Symbol in the Devil's hand

Hello Abrac and other thread readers,

In one of my recently purchased books it states literally that on the right hand of The Devil card is the symbol of planet Saturn. Planet Saturn stands symbol for catastrophy, ill fate, ...

According to The Golden Dawn Planet Saturn corresponds astrologically with The World card. So maybe you can also keep interpretations of The World card in mind when The Devil card appears somewhere in a spread.

By the way, according to The Golden Dawn Planet Mars corresponds astrologically with The Devil card.

So, I would say conjoined Saturn and Mars symbols (looks like they have been drawn over each other).

I am just starting out with Tarot (and Astrology) and only introduced myself on the forum today!

Thanks to having purchased some excellent books in the past weeks (yes weeks, just starting out), I am happy to be already capable of sending a possible helpful reply ...

I wanted to post a picture of the Saturn symbol to show you, but I am not able to (free forum member). Look it up in Google (search for Saturn symbol) and you will recognize the symbol (sort of cross with a sort of circular spin). Planet Mars symbol is the same as the Male gender symbol. (Planet Venus symbol is the same as the Female gender symbol)

Hope this helped a bit ...

The Saturn connection was mentioned by Abrac in the very first post. I had to agree that the 1910 version didn't show an entirely convincing Saturn glyph, although people like Paul Foster Case "cleaned it up" later to be recognizable. The lines still look like palmistry significators to me, as I mentioned above, but of course we will never know what was really intended.

Hi hjs, thanks for sharing.

I agree it's not a Saturn glyph. See this image.

No Saturn glyph has the lines which I've marked as ambition lines (mentioned earlier by Barleywine). I've marked the other lines but I'm not too sure of them, the life line excepted; but I don't think it's of major importance for understanding what Waite's saying here. It has all the signs of a symbol representing fate in general, that roulette wheel of good and evil that's a big part of material experience.

Abrac and Barleywine, I have to agree. On the last image it resembles more the handlines.

Maybe one of my books isn't so excellent after all? lol

Gosh, I hope I did not raise any annoyance or confusion with my perky newbie post.

Just wanted to think along ...

No annoyance here, feel free to share anytime.

Same here. This is a fascinating thread that took me all over the place. I haven't dug out my palmistry books in years!

Barleywine, I used to have that Enid Hoffman book but got rid of it a long time ago. I wish I would've kept it though, it's one of the best I've seen on the subject.

The Golden Dawn associates this card with Capricorn which is ruled by Saturn. I'm not sure where Mars fits into it. It might not really mean anything other than the lines in all our hands. Now if you actually read it like a palm reader would, it certainly looks a bit scary. LOL

On the other hand, (no pun intended) it's quite prominent and noticeable so it does make you wonder.

magicjack said:

The Golden Dawn associates this card with Capricorn which is ruled by Saturn. I'm not sure where Mars fits into it. It might not really mean anything other than the lines in all our hands. Now if you actually read it like a palm reader would, it certainly looks a bit scary. LOL

On the other hand, (no pun intended) it's quite prominent and noticeable so it does make you wonder.

Click to expand...

Mars is exalted in Capricorn, showing - as Crowley says in the Book of Thoth - "in its best form the fiery, material energy of creation." This is the flip-side to his statement that the Devil "represents creative energy in its most material form." Saturn and Mars in Capricorn form a very powerful duo, as befits the Devil.

I know we're talking about the RWS Devil here, but Waite and Crowley drew from the same Golden Dawn source, Crowley was just more transparent about it.

Magicjack, yes Capricorn is indeed ruled by Saturn.

In the book that I read it states the following. I copied a specific section in the book:

"The application of astrological meanings to Tarot decks derived from the Golden Dawn spiritual tradition is somewhat specialized and structured specifically towards the Tarot. It varies in some ways from the common meanings associated with astrological practice in the interpretation of Natal birth charts and should not be confused with Natal, Sun Sign, Horary or any other form of conventional astrology."

I have to read the book completely to understand it all a bit better, so I can pen it down a bit better here