XV - The Devil (RWS)

[Joan Marie]

Before I get to this card I want to begin with some of the mythology surrounding the Devil. This character has been portrayed in every imaginable form. Horrible, scary, charming, intelligent, dangerous, hideous, beautiful, repulsive, alluring, male, female, animal, a friend an enemy. The Devil also has many names.

Many of us learned, as I did in Catholic School, that he was a "fallen angel", that he had been kicked out of Heaven. But they never told us what for. I also always wondered how he got into heaven in the first place. (Was heaven like Catholic School, you get along fine as long as you obey the nuns? This did not portend well for my extended stay either at Hotel Pearly Gates. )

Later I read, and now I don't recall where, that he was an angel who had been put in charge of the morning light and he took so much joy in this that he painted the sky with all sorts of beautiful colours and that this was his offence, making the dawn his own, having the temerity to improve on God's work. This is a very sympathetic view of him that extended then into the Devil having a greater understanding of human needs and desires than the god(s) did. The Devil was a friend of man. He appealed to human whimsy and joy in creation.

This image stands in sharp contrast to the evil destroyer of men's souls we see depicted most of the time. Across the vast spectrum of Tarot decks we see a whole array of portrayals of the fallen one.

So now lets have a look at what Pixie wrought for us in this deck:

XV- The Devil

Okay, it looks likes she's leaning toward the evil end of the spectrum but let's see what Waite has to say.

I have to admit this is one of his more confounding entries.
He says the devil is "standing on an alter." I see him perched on a cube, but I guess that's not really important.
He says he has "the sign of Mercury at the pit of his stomach" Hard as I try, I do not see that at all. if anyone could point that out I'd be grateful.
He say the Devil's right hand is upraised and extended", in the reverse of the Hierophant.

Opposite of the Devil? Really?

The card he meant?

Again, I don't follow but let's keep moving.

He then goes on to say the ring on the front of the "alter" that connects by chain "2 figures, male and female. These are analogous to those of the 5th* card, as in Adam and Eve after the fall." The asterisk corresponds to an editors note that says the 6th card (Lovers) was probably what Waite intended. O-kay.

He then goes on to trash a fellow occultist, Eliphas Levi as a philistine, accusing him of "more than his usual derision for the arts which he pretended to respect and interpret as a master therein".... MEOW!

Then at the end I think he leans toward a more sympathetic view of the Devil as the only friend these two had when they got kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Which is how it is sometimes as anyone who's ever had to sleep on someone's musty sofa out of necessity can attest.

I'm going to leave all that for a minute, (I welcome all your comments on it) and move to my interpretation.

To me this Devil here looks a dullard, a simpleton, someone who desires the company of the beautiful and interesting and tempts them his way with the things that Devils have to offer. The two people are chained but don't seem particularly stressed about it. They are choosing to be there, slumming so to speak, taking up company with the Devil in a mutual (but not particularly forthright) relationship of some kind of exchange. They are playing with fire.

The real danger here for "Adam & Eve" is falling for the Devil's unimaginative games, mistaking them for adventures and going against their own natures, becoming inauthentic or worse, shadows of who they once were. If they stay too long, the Devil will steal their beauty, their spirit, their magic.

This card has many parallels of design and symbolism with VI - The Lovers and V-The Hierophant.

Would love to know your thoughts.

[Tomatosauce]

I've always thought of this card as a funhouse-mirror inversion of The Lovers, where instead of a love that blesses and frees, it's a need or a dependence that enslaves.

I haven't spent much time at all thinking of it in relation to the Hierophant, though of course now that I look at them together, the association is so clear. Even the chains around the necks of the male and female figure recall the chasubles worn by the figures facing the Hierophant. While the Hierophant's acolytes are bound by knowledge (the keys), the Devil's are bound by iron.

[CharlotteK]

The Devil's arm positions are much more similar to the Magician than a reverse of the Hierophant I think.

And if he is so dismissive of Eli why has he used his image of Baphomet?

The eyes remind me a little of a Japanese Hannya mask.

[Joan Marie]

And if he is so dismissive of Eli why has he used his image of Baphomet?

Here is the full sentence, and I admit I don't quite get what Waite is saying exactly:

With more than his usual derision for the arts which he pretended to respect and interpret as a master therein, Eliphas Levi affirms that the Baphometic is occult science and magic.

[CharlotteK]

I'm not sure that even makes grammatical sense

"The Baphometic" - assume this must be any image / item / ritual etc relating to Baphomet worship. And in confirming a thing of this nature is occult magic, Levi is showing even greater derision for the arts than usual , in Waite's view.

Is he saying therefore that he does not see 'The Baphometic" as occult because he values the arts? Or is it more that being Baphometic is incompatible with being a master of arts? That to follow Baphomet in an occult sense is to deride the arts? Perhaps it's a comment on the nature of the devil / Baphomet and that indulging in dualism is base whereas appreciation of the arts is elevated.

That's all probably just a brainfart. But what is interesting is how Waite has subverted Levi's imagery. The torch points down instead up upwards. The pentagram has been turned upside down. Waite seems to see Baphomet in a rather less positive aspect than Levi?

[CharlotteK]

Oh this is interesting. My rambling wasn't so far off the mark...

https://hermetic.com/osiris/levibaphomet

[Joan Marie]

First, I have to hand it to you Charlotte for trying to parse that sentence.

This article is really interesting. But I am still confused as to what Waite's insult really meant.

The very last sentence of the article says:

As we have seen, Levi’s image of Baphomet is not a representation of the Christian Devil but a symbol of the astral light, the dual current of occult force behind all magical work. This force may be employed for either good or evil ends, but is neither good nor evil in itself. Perhaps if Mr. Waite had understood this important point, he wouldn’t have demonized the Baphomet image in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck.

I agree that it seems Waite saw Baphomet in a far less favorable light than Levi, but it really begs the question, then why was that image used? Was that Pamela Coleman Smith's doing or how much did Waite influence her design?

I feel like we've jumped down a very strange rabbit hole here. This is getting curiouser and curiouser...

[Joan Marie]

Sacred Texts has the Waite book online so I can paste in the complete text of his description of the Devil card:

The design is an accommodation, mean or harmony, between several motives mentioned in the first part. The Horned Goat of Mendes, with wings like those of a bat, is standing on an altar. At the pit of the stomach there is the sign of Mercury. The right hand is upraised and extended, being the reverse of that benediction which is given by the Hierophant in the fifth card. In the left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted towards the earth. A reversed pentagram is on the forehead. There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are carried to the necks of two figures, male and female. These are analogous with those of the fifth card, as if Adam and Eve after the Fall. Hereof is the chain and fatality of the material life.

The figures are tailed, to signify the animal nature, but there is human intelligence in the faces, and he who is exalted above them is not to be their master for ever. Even now, he is also a bondsman, sustained by the evil that is in him and blind to the liberty of service. With more than his usual derision for the arts which he pretended to respect and interpret as a master therein, Éliphas Lévi affirms that the Baphometic figure is occult science and magic. Another commentator says that in the Divine world it signifies predestination, but there is no correspondence in that world with the things which below are of the brute. What it does signify is the Dweller on the Threshold without the Mystical Garden when those are driven forth therefrom who have eaten the forbidden fruit.

and again, in my printed book, there is an asterisk where he mentions "the fifth card" and says he must have meant the sixth (Lovers)

And here is Levi's illustration of Baphomet next to he RWS Devil card

[Nemia]

Pretty close to Christian iconography - Giotto for example.

Somehow, hell, demons and devils always look more interesting than heaven and saints

[Joan Marie]

What is odd to me is that with all the myriad of images available to take inspiration from, and as Nemia kind of points out, they look fun to draw, why would Waite choose to basically purloin and then co-opt Levi's Baphomet to use for his Devil?

Maybe that's something we can't know. It would be interesting in regard to the intended meaning of the Devil card unless it was just a personal occult-y attack intended to degrade Levi's work, to strip it of his intended meaning. Still it seems an odd choice but after all we are talking about a demonic image so I guess anything is possible.

But this is an example, I think, of where the Waite book falls short of being super-helpful to readers of Tarot. His description of this card is pretty hard to follow and it's in my native language. It sounds like how write when I've been drinking.

What is interesting to look at is this card's relation to the Hierophant and the Lovers cards. They are so structurally similar that there may be clues to the meaning of Devil when considered from this perspective.

[BlueStar]

I don't have the RW deck, but what struck me from the image is that it doesn't look scary or ominous: The devil looks a bit silly and unhappy, not something to be feared or worried about. The two figures by contrast look quite content, almost as though they are content to be there. I see the man as though he's having a casual conversation. Levi's picture however looks far more dark and scary.

I'm wondering if Waite's rendering is deliberate in order to convey how people can sometimes not see the straits they are in, or how trapped they are by whatever it is that's chaining and oppressing them in life etc. We can be blind to the devil so to speak, whether deliberately or not. Do the couple realize they are 'under the Devil'? Perhaps they don't want to look up? Perhaps they are happy in their perspective, too afraid to see the reality? If they feel the chains maybe they don't care, or are just not feeling them round their neck.

Food for thought compared to the portrayal in other decks.

[CharlotteK]

On the structural similarities... The Devil and Lovers are both cards of duality.

http://www.crystalinks.com/baphomet.html
"Often mistaken for Satan, it [Baphomet] represents the duality of male and female, as well as Heaven and Hell or night and day signified by the raising of one arm and the downward gesture of the other. It can be taken in fact, to represent any of the major harmonious dichotomies of the cosmos."

https://numerologysign.com/tarot/card-m ... na/lovers/
"Both Gemini and The Lovers Card symbolize duality: movement and stagnation, light and darkness, salvation and damnation teaching us to spiritually and emotionally reunite the different aspects of existence."

The Hierophant is a little more abstract in that conversely he on the face of it represents more unity - conformity, the status quo, "the way we do things round here".

We could I guess see him as a mirror image of the Devil.

But perhaps there is a kind of duality to it also - accepting the rules because we truly believe in the purpose, or alternatively going along with them because it is what is expected of us. We can see Hierophant as representing all that is 'wrong' with organised religion including oppression, or as symbolizing faith and community and all that is positive about shared spiritual beliefs.

[chiscotheque]

When Waite talks of the sign of Mercury on the Devil's stomach, he's referring to the Levi Devil, with its caduceus. Is Waite talking about Levi's Devil in your quote above, Joan Marie, or is he referring to what he had in mind for the Devil and/or early sketches, which were later changed by Smith? whatever it may be, i think it a good working rule to keep Waite's comments at arm's length, if not outrightly left out of any meaningful discussion. (his hobbling comments aside, being a Christian i believe Waite was pulled into a Manichean way of thinking, and was actually afraid of the Devil card. aligning himself with "the Good", he ruined the Sun card with his Christian nonsense, aligned himself with god's wrath on the Tower card [the "W" bolt of lightning] and even had the nerve to inscribe a W on the Hierophant's mitre).

the upside-down torch Satan holds has many allusions symbolically. the Victorians sometimes used it on their gravestones, to indicate Christ and Life's eternal flame and the idea of resurrection. in the Renaissance, it appeared as an allegory for an energy burning itself out, such as lust; Shakespeare, for instance, used it numerous times. Satan, as Joan Marie pointed out, was the Morning Star, and his epithet is "Light Bearer". how can the devil be the prince of darkness and at the same time the light bearer? to quote Leonard Cohen: "There is a crack in everything - that's how the light gets in".

sometimes the upside-down torch has flames which twine upwards around the shaft like a serpent around a tree, or the caduceus. as it happens, this image echoes the structure of the human DNA, and is linked to the medical arts. it can also be connected to the Kundalini - the snake of awareness ascending the chakras in yogic tradition. on the Lovers' card, Adam has behind him a kind of tree of fire; on the Devil card, what appears to be his tail is on fire. Eve also has what looks like a tail, and both echo the chains which tie them to Satan's block. Adam & Eve's animal nature - symbolized by their tails - have been erased by Satan and the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil [seen behind Eve on the Lovers card]. Just as humanity shed its tails, evolutionarily, humanity became woke to its own consciousness, which elevated mankind to a status between nature and god. this, in essence, is the story of the Fall, which echoes Lucifer's Fall from heaven.

the implied danger here is that Man will mistake the power of his agency over nature as equal or even better than god's; that he will place himself in the place of god, and giving in to every whim of his ego, will indeed be in essence worshipping nothingness, "missing the mark", spiralling endlessly and producing nothing but confusion and pain [cue the Tower card]. this is where the Hierophant can intercede and, as man, represent god, and maintain the ship on course. of course, this power - like all power - can corrupt. the Hierophant can fall victim to all the egotism and delusion of a Lucifer. the adoration we see in the acolytes at his foot may go to his head - note, he faces them and us similar to the Devil in the Devil card. in orthodox Christianity, the priest faces not the crowd but the alter, in deference along with the laity to god.

i would note that Smith's Devil is quite inarticulately rendered. i would say she either had no real skill or interest in depicting such a character, or she intentionally denied him any of the really ugly or threatening attributes the Devil often has - in effect, turning him into a puppet, and disarming him. whether intended or not, this throws motive and accountability onto the Adam & Eve figures, viz. Humanity.

[Joan Marie]

When Waite talks of the sign of Mercury on the Devil's stomach, he's referring to the Levi Devil, with its caduceus. Is Waite talking about Levi's Devil in your quote above, Joan Marie, or is he referring to what he had in mind for the Devil and/or early sketches, which were later changed by Smith?

The quote was directly from the Pictorial Key to the Tarot so it should be a description of the actual card from the deck and not of Levi's illustration.

Seems odd that he'd be describing an image that wasn't the card since the book is intended for use with the deck, however that does seem to be what he's doing.

I'm starting to grow more fond of Waite's book for the fact that it raises far more questions than it answers about the deck if you are willing to not take it at face value and consider the nature of occult studies often is a kind of mind-game in the service of weeding out dilettantes and simpletons and the generally incurious.

By confusing us they force us, who are willing, to think harder and for ourselves and to seek out answers from the carefully placed clues. It's a treasure hunt of sorts.

[chiscotheque]

i have heard this said about Waite's book - it's so clearly lacking in depth and is outrightly wrong about its own card symbology [that description of Levi's Devil rather than his own is something that occurs elsewhere in the book] - that it must be intentionally obscurant; what has been called the Socratic method of instruction: leaving certain things unsaid so that the seeker figures it out for himself, rather than just revealing everything for the seeker to memorize by rote. the whole subject of writing in this manner, and writing in general before the 19th Century [certainly before the Enlightenment] where arguably this mode of concealed meaning and intentional misdirection was commonly employed, is a very interesting topic. it's so antithetical to our day and age, where people want "just the facts" and info NOW and are drowning in data. the idea that meaning is intentionally veiled actually angers many people - in our democratic age, it comes across as elitist. nevertheless, it was a technique frequently employed - an interesting recent book on the issue is Arthur M. Melzer's Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing.
all that said, i'm not sure if Waite was employing this kind of pedagogical device or if he was going somewhat senile or if he was just something of an arrogant knob. whichever it may be, one thing is clear - to take Waite simply at his word and leave it at that is completely wrong.
one thing i would like to bring up about the Devil card is its position in the Major Arcana. the Devil card represents stagnation - a deadlock, obstruction, a spiritual cesspool. an impasse has been reached in the Devil card, which only the following card - The Tower - can solve. if the impasse is not solved - broken through - the Devil card circles back to the Death card. Temperance acts as a modifier between Death and the Devil, which - as well-intentioned and a good rule of thumb as Temperance might be - only serves to keep one stymied, shuffling between the Devil & Death. the shadow of the Temperance card is that sometimes extremes are needed! sometimes everything being "balanced" is a kind of wishful bourgeois falsehood. some disciplines see The Devil associated with Taurus, which aligns him zodiacally with the Hierophant. Taurus' polarity is Scorpio, tying it to the Death card [traditionally assigned to Scorpio]. Neither death nor Scorpio have their final say in the Death card - unique in the zodiac, Scorpio has 3 levels: the base crustacean, the eagle, and the Phoenix. these 3 levels relate to the triangular Death - Temperance - Devil trap. the fires of Hell suggest the burning out of which the Phoenix will rise, culminating in the Tower card, where the fire of lightning knocks the sole bird from its sole tree and enacts the miracle of resurrection - emancipation from the triangular trap, seen in the last phase of the Majors, cards 17 through 21.

[Charlie Brown]

The shadow of the Temperance card is that sometimes extremes are needed!

nice

[Amoroso]

Regarding this passage:

The right hand is upraised and extended, being the reverse of that benediction which is given by the Hierophant in the fifth card.

I think that the reverse that Waite is talking about is the extended part and not the upraised one, since both are clearly upraised.

The right hand of the Devil is fully extended:

sorga.jpg (41.85 KiB) Viewed 5877 times

While the Hierophant's is half-folded in benediction:

hatsga.jpg (30.5 KiB) Viewed 5877 times

But yeah, I can't see the Mercury symbol too.

Regarding the black altar that The Devil is perched on, it is what is called a double cube altar, which can be seen in some Golden Dawn shrines. One can read about it in page 151 of Israel Regardie's book, The Golden Dawn.

This page contains instructions on how to build one. Various sources like the one above and Donald Kraig recommend that it be painted black, just like in the card. More examples can be found here.

[chiscotheque]

what is the symbol on the Devil's extended hand? since Waite claims it is the opposite of the Hierophant's benediction, is it a curse? is it possibly not a symbol at all exactly, but an outline of the lines of the hands viz. Palmistry, indicating Fate rather than Free Choice?
the fingers look spread apart at the middle, made famous by Spock. It is a Jewish blessing, imitating the Hebrew letter SHIN, suggesting The Almighty. The Devil then is mocking God and the idea of a blessing, and/or implying he is God.

[chiscotheque]

it may be worth noting that The Devil card is the culmination of a trajectory of increasing bondage which essentially starts with the Fool. The Fool, at the outset of his quest, is about to step off the cliff and begin his Fall. As he descends, he accrues the fetters and ties that tether him to the world. Even after death, in the underworld, he is in chains. Only an act of God, or divine grace, or Ego-Death or Luck, or Critical Mass - The Tower - will cut this Gordian Knot.

[inomminate]

You may be right about drinking affecting the style. Waite was a very heavy drinker. He also didn't want to break masonic and other vows. So he sometimes was deliberately obscure.

The idea of relating the devil to the lovers is interesting. The early versions of the lovers were about
choosing between a virtuous and a loose woman. The card had little connection to lovers it was about a choice that needed to be made. Between good and evil?

inomminate

[uscss.Nostromo]

i would note that Smith's Devil is quite inarticulately rendered. i would say she either had no real skill or interest in depicting such a character, or she intentionally denied him any of the really ugly or threatening attributes the Devil often has - in effect, turning him into a puppet, and disarming him. whether intended or not, this throws motive and accountability onto the Adam & Eve figures, viz. Humanity.

I never liked "pixie's" style of art to begin with. I remember discussions about this on the Aeclectic forum.

I think she lacked proper guidance from Waite and was left to flounder. Many people have theorized this.
It would explain the disparity between her art and Waite's given meanings which are said to contradict each other.

Thank goodness ensuing generations of artists have been bold enough to move beyond the established RWS and veer off into hybridized decks, original conceptualizations or at the very least, RWS decks that feature the work of superior artists.

[Joan Marie]

It would explain the disparity between her art and Waite's given meanings which are said to contradict each other.

Did Pamela Coleman Smith ever record her interpretations of the cards anywhere?

[uscss.Nostromo]

Did Pamela Coleman Smith ever record her interpretations of the cards anywhere?

I am not a Tarot scholar and I never purchased the US Games book "Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story" which is supposed to reveal previously unknown details about her life's work and is said to include letters of correspondence and the like.

this is a very good question and I have never read any literature suggesting that notes in her own hand were ever documented or preserved. I would imagine she must have written them down somewhere, unless the ideas were exclusively conveyed orally between herself and Waite, which I find hard to believe.

[Jo⭐️]

He then goes on to trash a fellow occultist, Eliphas Levi as a philistine, accusing him of "more than his usual derision for the arts which he pretended to respect and interpret as a master therein".... MEOW!

I suspect this might be a swipe at his enemy Aleister Crowley.

Crowley considered himself to be a reincarnation of Eliphas Levi and also called himself the Antichrist 666. This would make sense with Waite’s use of Baphomet as the Christian Devil with the reversed (light) torch and pentagram. The One point reversed shows the triumph of matter over spirit.

[Myperception]

Whenever i drew Devil card. I will just remind myself or querent not to be too greedy or submit to our darkside. Think carefully before a decision, or beware if there is a trap etc. It's more an alarm to me