magpie9
I've been thinking a lot lately about the "re-do" we have done on some cards. The Hierophant has become a teacher, not the hand of the Church, Death has become Transformation, the Hanged Man has become surrender, and so it goes. I'm not against any of this--I think it's a necessary progress-keeping our archetypes alive and current with our culture.
But.
But I'm having a problem with the Devil. More and more he is morphing into Pan, or Bacchus, the Green Man, or Cernnenos all firmly from the Pagan tradition. And that's cool. They're good guys, unlike the nasty awful Christian devil.
So what are we supposed to do for a nasty awful evil tempter, who is bound to try and harm you? Who wants to drag you down and destroy you, who represents our Shadow side, and contains the seeds of our own destruction? The evil one who plays on our weaknesses and leads us into temptation, pain, sorrow and loss. Who shows us the way to do the things we know we really really shouldn't do.
It's not like that energy isn't in our world anymore--it didn't pack it's bags and retire to St. Petersburg--we all deal with it daily, even if it is (luckily) only by listening to the News for most of us.
So what are we doing in the "new" tarots about the disappearance of this archetype? How are we reading these "Positive" devils? Are we making a mistake here, or are we actually making progress toward a kinder, gentler tarot.....and a world to go with it? Or are we lying to ourselves? What should we do about this?
What do you think?
But.
But I'm having a problem with the Devil. More and more he is morphing into Pan, or Bacchus, the Green Man, or Cernnenos all firmly from the Pagan tradition. And that's cool. They're good guys, unlike the nasty awful Christian devil.
So what are we supposed to do for a nasty awful evil tempter, who is bound to try and harm you? Who wants to drag you down and destroy you, who represents our Shadow side, and contains the seeds of our own destruction? The evil one who plays on our weaknesses and leads us into temptation, pain, sorrow and loss. Who shows us the way to do the things we know we really really shouldn't do.
It's not like that energy isn't in our world anymore--it didn't pack it's bags and retire to St. Petersburg--we all deal with it daily, even if it is (luckily) only by listening to the News for most of us.
So what are we doing in the "new" tarots about the disappearance of this archetype? How are we reading these "Positive" devils? Are we making a mistake here, or are we actually making progress toward a kinder, gentler tarot.....and a world to go with it? Or are we lying to ourselves? What should we do about this?
What do you think?