-lore (to burn which brings the devil in the house, according to English folklore). Reysh occupies (according to the tradition preserved by the occultists) the path from Yesod to Hod: indeed the witches' sabbath would seem to suggest that the devil's significance does tend more towards the moon (9-Hod in the 4th or material world, Assiyah) than the sun (6-Tiferet in that world), and of course has links to Mercury in that Hermes was Hermes Psychopomp (guide to the souls of the dead).
The name Satan is from Hebrew, as I recall, and the concept of the Adversary -- the Left -- pervades the Zohar, but as for horns, previous posters-herein may be right, and this may have more to do with Christians linking the devil to paganism. (In Hebrew, it is 'idols' that represent the pagan, and not many idols in the region of Canaan had horns methinks, although Hathor of Egypt of course did, and perhaps others there as well; one Canaanite idol, or 'false god', however, was 'the Bull El'; still, our devil has stag horns, not bull's-or-cow's horns [the bull's horn would be U-ura-heather or vav, since this in runic is named *uruz, 'aurochs', and is shaped like the upturned drinking-horn made therefrom, though its trump, XVII Star, expresses coition (blending of fluids), one's 'coming-of-age', which is what acquisition of the aurochs's horn meant to the young Germanic warrior in the first place].)


Wiki: As with The Magician (Tarot card), the iconography of most of the standard Tarot suits appear. His wings represent Air, the suit of Swords. The torch in his hands, and the flames in the tail of the male devil represent Fire, the suit of Wands. The grapes in the tail of the female devil invoke Earth; the same grapes appear in most of the cards in the suit of Disks. Only water, Cups are missing. On one level, this is curious; water is of the unconscious, and The Devil dwells in the subconscious. On another level it is heartbreaking; what is missing from the Devil’s realm is The Grail, the kindly blessings of the Cup.
A naked man and a naked woman are chained by the neck and partially transformed into creatures of the underworld; transformed by their taste of the darkness; by the fruit of the underworld. The chains are loose. They can be slipped. The Devil’s own torch can light the way out and light the return, back to the surface.


A Young Man Invites you to the Forest DrummingThe Devil is the wild king of the autumnal equinox, when the light of the year is fading and the bounty of the harvest has come in. His are the unrestrained pleasures of life, when wine and beer are made and the people retreat from their outdoor life and return to the harvest home and the joy of the September bounty. The Emperor - who believes in the supreme authority of the ruler and the infallibility of his direction - now gives way to the Devil, who believes in anarchy and complete individual freedom. This is the contrast of the organized community work of the late winter and spring, ploughing and planting, and the chaos of the harvest festival, as the produce is brought inside and the kitchen is busy with the smells of food. The family now prepares to retreat to the inner life of the home and longer hours of darkness for the pleasures of the bed. The Devil's autumn world is one of amazing commotion, freedom and uninhibited sexuality in the concealment of autumn's shadows.

In the card the eyes of the Devil draw you into his world, the world of nature with its wildness, diversity and sometimes frightening darkness. The trees in the card are bound with ivy, just as the woman and man are entwined in the sexual act. Yet the ivy will, in nature's time, be the cause of the trees' downfall. This is an analogy to the powerful Goddess of nature, who both gives us birth and then cuts us down in death. The Devil embraces all of nature; he is comfortable with its destructive qualities as well as the pleasurable ones. He revels in the death of the rabbit as the hawk snatches it from the field, he watches with glee as the bucks bloody each other over the doe. Then, he takes intimate pleasure in the bucks' mounting of the doe, and beats the drum in the rhythm of his thrusting. The drum symbolizes the heartbeat and the rhythm of nature; it is the repetition of cycles through time. Although we seldom recognize it, we too are in tune with the rhythm in nature because we are a part of it. Our bodies pulse with the beating of our hearts; we are born and then die in rhythm with the world of nature around us.
Autumn is the season of harvest, and yet, as the bounty of produce is stored and processed, the darkness of the season increases and the cold creeps in. These are the natural processes that the Devil responds to; the extremes of the year are both represented in the fall: its joy and sorrow, strength and fear. The Devil symbolizes the attachment we have to the emotional experience of extremes. As a culture we are drawn to the darkest tales of human depravity for the emotional ride it gives us. We are also drawn to the storybook fairytale happy ending as the other extreme of this. The Devil is the fulfillment of our desires, the attachment we have to our lives, and the drowning in the pain and pleasure of the senses. He revels in the experience of drunkenness with the vine and the mushroom. He loves the sexual experience, and will be just as inquisitive there for it is his desire to experience the full range of human possibility.

In recent Christian times the experience of nature as primitive, sexual and dark was opposed to the creation of the pure idea world of God. The attachment to the pleasures of the body was a sin to be mortified and these sins were associated with The Devil, God's fallen angel who was opposed to Christ in every way. Christ is the Christian Emperor, the lawgiving king of the light half of the year; he represents the human world of mind. The Devil is the king of the growing darkness and the wild world of nature and the body. In ancient times the Devil would have been called Pan or Dionysus and his revels would have drawn hoards to enjoy the experiences of excess and the pleasures of the body.
The negative meanings of the Devil are obvious. The over attachment to intense experience can bring tragedy into your life as drug abuse, alcoholism and even more horrible criminal acts which hurt others. Anything that brings with it emotional ecstasy or its opposite is an experience of the Devil card. The key is that we recognize the differences between use and abuse and we must learn not to let our own excesses hurt others around us.

Introduction to the Devil Tarot Card Meanings:
The image of the Baphoment is a shock to many. In a primarily suppressed society, topics relating to the devil are not openly discussed and illicit intense discomfort. However, if we approach this card in an open-minded, mature manner, we can glean a mass of insight.
Before exploring this card further, take a moment to consider the laws of nature. When we observe the trees, the sky, the grass, the birds, and other phenomenon of nature, do we see the presence of a devil? Do we see bondage amongst bobcats? Selfishness amongst seagulls? Tyranny amongst Tiger Lillies? Absolutely not. The thought is ludicrous.
This is big consideration when contemplating the Devil Tarot card. Out of all life that exists on this planet only one creature can identify that which is "devil." That creature is of course, the human. Only humans can classify what is "devil" and what is "angel."

So what does a human have that the rest of the natural world doesn't? What makes a human able to create, define, or interpret the personification of the devil? A mind. And with a human mind comes the human ego running along beside it.
The ego is the key to understanding the Devil card. Ego tells us we're better than the other guy, or we're not good enough for the glee club. Ego tells us we need external stimuli (drugs, alcohol, food) to be acceptable to society, or feel comfortable in our own skins. Ego tells us we need a new car to get respect or we need to put our spouse in his/her place so we are "on top."
When we pull the Devil card in a reading we've got some serious examining to do. We need to consider who or what is in charge of our lives. The Devil is a very loud message stating that we're in danger of giving up our control to our base nature. Or, it's a message that we've already dropped to a level of functioning that is beneath us.

We are designed for greatness, yet when we stoop to the level of ego-thinking we're blind to our own beauty.
This is not to say the ego is all bad. We all need our ego's to function. Ego is a problem only when we allow it to run through our thoughts unchecked. An uncontrolled mind is an ego-driven mind. An ego-driven mind is one that operates under the illusion that love and acceptance must be obtained at all cost.
The truth is that love and acceptance can never be gained because they are always ours - they are at the core of our being at all times.

Special note: this card rendition (Morgan-Greer, permission and rights of use listed on home page) of the Devil Tarot card meanings depicts green as the predominant color. Consequently the reader may be intuitively lead to suggest health issues in a reading as the color green (corresponding to the heart chakra) is considered a color relating to health.

Key Symbols Relative to Devil Tarot Card Meanings:
Fly: The fly is a symbol of very primitive, base energy states. Its nature is pesky and irritating. It happily feeds on rot and waste. We can liken these qualities in ourselves; when we are duped into thinking we are unworthy or we are feeding on filthy thoughts. Our addictions can be as nagging and pesky as the fly. Our "little selves" (the one whose voice cries me, me, me) express the lowest level of energy and it turns like a maggot in our minds.
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Flame: The flame is a symbol of illumination. In this case it serves as a symbol of hope that we can all overcome the not-so-savory urges and characteristics the Devil card represents. The flame also reminds us that there is no darkness - there is only an absence of light. When we carry the light in our hearts and minds, lower level energy will always be dispelled. Read more about fire symbolism in the Tarot here.
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Inverted Five-Pointed Star: Simply put, the inverted (up-side-down) five-pointed star is the opposite of its original meaning. The five-pointed star, or pentagram is a symbol of harmony amongst all the elements. Therefore inverted, this symbol means disharmony, error, and maligned thought.
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Chains: In conjunction with the Devil card we get the sense of being bound to habits, thoughts, beliefs, or behaviors that enslave our spirits. The Devil is nothing more than a metaphor for living a base/banal and substandard existence. Click here to read more about chain symbolism in Tarot.

The Devil is the beginning of the third septenary: the cosmic influences on man. The inverted pentagram on his forehead represents the opposite of light and good (as represented with the Spirit upright pentagram). The black background represents spiritual darkness. His right hand is raised in the black magic sign (as opposed to the blessing sign the Hierophant is displaying). The sign of Saturn is on his palm. Saturn is the planet of limitations and inertia. The bat wings represent obstinacy and the donkey ears represent stubbornness. The staff of the Magician becomes the torch of destruction in the hand of the Devil. He also has the power of the Magician, but he wields it for destructive purposes. The cube he's sitting on is only half a cube, symbolizing only half the knowledge (showing only the visible sensory side of reality.) The number 15 in numerology equals 6, the Lovers, and here the lovers are shown chained, in bondage to the material, sensual side of their nature. The man's tail (a symbol of the base "animal" nature) is tipped in the flames we saw in the Lovers card. The woman's tail has the same fruit from the tree we saw in that card, also. This is a sign that they are misusing their gifts. The chains around their necks are loose, proving that the bondage is of their own making. They can loose themselves at will, but they choose not to.
This card is ruled by Capricorn, the goat. The rune is Hagall. The Devil is portrayed as Pan or the Horned One in some decks. The Devil is a symbol of bondage and the evil side of man's nature. If the Devil shows up, look carefully at your life and see what is limiting you right now. Is there an addiction that needs to be addressed? What substances, behaviours or people are holding you back?

The card of the Devil portrays a Satyr, a creature which is half man and half goat, dancing to the music of the pipes which he holds in his left hand. In his right, he grasps two lengths of chain, each attached to a collar around the neck of a naked human figure. The figures a man and a woman wear tiny horns like those of the Satyr. Although their hands and feet are free to dance, they are held by their chains of fear and fascination for the music. Around them loom the dark walls of a cave. The goat in myth was associated with lechery and dirtiness, and was considered an unclean and lustful animal. But the goat also symbolizes the scapegoat, the person or thing upon whom people project the inferior side of themselves in order to feel cleaner and more righteous. Thus Pan, the Devil, is the scapegoat within which we blame for our troubles in life. The dark and doorless cave implies that Pan dwells in the most inaccessible realm of the unconscious. Only crisis can break through the wall into his secret chamber. The dancing figures are free, if they so wish, to remove their chains, for their hands are not bound. Bondage to the Devil is ultimately a voluntary matter which consciousness can release.


The Fool comes to the foot of an enormous black mountain where reigns a creature half goat, half god. At his hooves naked people, linked to the god's throne by chains, engage in every indulgence imaginable: sex, drugs, food, drink. The closer the Fool gets, the more he feels his own earthly desires rising in him. Carnal desires, hunger for food and power, greed and selfishness. "I have given up all such desires!" he roars at the Goat god, resisting the beast's power with all his might. He is sure that this is a test of his new spirituality, one where he must prove that the temptations of the material world cannot sway him.

The creature responds to his defiance with a curious look. "All I am doing is bringing out what is already in you," it responds mildly. "Such feelings are nothing to fear, nothing to be ashamed of, or even to avoid. They are even useful to helping you in your quest for spirituality, though many try to pretend otherwise."

The Fool gestures angrily at the chained men and women, "You say that even though these are clearly enslaved to the material world?"

The Goat-god mimics the Fool's gesture. "Take another look." The Fool does so, and realizes that the chained collars the men and women wear are wide enough for them to easily slip off over their heads. "They can be free if they wish to be," the Goat-god says, "They remain here because they want to be controlled by their base, bestial desires. There are, however, others…."

At this the Goat-god gestures upward, toward the peak of the mountain. "…Others who have used these same impulses to climb to the highest heights. If they had denied their desires they'd never have gotten there."

On hearing this, the Fool sees that he has mistaken the Goat-god. This is not a creature of evil as he thought, but of great power, the lowest and the highest, both of beast and god. Like all power, it is frightening, and dangerous...but it is also a key to freedom and transcendence.

posted by theShizzKnit @ 9:43 AM