Once a month, I host a Tarot Salon, where readers of all levels of experience gather to share thoughts, ideas, concerns, and readings. Often, during meeting, a card will show up in a reading that elicits groans from the readers around the table, while at the same time you’ll hear me exclaim, “oh, I LOVE that card!”. I’ve been accused of loving all the cards, and I have to admit that’s true. (Like a parent with more than one child, I love all the cards equally, but differently.) Today, I’d like to talk about one of those cards I feel a special affinity for, one that I believe is often misunderstood, The Devil.
Traditionally, this card represents all that society holds as evil and base and unspoken; it’s about fears and superstitions and taboos. We see in the card graphic two people in chains standing before The Devil, held in bondage as The Devil himself sits above them. We see The Devil card and it scares us, being bound and chained in such a way. Yet, look more closely, and you’ll see that the chains around the necks of the couple in front of The Devil are loose enough to be easily removed. It is only their own fears of those so-called base instincts that keep them bound.
The Devil exists only in our minds, and only insofar as we have chosen to call it bad. We seem to be so busy trying to be “spiritual” beings that we’ve forgotten we are here to experience life as human beings, and in so doing we demonize our human side, our passionate, lustful, yearning, and yes, sometimes overindulgent side. In fact, I believe that much of what society tells us is “bad” is simply a big, bold, passionate indulgence for life!
I see The Devil as encouraging us to live life to the fullest, to live with passion and lust and to allow ourselves the pleasures of great food, great sex, great adventures, great everything. And while we need to live with consciousness, to notice where we fall into self-destructive, addictive, obsessive behaviors or patterns, we must embrace our shadow/devil in order to be fully whole.
If The Devil brings up fear in you, look to see where you fear your human side. Where do you fear the passions of life? Where are you holding back, not fully reveling in the joys of life? Where are you not letting life be messy and chaotic and spontaneous and noisy and full and big and wild? Or, perhaps, where are you overindulging to the point of no longer finding joy in your passions , but escape?
I love this card. Most parents won’t admit it, but there’s always that favorite child. The Devil is one of my favorites.
“One declaims endlessly against the passions; one imputes all of man’s suffering to them. One forgets that they are also the source of all his pleasures.” – Denis Diderot (French philosopher, art critic and writer)