Sun Signs Everything Under The Sun!
The Tarot card for the month is the Devil
I have found when this card comes up in a reading I often know exactly what it means. It can often open the floodgates of tears and as a reader, I have had to just bear witness to the dark places people find themselves. The devil thrives in darkness and sunlight is the best disinfectant. Allowing someone to accept what has happened to them, and sharing the feelings of despair and helplessness, in my experience is all that is needed in some readings. The Tarot card the Devil is the God of Debt, and some would call him the great God of Profit, ruler of all our 21st-century institutions.
Finding yourself being controlled by your debts; feeling helpless and enslaved, fearing the future; doubting your capabilities? Or totally in denial, choosing to stay in the dark? How did this happen, overindulgence in sensual pleasures, an overemphasis on the physical, and material? This means there is an imbalance, and your creative, spiritual, and emotional life is being ignored.
The word Devil comes from Greek: diábolos meaning slanderer or accuser.
This card lets you know that you are caught in an unhealthy, situation, obsessed with power, money, or a relationship. The idea of sin originally meant you had ‘missed the mark’ and made an error.
What happens when the Devil turns up as the advice card? Does it suggest you take a walk on the wild side? In her book ‘The Renaissance Tarot’ Jane Lyle presents her Devil card as a Green Man, a fertility icon with links to the ancient Gods of nature, Pan and Dionysus. She has chosen to dispense with Christian imagery altogether and depict the 15th Trump in his original, pagan form as an unruly, vibrant spirit of the natural world, a potent earth spirit.
This card represents the tangible world of our 5 senses that are neither subjective nor objective. The advice would be to learn to be in the material world but not consumed by it.
Tarot card the Devil
The Devil in a nutshell
Zoroaster a Persian philosopher who died in 583 BCE had the potent idea about dualistic forces that capture the human imagination, the universe is a battlefield between the gods of good and evil and we must take sides. He named these forces, Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, and under the rule of Persian King Darius the Great these ideas spread.
When Alexander the Great conquered Persia and spread Greek culture, Hades who wields a 2 pronged sword and who lived in the underworld, where great wealth is stored, came to personify the devil: and he can make you rich? Hades wasn’t nice but was not evil, he judged the passed-over souls.
The God Pan
The God Pan who presided over music, and happiness – was one of the most popular of the Roman gods who were demonized by the Roman Catholic Church, some of his attributes were assigned to the ‘Devil’, as often happens when a culture colonizes the minds of the conquerors themselves.
In the 13th Century, the Cathars were already protesting against what they perceived to be the moral, spiritual, and political corruption of the Church. Like the Gnostics who preceded them, they had a strong belief in good and evil and believed all material goods belong to the devil.
Tarot card the Devil
Daemonologie
Daemonologie was written and published in 1599 by King James VI of Scotland (later also James I of England). This book endorses the practice of witch-hunting and protecting his subjects from being ruled by the devil. The devil traveled to the new world with the Puritans who believed if you are having fun, the devil is filling your glass. Terrible things were done to people who were charged with demonic acts.
By 18th-century modernism ended these witch-hunts, however, the devil lived on in folk tales. The devil now is a handsome gentleman and is rich, and powerful. He will trade you great wealth for your soul, making you rich. The devil is intent on winning souls. Faust’s bargain with the devil ends badly for him when the devil calls in his debt.
Satan becomes a brave and handsome rebel in the age of romanticism. William Blake depicts him as a spirit for change; alternative thought is to play the devil’s advocate.
Exploiting the Devil
In the early 20th century the Devil became a figure of fun. People used it to sell chocolate, beer, and many other consumer items. He is neither better nor worse than the people he deals with. He makes a comeback in the
In the 1960s with the emergence of counter culture – Anton Lavey believed greed and lust are man’s natural state, Satan the rebel. The 1967 Roman Polanski movie Rosemary’s Baby brings the Prince of Darkness back into the public eye when the Devil wins the baby’s soul. The Exorcist follows in 1973, where the agents of the church triumph over evil.
Hollywood discovers one can make fortunes by exploiting the Devil. This some say led to the 1980s satanic panic, satanic ritual abuse rekindles the dormant devil fear. Hysteria is spread by telecommunication.
Half of all Americans believe the Devil is real, fuelled by the Sept 11 attacks, George W. Bush tells the world evil is real and one must oppose it. People say Osama Bin Laden is in league with the devil. ‘You are either with us or against us’, which is classic ancient dualistic thinking. Lt. General William G. Boykin is quoted, as saying the enemy of the USA is Satan. The ‘war on terror’ = fighting agents of pure evil.
Heretics and The Devil
People treat this so-called enemy in a similar way to the treatment of heretics. 400 years earlier, all their human rights were denied. Another US marine Lt Colonel Gareth Brandl goes on record – ‘the enemy is Satan’. This thinking gives the US Army permission to do terrible things. These include pillage, torture, and murder, mimicking the military campaigns sanctioned by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages.
Traditionally the Devil stands for evil. I believe bigoted religious thinking and all fundamental religions that persecute anyone who doesn’t think like them are the real evils in the 21st Century.
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