XV - The Devil (RWS)

[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 5063 times

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

hatsga.jpg (30.5 KiB) Viewed 5063 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

[A-M]

I have analysed the symbolism on the Devil card, starting with the 15th century up to RWS:
https://www.anne-marie.eu/en/tarot-15-the-devil/

My take on the RWS card is this (quote from the above blog):

Artist Pamela Colman-Smith has the card refer unambiguously to the opposite of the divine again. Her Devil is corpulent (gluttony) and sinister. His horns are curved towards the earth. The upside-down torch in his hands refers to the kundalini fire, which flows down instead of up. This is also the meaning of the two tails of the naked man and woman. The grapes (wine) and the fire both refer to the divine kundalini that nourishes on this card the lower, rather than the higher, chakras.

The pentagram, which is shown pointing up with Levi's Baphomet, has been turned downwards on the RWS card. In occult circles, the pentagram pointed upwards refers to God-realization. The fifth point of the star represents the Spirit, which rules the other four points, which represent the four elements (matter). Pointing down, matter (the beast) rules over the Spirit (the divine).

On the upper hand of the Devil is written the sign for Jupiter: of the seven planets of classical astronomy, the planet furthest away from the sun, and (thus) in alchemy symbolizing the first / bottom chakra. The hand gesture itself refers to duality ("split in two").

The naked man and woman evoke associations with Adam and Eve, especially if you place the RWS card The Lovers next to it. Arthur E. Waite and Pamela Colman-Smith were connected to esoteric circles that knew that at the symbolic level the Bible story of Adam and Eve is about man choosing to use the kundalini energy (the serpent) for the lower chakras (sexual activity) and, as a result, losing paradise (connection with the divine).

[Parzival]

XV -- The Devil


Artist Pamela Colman-Smith has the card refer unambiguously to the opposite of the divine again. Her Devil is corpulent (gluttony) and sinister. His horns are curved towards the earth. The upside-down torch in his hands refers to the kundalini fire, which flows down instead of up. This is also the meaning of the two tails of the naked man and woman. The grapes (wine) and the fire both refer to the divine kundalini that nourishes on this card the lower, rather than the higher, chakras.

I appreciate this post above because it sees the given art as symbolic, not intending to be the art of a Renaissance master. It is the art of a fine illustrator, with varying success through 78 images-- sometimes strikingly beautiful while symbolic (Magician), sometimes rather flat and simple (3 of swords). No tarot deck provides a successful rendering with each and every card. At any rate, so is my perspective on Pamela Colman Smith's art. It is neither sublimely perfect nor a complete failure-- but it does carry the archetypal imagery on the whole rather well. Later variations on the RWS make some lmprovements as to colorations, depth of perspective, borders or not,etc. Tarot changes and advances.
I noticed that the Devil is flat and unreal, a kind of caricature of the human being. The two lower figures are much more real, much more human. They are free to go but stay enslaved, maybe not at all by the devil outside them above but by their own self-imposed limits of existence. They could break free of themselves but remain self-paralyzed. Can't we all identify with them?

[TheLoracular]

I was introduced to the RWS card for the Devil eight years before I began to seriously study Western Hermetic magic and it was my very first encounter with anything related to Baphomet. Of all the tarot cards, this one shocked and titillated my sixteen year old self; there was a lot less occultism in mainstream media in 1985 and most of it rather negative and pure horror genre. It scared me but also intrigued me.

Anyone interested in what Baphomet meant to Levi himself and its inclusion into the RWS deck might find this article interesting: https://www.learnreligions.com/eliphas- ... f-mendes-9


What I see when I look at this card now through my 2020 eyes is so different. I'm immediately drawn into comparison with The Hierophant & The Lovers as others in the thread mentioned. I perceive that the Archangel archetype and the Devil archetype are really a polarity that can be brought together to be whole. Knowledge of Good -and- Evil is a hard burden though.

Accepting the lessons that Baphomet has to teach isn't easy because the Devil is The Adversary and when this card shows up in a reading? The Querent is going to hear some things they aren't going to enjoy. Because they are stuck in a problem of their own making and the only solution is going to be making some hard changes. Like giving up an addiction, or an abusive or self-abusive behavior, like admitting they lie, cheat, or steal - and having the desire to Be Better, not merely to escape punishment but to feel better about themselves. Less trapped. Less scared. Less doomed.

The Adversary exists to test us and give us the opportunity to be our better selves, all the time. I don't like the biblical story of Job, I hate the idea of bad things happening to good people to make them have to prove how good they are, but life sure seems to play this allegory out. Life demands courage and selflessness and a lot of giving and doing and being the hero and the good shepherd out of all of us. When we get greedy, when we start hoarding and treating other people as tools to benefit us and our savings account? Well, we start becoming imps chained into the service of consumerism and materialism and we are going to get ourselves enchained and deprive ourselves of everything cards like The Lovers and The Hierophant and The Magician offer.

The Magician might stand in the same pose as The Devil; The Magician can go very badly if he switches the wand from his heaven-high hand and instead of drawing energy from Heaven to transform the Earth, he like the Devil, draws his power from only base things. From money. From a fan base. From coercion and domination. The tarot and this card especially have taught me to not let the material world be be-all and end-all and there's such a thing as "enough money" and being generous with what I've got with people who are less fortunate, doing so from a place of love and goodwill towards every person simple because people matter. That keeps the devil at bay. Kindness, selflessness, compassion, love.

[Parzival]

"The Adversary exists to test us and give us the opportunity to be our better selves, all the time."

I could quote the whole just prior post for its insight into the RWS Devil, so much there. Goethe's Faust agrees with the quote above. The devil running through that epic acts as a prod for progress, as a stimulant to face oneself, the light and the dark inside, and transform oneself. The Lord says about this devil( Mephistopheles): "For you I feel no hate.For humanity's activity...falls too soon into slothful ease; the Devil's a companion who will tease and spur one on...". And the Devil says: "I am part of that force which, always willing evil, always produces good." This Devil rejects wholeness, preferring bits and pieces, as the plot moves on. He is the grand reductionist, the force of chaos, which is strong today in American politics. The RWS Devil looms up above and controls the free individuals below, like an undermining thought-form they create to get in their way awhile, until they realize they are their own devil and release themselves from their own bondage. Maybe Americans will release themselves from their devilish bondage to brutal materialistic politics and to aggressive win, no no matter what. Temperance angel in dire need!

[Weirdhaven]

Anyone interested in what Baphomet meant to Levi himself and its inclusion into the RWS deck might find this article interesting: https://www.learnreligions.com/eliphas- ... f-mendes-9

That link does not work any more.

Here is the only link I have found with a translation of Levi for anyone that just wants to go to the source "DOGMA AND RITUAL HIGH MAGIC"
https://midnightsideshow.com/?p=281

Thanks

[TheLoracular]

Anyone interested in what Baphomet meant to Levi himself and its inclusion into the RWS deck might find this article interesting: https://www.learnreligions.com/eliphas- ... f-mendes-9

That link does not work any more.

Here is the only link I have found with a translation of Levi for anyone that just wants to go to the source "DOGMA AND RITUAL HIGH MAGIC"
https://midnightsideshow.com/?p=281

Thanks

Thank you for posting the link. Right now in Tarot Esoterica podcasts, I'm going through Doctrine (Dogma) and Rituals of High Magic, chapter by chapter, Major Arcana by Major Arcana. I'm working off my my favorite translation by John Michael Greer & Anthony Mikituk. When I get to Chapter 15, I will come back to this thread and offer up new thoughts on Levi and Baphomet. Researching, writing (and then voicing) my own commentary is really bringing up a lot of new perspective and insight for me.

[Ciderwell]

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.

A.E.Waite was probably being enigmatic, as authors tend not to give away spoilers.

In Piers Anthony's, Tarot series of science fiction novels, the protagonist Brother Paul undertakes a mission to investigate the Planet Tarot (the Fool's Journey) on behalf of his very eclectic religious order.
When he meets The Devil he is swept up and swallowed whole. I can't remember what occurs or who Brother Paul meets deep down in the bowels of Satan but eventually he is pooped out. This can make a lot of sense when Adam and Eve are seen to be the lower legs of the Devil. You'll need to squint your eyes to see this, and it's here the sign of Mercury is more readily apparent.
I do apologise for the icky subject matter but there is a curious correlation between quicksilver and the function of defecation,

I think the idea of the Devil sitting on the crapper gives us hope. When we see other Major Arcana who are seated on a throne, the Emperor, the Empress, the High Priestess etc, they appear to my eyes completely purged of all earthly vice, spiritually transcended (though still anchored to nature), and can therefore be wholly trusted in what message they bring.



Oddly enough, the horns and inverted pentagram on the brow of The Devil remind me of the British imperial state crown -

and the fact that it is kept locked away in the Tower of London ...
well, maybe that's getting into Dan Brown territory, if you'll excuse the pun!

live long and prosper