So, Let's Talk about the Devil

The Devil what is not to love about this horny bastard?

This post, like many I anticipate in the future, stems from work done using the tarot to walk a path on the qabalistic Tree of Life. That work can be found by following the link, Walking The Path of the Devil. The first half is filled with ceremonial magick procedure and revelations that may or may not hold interest for someone primarily focused on the tarot. The second half of that post speaks directly to the card.

One of the things that struck me as a magician and a tarot reader was the perception of multiple levels of this trump. The bottom most level was fear and muck. Unfortunately, most people people live here in one form or another. This is having a one night boink to feel better about being lonely only to feel worse when you have to admit who you slept with. Worse, you do it over and over. This is walking down your own emotional dark alleys thinking it is the only way home for no other reason than this is the route you've always taken.

I used the sexual analogy because in the Thoth deck this is really the card of Pan. We tend to think of Pan as nothing but a horny guy, trying to get laid and masturbating when he can't. He is that but a larger aspect of exists as well. Pan helps to create all life. Let me move back to the Rider-Waite card before I complete the circle on Pan.

The Rider-Waite card shows a man and woman naked (GO PAN!) chained to the Devil (KINKY) but, as unimaginative authors keep pointing out, they are only loosely chained. They could step out of those chains as easily as you could take an alternate route to the nearest movie theater. These same authors will then wax poetic about how easy it is to step out of your own muck. My response to this sort of thinking is uncivilized.

Changing your path, your emotional self, your mental self and/or engrained habits of mind, heart and soul is tough. Yes, the final release is easy but that is like saying an Olympic sprinter had an easy time against a field of competitors. That fellow worked his ass to get there! In the case of this card, the querent may need, therapy, spiritual guidance, your tarot skills, maturity or some other form of personal alchemy. Walking away from those chains easy but you have to have burned away some pretty bad habits in order to do so and that is hard!

So how does our rascally Pan work into this? As I discovered in that pathworking, there is a place represented by this card that is above the muck. Getting there means releasing all that garbage that accumulates in our psyche over the course of life. This is a place where you can create your own life because you see it as it is, not as your muck deludes you into thinking it is. This is very cool indeed.

In a reading, this card may show up in a position that represents the future. This may be a warning not to sink into the muck. It may also be map pointing the way to rising above the existing garbage s/he is holding on to.

As I write about the tarot, it is unlikely I will ever delve into huge lists of meanings about the cards. Instead, I will aim to focus on some meanings in a manner that I hope makes the card more robust for you, the reader, and myself.