Creating a new devil...

Ankou

I'm doing some initials for a deck a friend and I are working on and have some ideas for the devil I'd like feedback on.

So the Devil is about temptation and choices and about the paths to choose (on one level)...

Many belief systems have a keeper of the crossroads, and I was thinking of a particular variety of Voodun where the keeper of the paths is also the trickster of the pantheon, and of the concept of a pitch fork in the road and of an intersection with five paths forming the head of Baphomet (sp?)

Possibly the main raod from the bottom being the one your on and each of the other roads representing a suit inverted...

Am I way off here? Still learning the cards (isn't everyone) but on a basic level yet...

Advice please!

Love and Light,

Ankou
 

ciliegia

devil is temptation yeah,i suppose.

Ankou said:
I'm doing some initials for a deck a friend and I are working on and have some ideas for the devil I'd like feedback on.

So the Devil is about temptation and choices and about the paths to choose (on one level)...

at first moment..I thought to use the basic devil but I did make much account of about temptation.

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/angel-2/index.shtml

:)Good luck.
 

HudsonGray

Remember that personal choices can get any person out of a Devil card, and that there's also good in the Devil card as well. I'm not up on the Baphomet side, that was mostly negative wasn't it?

A crossroads is a good idea, it gives you options. The card is also an inner workings card (as opposed to something outside impinging on you). We harness ourselves to our problems, which gleefully continue to become worse and worse, till we expend even more energy unharnessing ourselves from them. It's all in our control. I look at it as a sort of 'are we learning our lessons or haven't we reached the stage where we think we can control our fate' sort of thing. It's a complex card.
 

Ankou

With that said, husdon I think I might leave out the inverted penticle concept, in order to better establish the crossroads image. I don't want to make the card overly complicated, espessialy if I'm diverging from the classic image.

I love the post you linked to Laluce! I had started originally thinking in that sort of a direction, but then a passage about the crossroads caught my attention and I thought, that really was more my speed for interpritation of the devil's meaning. I'm very drawn to the Horned One aspect of the devil as opposed to the Christian Satan... I think its a card about "worldly" pleasure and moderation as much as anything...

So Is the devil female or male in your preference?

Love Ankou
 

Astra

For what it may be worth...

I tend to see the Devil as the inverse of the Lovers. For me, the Devil is about obsession, possessiveness, elitism, and compulsive behavior.

If any of that rings a bell for you, great. Otherwise, I like the description you're working with now, just the way it stands. It's your Devil, after all.
 

Chronata

I like the idea of crossroads...the fork in the road being a pitchfork.

But then I like cards that have a sense of humor about them! Especially Devil cards.
Temptation can certainly be symbolized by the roads, and it does seem to also be a good symbol for ...you got yourself into this mess...now you can get yourself out!

What voodun personage are you thinking of? I know that Papa Legba is the keeper of paths, and stands at the crossroads...and he can be quite the trickster too.
 

Grigori

I love that you are reinventing the card. I often think that "I would like to re-invent a card" but then I never have any good ideas! LOL

The first thing that pops into my head about cross-roads is that they were under the control of Hermes the trickster/magician, so I would think of them as belonging to the Magician card. Of course, the way you illustrate the card will change that idea enourmously.

Are you making changes to other cards also? I wonder who this change will fit in with the theme of your deck? :)
 

Ankou

I'm just doing a few cards in a group deck right now, so no real theme to speak of, just exploring those cards and the most striking meanings for me at the moment. Maybe after a few more months on AT, I'll try a real Tarot on my own... maybe... Its quite dauntng after all...

Yes, Papa Legba also known as Elegua was the Voodun Loa I was thinking of. I was also thinking of a Mayan deity who is a woman of snakes disguised as an old woman who tricks people at the crossroads, can't think of her name at the moment, but she's very powerful and well respected.

I see the devil as temptation towards excess, but also as a reminder to explore the material pleasures in life... We don't have material bodies so we can pretend they don't exist..IMO... So a Loa who enjoys rum and cigars and is the "door" to the other spirits seems appropriate, but when the trickter gets on a binge... }) anyway, you see where I'm going :)

Really tired but had to see if you lovely AT muses had any inspiration for me, and of course you did :D as I knew you would!

Thanks and Love,

Ankou
 

ciliegia

my devil means...

The devil is a beautiful woman. She does have little devil-horns and rather terrifying talons where her feet should be, but she is beautiful. This motif is found in the many Renaissance paintings entitled The Temptation of St. Anthony. the wings of an angel means 'fallen angel'.I imagined Lucifer,at first.I read Lucifer is "the brightest angel, even the child of Light.This Lucifer became the chief of the fallen angels.

And from an other point of view,it's a captive of love,this guy is utterly captivated by her beauty.even though he think it is not good thing,he can't help thinkng of her.
the garland of vivid blue roses underlining the fact that he is already entangled.
the blue roses means:a difficulty