Abrac
In the Agrippa hand I can detect only three vertical lines. In the W-S Devil's hand there appears to be two lines and then one that branches into two.
W-S Devil's Hand
These are the Four Rivers of Eden: Psion, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates. The Cross represents the Sephirotic Cross.
This symbolism plays an important role in both The Golden Dawn system of magic and Waite's Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. In the GD it's important to the legend of The Fall. In Waite's Pictorial Key, he also mentions this aspect of the symbol: "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."
That being said, now to the question of why I think it's there. In the Second Portal Grade Ritual of Waite's Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, he shares some valuable information that reveals his thoughts on this card. The Great Symbol of the Path which is analogous to the Devil, Waite calls Lucifer (apparently in the negative aspect). He leaves very little to the imagination as to what it represents:
"You will observe that the symbol beneath the Banner of the path is in the likeness of him who was called the Son of the Morning and Light Bearer, rather than of Diabolus, or Satan. He is the Prince of this World, and the antithesis of the Christ Spirit, represented by the other symbol. It is for this reason that they are contrasted together in the paths. The Lucifer of this diagram is the desire after spiritual things, to empower the life of sense and to equip the mind in separation. He is the magus opposed to the saint, and the path of occult science in its contrast to the science of the mystics. The end of these things is bondage, represented by the chained figures shown beneath his Altar in the symbol."
After reading this, it's interesting to revisit what he said in the Pictorial Key: "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 figure is occult science and magic." He doesn't say if he agrees or disagrees, but now I'd have to say he would have been in complete agreement with Levi.
So we see in the Devil's hand symbols of spiritual things, but he has acquired them "to empower the life of sense and to equip the mind in separation."
Granted, the W-S Devil is clearly a more Satanic image than Luciferian, but it's interesting to see how Waite thought about this image a few years later. Even as the W-S was being created I'm sure some of these ideas were already brewing.
W-S Devil's Hand
These are the Four Rivers of Eden: Psion, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates. The Cross represents the Sephirotic Cross.
This symbolism plays an important role in both The Golden Dawn system of magic and Waite's Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. In the GD it's important to the legend of The Fall. In Waite's Pictorial Key, he also mentions this aspect of the symbol: "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."
That being said, now to the question of why I think it's there. In the Second Portal Grade Ritual of Waite's Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, he shares some valuable information that reveals his thoughts on this card. The Great Symbol of the Path which is analogous to the Devil, Waite calls Lucifer (apparently in the negative aspect). He leaves very little to the imagination as to what it represents:
"You will observe that the symbol beneath the Banner of the path is in the likeness of him who was called the Son of the Morning and Light Bearer, rather than of Diabolus, or Satan. He is the Prince of this World, and the antithesis of the Christ Spirit, represented by the other symbol. It is for this reason that they are contrasted together in the paths. The Lucifer of this diagram is the desire after spiritual things, to empower the life of sense and to equip the mind in separation. He is the magus opposed to the saint, and the path of occult science in its contrast to the science of the mystics. The end of these things is bondage, represented by the chained figures shown beneath his Altar in the symbol."
After reading this, it's interesting to revisit what he said in the Pictorial Key: "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 figure is occult science and magic." He doesn't say if he agrees or disagrees, but now I'd have to say he would have been in complete agreement with Levi.
So we see in the Devil's hand symbols of spiritual things, but he has acquired them "to empower the life of sense and to equip the mind in separation."
Granted, the W-S Devil is clearly a more Satanic image than Luciferian, but it's interesting to see how Waite thought about this image a few years later. Even as the W-S was being created I'm sure some of these ideas were already brewing.
