I think the Tarot class happening now is the best class I’ve ever run.
But it’s not just me. It’s the company I’m keeping in there. Deep thinkers.
This morning I left the house early for breakfast and an errand and wished I’d had my cards with me. Didn’t want to be apart from them. Maybe they’d have a message. Maybe not. I’m not one to ask the Tarot what to eat for breakfast but…
So tomorrow begins our third week and we’ll cover the Major Arcana 🙂 and I need to bring them the Tree of Life spread, which was my teacher’s favorite. Week number four will be informal, for question and answer, no new material introduced other than our theories, ideas, interpretations, discoveries, creativities. We’ll probably continue with our Daily Draws.
I drew THE DEVIL today. How fitting. This is what I wrote in the Card Room:
“Compulsion. Powerlessness. Addiction (even to negative thinking). Not willing to let go that which is destroying you.Â
The Devil is NOT a card of power. I want to emphasize that. It is a card of ENTHRALLMENT.Â
Tarot writers emphasize that the people in the card (in the Rider Waite or traditional versions) can take off their chains. Not sure I believe that.Â
How easy is it for a prisoner, a slave, to take off their chains? The Devil is a card of SLAVERY. You have no choice when you see the Devil card.Â
So what’s the advice?? Â “Back off” — is the phrase that comes to mind.
When you see the Devil card, back off. Because you are “pushing too hard” (in the words of the Seeds) 🙂
I know this card is associated with Capricorn but for me this card is all Pluto. But Pluto without the eventual painful worthwhile inevitable transformation. This energy doesn’t transform. You don’t make magic from it. You don’t come back from the underworld with your arms full of lotus flower.
Instead, what you do is… nothing. Other than back off. See the difference? The Devil is not going to become the Empress or the Star or even the Lovers. But life happens, every day is different, and tomorrow you may not draw the Devil. You can’t eliminate the Devil. You can only shift your focus, live your life, and maybe tomorrow you’ll wake up free.
Love, MP
One thought on “On Seeing The Devil”
That word ENTHRALLMENT is very fascinating for this card- very appropriate. Either meaning winds up the same- depending on the lens is how you’d see it, but it’s the same! And no matter what- it’s not going to wind up being “good for you”.
I actually never associated slavery with this word before. Interesting. And perhaps a good window to look thru the next time that word DOES come to mind. The future result MIGHT NOT ROCK….
Every time I’m on the phone with one of my friends, he reads me, whether or not he admits it- I hear the cards snapping down on his bed and he’s totally not trying to talk over me for a few minutes.
🙂
He told me a few weeks ago he can’t get over the fact that the Devil doesn’t ever come into the picture on my readings. I usually get mostly Trump cards- but not that one.
I was taught the people in the scene CAN take the chains off if they WANTED to.
For me, I understand what can of worms I’d have to be opening for it to pop up.
When he DOES start making common appearances in my readings- I KNOW BETTER. Whatever “it” is. ( Maybe God will hide his eyes…. )
I think HE sees things in my situation coming from his Libra emotional “being in love with love” shades, and I can’t even fathom it. Which means he doesn’t really fathom what I AM SAYING. But it tells me something about how HE gets stuck from time to time I bet.
I’m looking at chains from a financial set of shades- so in a way I wouldn’t expect this card to present itself in a reading for me right now- and OH YES I’ve pulled it. But not for a long long time.
Logically I agree, this card isn’t going to magically “morph” into some thing / body worth having.
Good to read this post. It gave me a perspective I didn’t have on a few conversations recently. As well as a few conversations I HAVEN’T had recently….
>^:^<