Deconstructing The Devil
In Part I of this series of blogs, we looked at the times, which are a changin', and have been, astrologically, for the past two hundred years or so. In subsequent articles in this series I'm going to try to explain some of the esoteric, or mystical concepts behind the religious figures we all know, always under-laying those concepts with what we know of the real world through rational thought, psychology and science.
The Tarot key The Devil is probably the most frightening and off-putting of the major arcana of tarot after the Death card/key, but like that picture, the message it conveys is fundamental to understanding the whole realm of mysticism. Without it, you might as well pack up and go home to surface interpretations of all the religious doctrines. The keys to understanding what it means are to look at where it is placed on the Tree Of Life, and also at the Hebrew letter assigned to it. The 22 tarot keys are each assigned a letter of the alphabet, with which the Creator is said to have designed the universe. Each letter means something, which we will see when we look at the other cards/keys.
The letter assigned to the 15th tarot key is Ayin, which means "eye, as organ of vision". The image of The Devil is made up of all sorts of animals - a donkey, a bat, an eagle; it is an impossible combination derived purely by our intellects. You can in fact see the astrological symbol for the intellect, Mercury, above The Devil's navel. And on the Tree Of Life, this key goes on the path leading from Hod, the orange sphere associated with the intellect, to Tiphareth or Beauty, the Christ consciousness. This tells us that the intellect is not "bad" - it is in fact just as necessary as our more emotional side, symbolized by the paths coming from the green sphere. It's just that the intellect can be fooled by appearances, indicated by the two figures chained to a half-cube in the front of the picture. The whole picture is a parody of The Lovers tarot key, which shows our self-conscious and sub-conscious mind in complete harmony with the larger source and with each other.
The reason we get fooled is that our senses have evolved to give us the most practical way of adapting to our environment as human beings. Our eyes, ears, noses, skin and sense of touch only detect certain wavelengths of light and other vibration - not the whole spectrum. This is the limitation of Saturn - the planet of practical reality and the female part of God. There is nothing evil to this if we recognize what's going on, but the problem starts if we think that our sense-bound interpretation of life is all there is. That's why the devil is putting up his hand - which has the symbol for Saturn on it - as if to say "this is all there is". The Devil is a liar - he is the tempter, the serpent in the Garden Of Eden and we are all born into this consciousness of original sin, or not being able to see through the illusion of separateness. In Indian philosophy this illusion of separateness is called Maya, and in Christianity the Devil is known as "legion". The upside down pentagram on the devil's head signifies that in this illusion, we put spirit at the bottom of the other four elements, fire, air, water and earth, rather than the right way round with the point at the top - a symbol of man built in the image of God.
Humans used to think that the Sun went around the earth, because they couldn't see the big picture. Even today we are taken in by optical illusions, because our eyes are not able to distinguish what they see from the whole picture. Saturn's rulership of this key, and the Zodiac sign it rules, Capricorn, tells us that we have to work to overcome these illusions, and one way of working with the Saturn principle is through the scientific method. Humans have overcome so much limitation, for example, the cold weather of winter - Capricorn season in the Northern Hemisphere - by using the laws of nature to provide housing, heat, light, indoor plumbing, transportation etc. The material world we live in has been shaped by our intellects manipulating the laws of nature to our advantage.
But the biggest limitation caused by the intellect, psychologically speaking, is this thing called the Ego. The word needs some disambiguation, because in some schools of spirituality, the ego actually refers to the Christ consciousness. More negatively though, the ego means that part of our mind which is cut off from our true self, sometimes thinking that it is better than other people, as in "ego tripping". It is this ego which causes so much havoc with psychological health - depression, low self-esteem on the one hand, or self aggrandizement and arrogance on the other. The contemporary spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle has been so good at helping people in the West recognize this side of ourselves, leading us to pursuit of the eternal Now.
In Hebrew, each letter of the alphabet has a numerical value, and what kabbalists do in their spare time is add up these letter values and then compare the totals to other words. Well one interesting word which has the same value as Ayin is the word for "mirth" or laughter. And another is the word for a fountain, as in a welcome source of water amidst a burning desert. These ancient mystics were very clever. Put it all together and we can see that one way to get out of the illusion of separateness is through laughter. England, whose birth is generally accepted to be on Christmas Day 1066, with the crowning of William I, has a Capricorn Sun, and this is the Zodiac sign associated with The Devil. Now we know why British people love to mock themselves with laughter.
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