Hidden message or trick of the light?

catlin

A few days ago Fulgour's picture of the Devil made me to have a closer look at the devil depicted on the pocket RW and believe it or not: the Devil's pubic hair seems to form a tiny arising snake (Kundalini)!

Now I am wondering if this is just an effect caused on my old worn RW or do you find the same on more recent copies? Or was it just my imagination running wild?
 

Acadia

catlin said:
A few days ago Fulgour's picture of the Devil made me to have a closer look at the devil depicted on the pocket RW and believe it or not: the Devil's pubic hair seems to form a tiny arising snake (Kundalini)!

Now I am wondering if this is just an effect caused on my old worn RW or do you find the same on more recent copies? Or was it just my imagination running wild?

I went and checked, and I automatically saw what you were looking at. I don't know how intentional it was, but I certainly see what you were referring to... :)
 

Alta

I looked on my Giant RWS. I see what you mean, but it could also be stylized depiction of the genitals I suppose. If it is a snake, then I would agree about the rising kundalini energy.
 

The_Star

inversion....

catlin said:
A few days ago Fulgour's picture of the Devil made me to have a closer look at the devil depicted on the pocket RW and believe it or not: the Devil's pubic hair seems to form a tiny arising snake (Kundalini)!

Now I am wondering if this is just an effect caused on my old worn RW or do you find the same on more recent copies? Or was it just my imagination running wild?

In the RWS deck you can compare the Devil's genital area with that of The Magician. The inverted star (pentagram), that also represents The Devil, indicates that the primal creative energy has been consumed by the genitals (an inversion).

Esoteric schools claim that society and cultural taboos keep the sexual energy trapped on a lower level. It is the key energy that requires release and cultivation to 'house clean' the higher psychic centers (Tantra).
The Magician (RWS) appears to have transcended sexual desires and has brought the cultivated sexual energies to higher, more creative, levels (notice the sword placement and the hilt of the sword as phallic).

In The Devil Card... sex has you. In The Magician Card the sexual energy has been tamed (See, Strength and Temperance) and uplifted to higher levels of consciousness (kundalini clearings).
Consensus reality spiritual teachings put a padlock on the sexual energies. As such, their true creative power is repressed by fear and guilt.
On every conscious level the sexual energies are miraculous.... to create life (a child) or, as The Magician, to be able to re-arrange physical 'reality' and create a higher level of life.

The Magician can come and go (no pun intended, well O.K., it was intended) from the lower centers but with The Devil Card the energy is trapped there (temporarily?).. creating spiritual impotence and incessant cravings.

The Magician is 'riding the dragon'... which is the transmuted sexual energies. He has distilled his essence (see, alchemy) out of the 'beast' and as a result, has regained his/her creative power.

The other two potent energies that need to be tamed and conserved are:
digestion (eat natural) and thinking (run away inner chatter).

Notice that the two people on The Devil Card can easily lift off the chains that are around their necks. They (the people) are held in place by fear, illusion and ignorance of higher realms and, perhaps, squandering their sexual energies for sensual only pleaure (rather than to elevate them for enlightenment); squandering their vital forces.
 

Dulcimer

catlin said:
A few days ago Fulgour's picture of the Devil made me to have a closer look at the devil depicted on the pocket RW and believe it or not: the Devil's pubic hair seems to form a tiny arising snake (Kundalini)!

Now I am wondering if this is just an effect caused on my old worn RW or do you find the same on more recent copies? Or was it just my imagination running wild?
In Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot he says "At the pit of the stomach there is the sign of Mercury". Many assume he meant the Caduceus, which is impossible to make out. But a serpent will do just as well as a sign of Mercury :)
 

Fulgour

Awkward E. Waite

Dulcimer said:
In Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot he says "At the pit of the stomach there is the sign of Mercury".
Oswald Wirth is the artist who draped a glyph of Mercury
over Le Diable's crotch...Waite likely sat on a corkscrew
and had one of his rare visions ~ how to pay the rent?
 

The_Star

Mercury...

Fulgour said:
Oswald Wirth is the artist who draped a glyph of Mercury
over Le Diable's crotch...Waite likely sat on a corkscrew
and had one of his rare visions ~ how to pay the rent?

Mercury, in astrology, represents 'mental focus'.
In Le Diable's crotch it (Mercury) would indicate that the mental focus of Le Diable is concerned about sexual issues rather than transcendental issues.
The Devil Card is the reversal of The Magician (RWS). Sexual focus binds the consciousness to its material form. The Magician realizes that transcendental bliss can be attained (re-attained, actually) and, in reality, comes from within. It (bliss) is the joy of attaining a cosmic re-connection to the source, or in other words, to become a magician or sorceror (one who eminates from source).
In the Christian cosmology it represents Christ (as the human soul) as having attained trancendence and power to command the elements. This high attainment requies an abandonment of self and a merging with transcendental (beyond the senses) power. In the Hermetic cosmology (See, Hermes, The Emerald Tablet - alchemy) it represents the first step in being able to astral travel (to come and go from material form).
In the eternal journey of The Magician it is likely that, from time to time, The Magician will find him/her self "stuck" in a material context (trapped by the illusion represented by The Devil Card) and imprisoned by time (Chronos - Saturn). The goal is to reverse The Devil Card conundrum, to get off of 'death row' and to become, once again, The Magician who is re-connected to source.
The paradox is that The Magician archetype is always in operation.... as such, any seemig disconnection from source is only an illusion. Once The Magician finds him/her self trapped by illusion the archetype transmutes into The Devil Card (The Magician inverted). The real dilemma is to be trapped in a material illusion and to NOT realize it. This condition is indicated by the spirit being consumed by its material form and forgetting its spiritual (a spirit) reality. The Tarot is a primary tool to assist in correcting this terrible inversion; as such it has been condemned by 'The Church' (turf war).

Waite knew all of this stuff, however, he was bound by an oath of secrecy. He encoded the truth in the cards (in symbol) but was forbidden to state the arcane secrets with words.
The Magician is androgynous, The Devil Card represents (also) the duality of the sexes. In other words, The Magician cleaved (See, swords generally) into two (seeming) opposite genders ceating the terrible illusion of perpetual seeking of an external union when the true 'union' is an inner event.
As such, The Magician and The Devil are inversions of one another.
The Magician is 'at cause' (source) and The Devil is 'at negative effect'.
The illusion can last eternally, if not reversed.

Having to 'pay the rent' is another negative illusion because The Magcian can easily manifest money. The Devil imprisons its captives in the notion of jobs and bondage. The Magician is in the flow of universal abundance, he/she receives from all others because of the selfess intention to contribute to all. The Devil is concerned only with self, become a slave to this ridiculous 'self' and remains in bondage.
Both The Magician and The Devil operate in a 'reality' that is, in effect, a mirror of their inner states. The Magician is aware of 'the mirror' and The Devil cannot see his/her reflection in the mirror. The inability to see one's self in 'the mirror' (of reality) introduces another entity.... one that is popular in horror movies and remains a slave to material cravings. (a metaphor for the inverted condition); at least until their head is cut off (another metaphor representing a reversal of the inverted Mercury energies).
 

Fen Windglimmer

Dulcimer said:
In Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot he says "At the pit of the stomach there is the sign of Mercury". Many assume he meant the Caduceus, which is impossible to make out. But a serpent will do just as well as a sign of Mercury :)


Waite's Devil trump was copied, in part, from Eliphas Levi's famous picture, and in that picture the Caduceus is very visible.

Levi gave the correspondences of planets to the body as follows; the Sun to the heart, the Moon to the brain etc etc, and he writes;

"... Mercury to the generative organs, whence an androgyne figure is sometimes attributed to this figure"

Why the Caduceus, and the female breasts, symbolising this androgynous aspect, is not present in Waite's card, when he took so much of Levi's symbolism, is another of those puzzles that abound in this deck.

Waite wrote a lot of interesting stuff. This trump in particular should be contrasted along with the Lovers, and compared to two Golden Dawn diagrams called The Garden of Eden before the Fall, and the Garden of Eden after the Fall.

So what does it have to do with these Bible stories?

After Adam, (man) was ejected from Paradise by God's bouncers, he gained two important companions. One of these was the Devil... materialism, attachment, power over others etc, etc. He/she now needed to wear clothes, get food, procreate, protect his family and other mundane tasks. To make this easier the Devil was now there to help him/her to find ways that would make it easier. For example, you could take someone else's food, or force someone else to do the tasks you didn't want to do, or stay drunk all day. There was/is no real way out of making some kind of deal with the Devil, because everyone has to live, and in order for you to live, someone, somewhere has to suffer. Thats why we buy our trainers from sweatshops in Asia, it's why we bomb children in Iraq, and why we rip up forests for farmland.

Now you can get off this treadmill, and when you do, you come face to face with that other companion that was waiting for us outside of Eden. And that would be Death. The balancing force of the Devil as represented by Waite's cards on the the Golden Dawn version of the Tree of Life.


Love and light to all


Fen
 

Dulcimer

Fen Windglimmer said:
Waite's Devil trump was copied, in part, from Eliphas Levi's famous picture, and in that picture the Caduceus is very visible...
Why the Caduceus, and the female breasts, symbolising this androgynous aspect, is not present in Waite's card, when he took so much of Levi's symbolism, is another of those puzzles that abound in this deck.
Quite so, Fen. Reading his book whilst studying his cards leads me to suspect that someone altered the cards. Some speculate it was Pamela Coleman Smith (PCS), others that it was the Golden Dawn (GD). My guess would be the latter. For while PCS most certainly added to them, Waite I am sure would not have allowed her to alter them to such an extent as that.
On the other hand, it would not be unreasonable to surmise that the GD only permitted Waite to release their designs (which is basically what they were) to the public without them having the final say on how they looked. True, he published them after he split from the original group and co-founded the mystical "Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn," but the original designs were not his.
On the other, other, hand he might not even have noticed that they had been changed! He was not exactly considered to be a "thorough" student.

Fen Windglimmer said:
After Adam, (man) was ejected from Paradise by God's bouncers, he gained two important companions. One of these was the Devil... [the] other companion [was] Death.
Fascinating :). Is that a personal view or is it based on a myth?
 

Fulgour

Spare me the Hoopla about the Golden Dawn

I think most Tarot readers never bother with the Golden Dawn.
Whatever their fascination, there is almost nothing from them
about Tarot... they were ambitious frauds out for promotion.

Golden Dawn references are like talking about "miles per gallon"
when people who truly want to go somewhere will simply travel.

Waite had every chance in the world to make a serious effort,
and all he did was publish one little handbook full of bull-loney.