World Spirit study group The Devil (15)

flowergrrl

RedMaple said:
I think there is also this other aspect of the Devil as light-bringer (so we can see our bondage and escape), as a Pan-figure (so we can connect to our erotic, physical bodies that have been so repressed), but I think that in order to really encompass the range of human experience, we need the cards that show the negative forces in our lives. For me, as I said, I think of addictions, enabling behaviors, relationships that bring out the worst in us. Though the Devil comes to us through a Christian tradition that I don't accept, I can read it metaphorically in the Tarot.

Hmmmm...that's a great way of putting it. It think I've just got to get over my "Disneyfied" version of the devil in my mind. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but this is the reason why I like Jane Lyle's (Renaissance Tarot) devil card. It's more playful.
 

RedMaple

flowergrrl said:
Hmmmm...that's a great way of putting it. It think I've just got to get over my "Disneyfied" version of the devil in my mind.

Yes, that Disney devil is scary....I'm thinking of the Devil on Bald Mountain in Fantasia, is that the one you were thinking of? But that power of the physical and sexuality, that is the distorted image from Pan.

It always seems to me that Christianity made a big mistake separating sexuality and divinity...Christ is portrayed as basically asexual (although one could argue he has very close relationships with both Mary Magdalene and John, "the beloved apostle". :)), Mary's pregnancy is magically conceived with sex, and she gives birth without losing her virginity. So, sexuality, instead of being sacred as it was in Judaism, is relegated to the Devil.

RedMaple