Michael Tsarion | ![]() |
THE DEVIL
Daimon est Deus Inversus
Where danger is,
there arises salvation also - Holderlin Arcanum
fifteen is the seemingly ominous Devil card. This archetype corresponds
to the astrological sign of Capricorn, to the element Earth and to the planet
Saturn. Seasonally, it marks the period of the Winter Solstice, the dead of
winter. At the Solstice colure the sun has reached its most southerly
declination and literally stops still, remaining at the same point for three
days. The
ancients noticed this strange phenomenon and exemplified it with consummate
artifice, so that it has become a central motif in innumerable myths and fables.
The analogue which found the greatest universal usage was that of the
roi
soleil (sun king) who dies on the cross to rise again after three days. This
motif was later used by the Christian mythographers to great effect. Their
solar-hero Christ also made mention of the great "temple"
that will be
destroyed and raised again after three days. These so-called "days" are actually
the three dark, underworld signs of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.
This sidereal instance,
of the cessation of the sun's southerly movement, was commemorated through the ages
and is the real reason
why we have Christmas or Yuletide. The Christian Fathers artificially altered
the ancient calendar to make January be the opening of the year. Their strategy
made it seem as if the holiday and festivities of Christmas and New Years had nothing to do with
astrological phenomena. However, the very word yule
means yoke or wheel, referring to the zodiac which has always been likened to a great wheel in
the sky. Long before the myth of Christ, the 25th of December was the birthday of
Horus. The Jews celebrate their new year on January 6th, which was, originally, the
birthday of Aion, the twin of Horus. Most of the idioms we now associate with
Christmas have their origins in pagan and Gnostic observances. There are no exalted planets (influences)
in the domicile of Capricorn, for this is the dark realm of Chronos. It is the shadow world, the sepulcher of the sun, where the light goes to
die. Naturally, the design of the card was not casual or meant to necessarily
frighten. Though Tarot has been around for 25,000 years, much of its
idiosyncratic imagery was codified
in Medieval times and many idioms of the Middle Ages appear figuratively in the
Trumps, as they do in ordinary playing cards. Several "archetypal"
images, like the Food and the Priestess, are timeless, whereas
others, like the Tower and Emperor, for instance, relate to
specific events or scenarios. Whether the context be clerical or secular,
however, the image of the Devil conjures specific verbal and mental
reactions. The figure shown is not some Miltonic Lucifer plunging
Prometheus-like from the dome of heaven. He is no stylized Romantic Demiurge.
What we see is a caricature-like picture of a demonic hybrid
straight out of nightmare. The image was designed partly as a parody of two
other cards, the Magician and the Hierophant. In decks where the
figure holds the phallic sword the card Justice is also
suggested. If there was ever an image which subverted the viewers prejudice and
favo rite clichés, this is it. Despite the "matter," however, there is
certainly "substance" here, for this is a card of many antique
secrets. Though this card would be considered malign by
most, the careful student asks why it is that the very word god
comes, strangely enough, from the word goat (Scandinavian gott).
(As every
Christian knows, the goat has long been a symbol for the "Anti-Christ.")
The reason for this anomaly is that prior to the rise of Judeo-Christianity divinity
was frequently symbolized by horned, vegetarian animals. This is the reason why monarchs wore crowns with "horns" and why Native Indian Shaman wear
the buffalo horns during their rites. It is the reason why Michelangelo added
horns to his fine sculpture of Moses. Horns have long symbolized divine
wisdom. Numerologically,
15 is made from 7 plus 8 (78 being the number of the Tarot). One plus five gives 6
which recalls the Lovers (a card which pictorializes the
"Fall"). The number 15 is connected to Adam and Eve seen, again, in
this very card. (Adam is assigned the esoteric letter yod which
equals 1, while Eve is assigned to the letter He which is 5).
Interestingly, in this context, the name of the androgynous hybrid seen in most
decks is Baphomet which combines the words for father and mother (Ptah
and Maat). Fifteen is also the number of the full moon. Fifteen represents a complete Tree of Life (there are 10 main Sephira, 1
hidden Sephiroth, 3 supernal realms, Ain, Ain Soph and Ain Soph Aur, and 1 shadow
realm, the Qlippoth). Together this makes 15. On the Kabalistic Tree of
Life the path of the Devil
is number 26 which is an all-pervasive number of god. (The words for god in
English, Hebrew and Egyptian add up numerologically to 26). The
pentagram is often shown in this card while the raised open hand of the Devil
stands for the number five. Five is connected, esoterically, to phi, that
is,
to the supreme creation ratio of 1.618. Everything which exists (from the atom
to the neutron star) is founded
geometrically on this harmonic. Its symbol is the pentacle or pentagram. Fifteen
is also 5, 5, 5 or three pentacles (implying tri-star or trickster). Capricorn is the tenth house of the
zodiac. There are ten prominent stars in Capricorn and, Kabalistically, ten is
connected with the Sephiroth called Malkuth (the Earth
Sphere). Malkuth is the zone of physical manifestation, where Fire,
Water, Air and Earth compete for dominion and must eventually blend as Ether or
Akash. The strange hybrid "Beast" actually represents this
unification. He is not demonic but daemonic. In
the charnel house of Saturn the mythic hero meets his greatest adversaries and undergoes his most arduous trials and temptations. His weapons are lost, his
companions are scattered, his resolve is low and his heart is heavy with loss
and ennui. So it was with Jason, Samson, Ulysses and Odysseus, etc,. His descent to Hades has been dark and foreboding,
nor has he come
by personal volition or will. Though he may have been originally lured to his
feat by fanfare, he will now not easily recall the reason for his
ardor. He has arrived not due to virtue but to vice. His penalty is his own
hubris and the ideal of what he thinks he is to become. The
ghastly, lonely descent is compelled upon him by the Fates (Universal
Intelligence)
which would dispel his psychological darkness that he might see, all the
clearer, not only who he really is but what his true life purpose is to be. Like Dante, the bravest of us
will shudder at the head of the passage which leads from clement climes to the
bone forests and lakes of blood. There is no guide but Death over the River of
Avernus, no lamp to light the way through hell. Abandon
all hope, ye that enter through me - Dante
(Inferno) As
Dante's path took him from the familiar environs, so it will be with us all
at one time or another. As day is followed by night and life followed by
death so, in the psyche, there is a perihelion and aphelion. There comes a time
when the hands on the clock freeze, when the wine tastes like vinegar, when
spirit is
eclipsed by matter, love by fear, and happiness by sorrow. As the sword is hammered on the anvil and
tempered in the furnace, so is our mortal soul consumed in flames of torment. In
this Sturm und Drang we are purged of our systemic illusions. As
Nietzsche wrote: That
which does not kill you, will make you stronger. During
the "Underworld Cycle" our rational faculties are not enough to steer the ship of
consciousness. We cannot avoid facing the shadows we cast in the "Overworld
Cycle" when we moved exclusively from the dictates of the lower ego and
appetite, when we followed the herd, signed on the dotted line and toed
the party line, as it were. If we emerge from the caves of Annwn at all, it will be as one
chastened and resacralized, able to discern what is of true value,
internally and externally. Then comes a true affinity with the childlike and
eccentric. Then we will understand the difference between life and lifestyle,
between doing and being. Then we will not have to be compelled to make time for the simple and
fragile, the lowly and the meek. Then the crooked roads will look as
walkable as the straight, perhaps even more so. And,
in the end, to such a depth he fell, That every means to save his soul came
short, Except to let him see the lost in hell - Dante (Inferno) Though
our wisdom increases as our vanity decreases, we might find that we, like
Solomon and Dante,
are not easily able to communicate the details of our miasmic sojourn, especially to
those infatuated with the worldly carnival, dancing the danse macabre. Ask me not, Reader, I
shall not waste breath, Telling what words are powerless to express
-
Dante When this
card falls for us in a divination reading it generally deals with work,
finances, responsibilities and authority figures. It rules the Father, the State
and the Freudian “Reality Principle,” and to the "Super-Ego." It also deals with
materialism, atheism and lower appetites, with attachment, indolence and
inertia. Saturn is the planet associated with restriction, discipline,
practicality, experience and social conditioning. Saturn is prohibitive and
punitive. He is the lord of time and karma. In astrological terms he is the
adversary bringing tests and tribulation. His color is black and his metal lead.
He is our ultimate tutor and coach, pushing us to higher achievement and
creativity. He the blank canvas on which we paint our vision, the raw marble out
of which we carve our "David." Psychologically, the
Saturnian fifteenth card rules all authority figures and imagos, from God, to
the Father, the Boss, and
the State. It also represents the punitive and prohibitive representatives of society and the
oppressive laws and rules we must learn in order to be accepted and established
in the world. The Devil corresponds (in one sense) to Freud's "Reality Principle," and also to
the "Super-Ego," that part of our ego
consciousness which allows us to feel guilt for our moral or physical
misdemeanors, and which is our
moral conscience. It is the ruler within, the faculty of self-judgment which
inhibits man's penchant for cruelty, sadism and violence. It is an ancestral bequeathment but is
either reinforced or undermined by our personal life-experiences
from the birth hour onward. The conscious and unconscious strengths or weaknesses of our
parents, as well as their obvious and subtle behavior patterns has the most dramatic
influence and effect upon our own inner conscience (Super-Ego). If the apparatus
of the conscience should be impaired, for any number of reasons, we are likely to
lose any working sense of responsibility, and will be more likely to commit
immoral and even criminal acts upon ourselves and upon others in the world.
Historically, the lack of a healthy Super-Ego in an individual sets the stage
for extreme reactions in the external environment. As men and women give
over to the bestial, hedonistic and decadent in themselves, there is a
reciprocal, compensatory, rise of tyrannical states and leaders - "Big Daddies" - who often
begin as people's champions, but who then go on to exercise despotic control,
fund police states and advocate incarceration and death-chambers for the
pent-up, irascible malcontents and delinquents they deem as sub-human and
superfluous. As these autocratic states grow stronger, the individuals who put
them in power begin losing more and more rights and privileges, enduring it all
with revolting complacency, until their inner anger finally builds up to such an
extent that it cannot be assuaged. The leaders, who have their fingers on the
pulse of the collective psyche, so to speak, instigate civil strife, and global
wars to bleed-off the anti-social angst and restore "normalcy" within their
abnormal systems. When that ceases to work satisfactorily, or if things get too
out of hand, other more pernicious experiments in social control can be
implemented. As the dire pages of history reveal, our instinctual craving for
order and security can usher in some of the most devastating consequences which,
once started, cannot be reversed. In short, the adjusted Super-Ego assists us to
channel our unconscious energies into positive and life-affirming passions and
projects, whereas the impaired Super-Ego causes us to ride roughshod over the
rights of others, and to spend our time advancing through the loss, humiliation
and even death of those who either stand in our way, or who possesses what we
crave and think we must have. The two-figures in front
of the Beast, can be seen as the two parents, servants of the Conscience, who
are crucial to the development of a newborn child's conscience. As children we look to
the parents for guidance and steadying action. The most masculine of the parents
(not necessarily the male/father) is likely to represent the prohibitive face of
the world and state. Through this prohibitive standard we learn the price we
will pay for misdeeds and for breaking taboos. The parent with the more
"feminine" disposition (not necessarily the female/mother) can represent the
permissive face of culture and world. We are allowed to explore the less taboo
ways in which we can channel our darker and unhealthier subconscious energies,
and still get a good quota of our personal desires met. We are also rewarded for our good and moral deeds. In all of us there is
an attraction-repulsion dynamic regarding the parental figures and what
they represent. To the "id" (unconscious mind) it is all seen as restrictive and
hostile. The greater the inner conflict between conscious and unconscious drives
the more unique our consciences will be. In general, the permissive side is
"loved," and admired, while the prohibitive side is "feared," but respected. If
the conscience is maladjusted, the permissive side can be despised, and the
prohibitive side admired. Whatever complex is developed by a child, we all grow
up to be more or less permissive and prohibitive upon ourselves and upon our own
dependents. Parents are the government in their home, politicians are the
government of the land. God is the government of the unseen, and the priests are
his "reps" below. Life is full of "Father" and "Mother" figures (imagos), some
harsh and oppressive, some kind and understanding. Our relationship with
ourselves and with other people are marked by various levels and intensities of
sadism and masochism, dependant upon the calibration of our own inner
Super-Egos. This Freudian schemata was well summarized by Machiavelli, the
advisor to tyrants, who wrote:
Since love and
fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far
safer to be feared than loved
On one level the Devil is a close approximation of the Animus Archetype (Jung), the Dis Pater (All Father). He is
Saturn, the organizer, ruler and bestower of material fortune. He gives
stability, security and empowerment. But he does not work for free and wants
something in return. From his underlings he requires obedience and loyalty.
Those of us who do his bidding will see power, success, and prosperity. However,
many of us chose to rebel against the punitive side of the Father. Many of us
have what the psychologist describe as a negative Animus complex. Women, in
particular, can have the course of their entire lives altered because of a
negative relationship with the Animus. This can be mistaken for a negative
relationship with the physical father, especially if that relationship was
problematic. However, the physical father is merely the first individual to
receive the projection of a woman's own inner male, that is - her Animus.
Unless, the individuals are aware of the difference between the stereotype and
the archetype, havoc is likely to ensue both physically and psychologically. Any
person's rebellion against the All-Father, usually comes out in two main
important ways. One is outright rebellion of the familiar kind (body-piercings,
tattoos, dread-locks, bad attitudes, and all), and the other is through
identification. The former is well known. The latter is not. "Identification
Complex," is a major cause of historical and domestic dysfunctions. As a
poor attempt to alleviate psychic unrest it usually gives rise to even greater
calamities on all fronts. Psychologists, who frequently have to negotiate
smaller but often chronic versions of it with their patients, refer to it as
"Transference Complex." When Identification or Transference Complex operates in
action we seek to identify with, rather than rebel against, the object of our
loathing and hate. It is the way of the sycophant, the hypocrite and the liar.
The lie begins with the self but extends to every aspect of their lives. It is
one of the root causes for the undoing of the person and the diseased world they
occupy.
Identification arises because of the attraction-repulsion dichotomy, and from
our subconscious awareness of the power of the Animus. We may despise the Animus
for any number of reasons, and strongly feel an inner desire to rebel, or even
bring the Animus down. But this desire or drive ultimately gives rise to a
powerful inner predicament, for we also desperately need that which we hate, and
we need it badly. We need the love and care of the Animus, the Father, and deeply
hate ourselves for being so dependent and weak. Moreover, there is a powerful
taboo against open or concealed displays of resistance against the all-powerful
Father. Should we rebel, it is more often inner shame that is felt rather than
true liberation. Additionally, the representatives of the Animus (the parents,
the religious and political demagogues, etc.,) are expert at exploiting our
existential conflict to suit their own perverse aims. The less we concern
ourselves with the hygiene of our own consciousness, the more we will permit
such individuals and their exploitative systems to exist. Our very hatred, as
well as our love and allegiance, is enough to give them life. He who fights too long against
dragons, becomes a dragon himself - Fredrick Nietzsche
Modern man does not
understand how much his “rationalism”…has put him at the mercy of the psychic
“underworld.” He has freed himself from “superstition” (or so he believes), but
in the process he has lost his spiritual values to a positively dangerous
degree. His moral and spiritual tradition has disintegrated and he is now paying
the price for this break-up in world-wide disorientation and disassociation
- Carl Jung (Approaching
the Unconscious) The Animus is the central and most powerful force (Archetype) within
consciousness. It is particularly strong in the lives of women. Through the Animus
we are adjusted to the world of physical reality, and are capable of
working easily and confidently to create success and to earn
comforts and security, etc,. We all covet the comforts and securities that the
Saturnian physical and material world offers, and enjoy the benefits that being creative
and extrovert bring. We cannot have any of these without the healthy
integration of the Animus. It is the driving force behind our desires and
passions. It is the masculine force in a man's and woman's life, the power by which
we create, feel motivated to get things done, by which we move proverbial "mountains," and make a place
for ourselves in the world, or even in history. Astrologically speaking, when
we rebel we align with, and channel, the forces of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
When we conform we align with and channel the energy Sun, Mars and Saturn. When
we truly rebel we are ostracized, denied and cursed by the All-Father. We are marked for
death, as it were. When we conform we are protected and rewarded. We learn these
patterns, and come to understand how the game works, soon after birth. We spend the rest
of our lives swinging between the extremes trying to find the problematic
compromise point, the oasis between the abyss and the desert, a truce between
Apollo and Dionysus. Externally, the conformist society, and the
voracious amoral media, both co-opt our inner dichotomy, luring us endlessly
with a myriad panaceas and surrogate
arenas in which to exorcize our unhallowed desires. In one fashion, and era, it is cool
to rebel and rage against the machine while, in another, it becomes vogue to
conform and genuflect before the altars of the status quo.
Like the naked ones, in card fifteen, we all wear chains loosely around our
necks. Mystery number one concerns whether they were put there by our
own hands, or by something or someone else. Mystery number two concerns who or
what is going to remove them. There really
is no such thing as a “personality disorder,” when one realizes that
“personality” is itself a disorder - Michael Tsarion The God of the
testaments, the Jehovah of Judeo-Christianity, is a projection and embodiment of
the punitive side of the Animus. He is a creation of the Collective
Consciousness of human beings, of its masculine side and, therefore, embodies
all that is good and bad about the masculine modality of consciousness. However,
by projecting such an exclusively masculine imago, one devoid of a feminine
counterpart, we have reaped psychosis and historical havoc. No
understanding of our times or of our behavior can be had without a close study
of the workings of the Super-Ego, the Animus, and the dynamics of the Archetypes
in their relationship to the stereotypes which house them. …monotheism does not mirror
human society. Humans are first and foremost social animals. A deity who was
alone, not by choice but because there were no other companions for Him, was a
concept without parallel in human society. The god of the Israelites did not
have a wife, a son, a daughter, or a mother - Leonard Schlain (The
Alphabet Versus the Goddess) The gigantic
catastrophes that threaten us today are not elemental happenings of a physical
or biological order, but psychic events. To a quite terrifying degree we are
threatened by wars and revolutions which are nothing other than psychic
epidemics. At any moment several millions of human beings may be smitten with
a new madness, and then we shall have another world war or devastating
revolution. Instead of being at the mercy of wild beasts, earthquakes,
landslides, and inundations, modern man is battered by the elemental forces of
his own psyche - Carl Jung
When it is understood how degenerate and oppressive anti-human governments,
religions, creeds, and ideas have their roots of in the dark labyrinthine
depths of human consciousness, and when we take responsibility for our
own desires, drives and actions, it is then that we may see real proactive
change in the world. When we understand how and why the mind works the way it
does, when we are able to correctly diagnose ourselves psychologically, and when
we instigate appropriate rites and rituals to assist us in processing our dark
psychic content, we will then be able to dispense with the myriad vicarious
outlets invented by Dionysian witchery which seeks to co opt and thrive upon our
existential blight, and make a proactive move toward true, lasting healing
personally and socially. It needs no dissertation to
elaborate and certify what the record of history reveals as to this portent
obsession of the dour religious consciousness over the centuries. It has left
its lamentable record in the tale of corruption, banality, superstition,
bigotry and general moral and mental blight that overspread the area of
Christian Europe over the middle period which has come to be known as the Dark
Ages - Alvin Body Kuhn (Ultimate Canon of Knowledge) I am not
denying that great gains have resulted from the evolution of civilized
society. But these gains have been made at the price of enormous losses, whose
extent we have scarcely begun to estimate -
Carl Jung (Approaching
the Unconscious) The beauty
and value of the Tarot lies in its ambivalence. Its rich imagery affords several
levels of interpretation. We have seen how the Devil makes a good Animus
image. But, conversely, he also encapsulates traits which are reminiscent of the
so-called "Shadow" Archetype. On paper, the Animus and Shadow are very different Archetypes,
and are at odds with one another. One is order, the other disorder. One is
repressive the other permissive. One is constructive, the other deconstructive.
Despite its obvious Saturnian nature, some researchers are, however, inclined to
take the Devil as a powerful Shadow symbol. It certainly reveals a great deal
when we see the Devil as God’s unconscious mind, his own dark side, rather than
as a separate, autonomous presence operating at random in the Universe. In the
Biblical Book of Job, for instance, God did send out Satan as his
emissary to tempt and test his prophet Job. And as those who have experienced
psychotherapy can readily testify, the “Shadow” is not altogether a negative
presence, but can be, in fact, the very catalyst fostering true catharsis and
liberation. As the Latin poets wrote: Daimon est Deus Inversus. The self lies hidden in shadow:
He is the
"keeper of the gate," the guardian at the threshold. The way to the
self lies through him, behind the dark aspect he represents there stands the
aspect of wholeness - Erich Neumann The shadow roots of personality...and the
shadowy link with the archetypes of the antagonist, i.e., the Devil is in the
deepest sense part of the creative abyss of every living personality. This is
why in myths the shadow often appears as a twin, for he is not just the
"hostile brother" but the companion and friend and it is sometimes
difficult to tell whether this twin is the shadow or the self...Erich
Neumann (Origin and Evolution of Consciousness). If we do accept the
Devil figure as a Shadow symbol, it may make sense why a male and female are
seen in front of him. They are the genders that the Shadow eventually unifies
through his challenges and trials. As the Alchemists and Magi of old knew, the separation between the masculine and feminine
modalities of being is the raison d'etre for the traversal into the realms of
matter and even into Hades. We are meant to participate in a hieros gamos
or sacred wedding, uniting within ourselves all antipodes. We are here to end,
once and for all, the subject versus object dichotomy. Physical and psychic
energy must become nucleated once again. This is the goal of all true religion,
yoga, magic and ritual. When the microcosm (pentagram) and macrocosm (hexagram)
are not in unison we remain materialized and subject to the vagaries of time and
space which are under command of the adversarial intelligence. This adversary
is, however, (like a shadow) nothing more than a projection of our own personal
and collective denial, doubt and fear. It exists only as long as we exist in our
present existentially schizoid condition. Though we may each become the
adversary's
plaything we can, at any
time, release ourselves from our bondage. The Shadow is our servant and not
the other way around. Fear only destroys its host. The Beast does not roar, he
laughs. The place of conjunction and of re-begettal
by the Sun-god, when Osiris entered the moon and she became the Woman clothed
in the sun - Gerald Massey Perhaps it is a truism that we each have
to first experience utter disconnection from
ourselves and from our dreams before we can appreciate the gift of life. As Martin
Heidegger pointed out, the word think comes from the same root as thank.
But are our thoughts acts of gratitude? Do we always need calamity before we
covet peace and respite? The German poet Holderlin seemed to believe so when he wrote: Where danger is, there arises
salvation also. The conjunction of our higher and lower selves is, however,
inevitable. Nature leaves us with no alternative. The only variables
are whether our participation is conscious or not, chosen or not and on this side of the grave or
not. In the Justice
card and the Devil card (some decks) we see the Martian sword. This is what is being
"judged" in both. It is what has caused our problems. It is the Martian drive for
perfection in a universe that is already perfect and the Mercurial
discursive intellection which attempts to atomize and comprehend what is
implicit and simple to the heart. The astronautical image of man - and it is
nothing but the quintessence of urban-industrial society’s pursuit of the wholly
controlled, wholly artificial environment - amounts to a spiritual revolution.
This is man as he has never lived before; it draws the line through human
history that almost assumes the dimensions of an evolutionary turning point. So
it has been identified by Teilhard de Chardin, who has given us the concept of
the “noosphere,” a level of existence that is to be permanently dominated by
human intellect and planning, and which our species must now adapt if it is to
fulfill its destiny - Theodore Roszak (The Voice of the Earth) …thinking which does not start from and continue
in close relation to its foundations in the physical universe must lead to
falsity - Alvin Boyd Kuhn Our ambiguous Chymical
Wedding
is neither convened nor consummated in the light, whether it be of the physical
or psychic kind. It is beyond the auspices of the ego and persona. This is the
reason why this silent glowering Hierophant, who presides over the Mysterium
Conjunctionis, holds the solar torch downwards. His task is to extinguish the
meteoric light of the conscious mind. He is not interested in our fleeting
ambitions and competitive ardors. With our fragile flame gone we are actually
liberated from the shadows and chimeras of our lower selves. Though, for a
while we may not see deeper than our fear we gradually realize that, as our
ephemeral light was extinguished,
so was he, the very Shadow we ourselves cast and fear so intensely. When God is gone so is the Devil. One is
just the reflection of the other in the distorted mirror of the human mind. With
new intelligence we discover that shadow has no substance except by way of the
light that creates it. The word devil is the mirror image of lived.
When we do not live authentically, the Devil takes birth. At the obsidian door of the Beast, religion and reason are not welcome. There
are no gods or angels in his infernal chamber, only men and women unchaining themselves from
slavery to their desires of non-existent heavens and fears of non-existent
hells, from their emotional slavery to gods, and other humans that are taken for
betters, placed on pedestals and venerated at the cost of selfhood. The dual
figures seen in this card, with loosening chains around them, are those about to
be freed from their attachments to everything that constitutes a divorce from
consummate Selfhood. They represent the sexes, male and female, and both stand naked
quietly looking toward us (Rider-Waite). This indicates that they are
us. They have their backs to the looming figure of the Beast, which means that
they are not in fear of him. They are trying to communicate their message to the
holder of Arcanum Fifteen. In the past they have
been morbidly attached to each other and, as a result, lost touch with their
inherent constitutional sovereignty. Their chains were those of
self-estrangement and the forgetfulness of self. As these chains are removed,
the pair experience another divorce, but this time from their mutual emptiness.
They are divorced from dependence but wedded to themselves. After such a
wedding, they each discover that nothing is required from the other, nor is
anything expected, for in freeing themselves they have freed the other also.
Now, nothing is given which is not inherent, and nothing exchanged which results
in lack. From now on, giving will never entail impoverishment, either materially
or emotionally. One does not look at the other to escape looking within. One
does not live with the other to avoid their own sense of life. One does not
impose the chains of mental or emotional projections upon the other whom they
are meant to love, because the difference between Archetypes and Stereotypes is
now utterly understood. Each of them proves their love by being vigilant for
themselves and for the other, each making sure that their souls are not plunged
again into darkness and confusion through misplaced altruism or unrealistic
expectation. He will not be dependent upon her, and she will not be
dependent upon him. And, more importantly, neither will secretly attempt to
make the other dependent. With these dual tyrannies overcome, and with their "dark secret love"
finally exorcized, the pair can know true love. Like
the spliced apple, their scission was ultimately necessary in order for the
seeds of independence and empowerment, within their core, to be brought forth and
planted in the ground made fertile by their once valued, but now obsolete, personas. Man made prisoner by the
love of a woman and woman made prisoner by the love of a man are equally unfit
for freedom's precious crown - Mikhail Naimy (Book of Mirdad)
Freed from the
tyranny of the emotions, from the assumed and consuming roles, our pair can each return
to their center, allowing no foreign entity, human or spiritual, to inhabit and
dominate their being. (This state is implied by their physical nakedness). Their once greatest adversary, Saturn, has taught them the meaning and value of time and
of life. Upon leaving his domain they are no longer life-absent, but are wholly present in the "now." Through
his teaching they have become teachers. They remain their own first students,
however, and learn their lessons afresh each day. They are in the light
and also of it. And they are of the darkness too, for as Blake reminded
us, such opposites are woven fine, making a cloth for the divine. With their
seeds planted, our pair
can each grow straight and strong toward the heavens. Their emotional and
spiritual "roots" are no longer tangled up in each other but are where all
healthy roots should be; deep in the earth; deep in the Mother of all things.
Come to the center of the earth and there you will find the Philosopher's Stone
- Alchemical Motto My adepts stand upright, their
heads above the heavens, their feet below the hells - Aleister Crowley (Liber XC) When our own personal
"Underworld Cycles" are complete, and after our paltry mental lights are dowsed in
the dark sea of understanding, we are able to comprehend the exact metaphysical and
qualitative difference between light and dark, or black and white. The
conundrum of this difference is one of the supreme mysteries of existence, one
which is met with in many divergent areas and spheres of experience. It is the reason for our presence on the great
chessboard of life. When it is solved, it is dissolved. The king is
toppled and the pawns are free, finally released from the Game. It is important for
high initiation to regard light not as the perfect manifestation of the Eternal
Spirit, but rather as the veil which hides that spirit - Aleister Crowley Darkness is the root of all light, light is
matter, darkness pure spirit. Darkness metaphysically is absolute light. Light
is merely a mass of shadows as it can never be eternal and is simply an
illusion or Maya - Madame Helena Blavatsky Truly it is in the
darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow then the light is
nearest of all to us - Meister Johannes Eckhart Mystery and
imagination arise from the same source. This source is called
darkness…Darkness within darkness, the gateway to all understanding – Lao
Tzu In today's world we are
intoxicated with the machinery of light and with our Apollonian constructs. This
is the age where the Beast is, therefore, ever at the door. He comes to
reinstate balance, for he is the agent of the Natural Order which is feminine
in contradistinction to our aggressive, conquestative, masculine polarity. Carl Jung proved that
the so-called Shadow is actually the ambassador for the Anima (Soul). (The latter is the
"Beauty," the former the "Beast"). The ancients knew that Thoth and
Hermes, Anubis and Set, etc., (the male gods), like the Pharaoh himself, were merely agents of Ma'at - Goddess of Balance. She
presides over the whole of generation into natural existence, leads forth into
light all natural reasons, and extends a prolific power from on high even to the
subterranean realms - Plato (Timaeus) Let us remember that
the first wife of Adam was not Eve but Lilith, the Queen of
Underworld. The first female
card in the Major Arcana is the sultry Priestess (the Dark Moon). Let us learn
that when we live out of
balance with ourselves and nature we drive away and banish our original
"mother" and consort. And though we have gone to great lengths to
convince ourselves otherwise, the fact is that the treasures of this world, together with the
scintillating vision of paradise, conjured by a million priests, potentates
and their mesmerized believers, cannot fill the void she leaves. Sitting at the
right hand of a god for a aeon will not compare to one second in the presence of
an Eve, a Nuith, a Lilith, a Rhiannon, a Persephone, an Isis or a Sophia. As Michelangelo so beautifully showed us,
in his pieta, it is to her arms that the Sons of God descend,
after their inevitable dark night of the soul, their scourging and crucifixion.
Subtitle: The devil is god reversed,
from Helena Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine. Later adopted by Irish poet
W. B. Yeats, as his motto, upon his initiation into the Hermetic Order of the
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