The Devil and the Kabbalah

I initially posted this thread in the RWS board but thought i might get better luck in here...


I have just recently acquired a deck of original RWS..and I absolutely Love it..I have never been one for RWS, But something changed and now I am hooked.. LOL!

I did the new deck interview spread and received the Devil as teh decks Best attributes... I think my deck has a sense of humour LOL!!
But seriously regardless of the question asked and spread it was in,. It made me start researching other meanings and interpretations that would apply to the Devil , hence in comes the Kabbalah..

I am on the understanding the Devil is in between Hod and Tiphareth, Hod being Splendor and Tipareth Beauty and Harmony.. which to me are wonderful to placed upon the Devil BUT; LOL!!

Can anyone tell me where these Kabbalah meanings fit in with the traditional meanings with the Devil..

would it mean that through the Devil card there is a path of transition to enlighten the unenlightened.?? and being linked to Tiphareth Not all would be lost..?

Thanks in advance

Technically, the Jews don't really have much of a Debbil (that's a Christian thing). Theirs is much more like what we know today as a lawyer. That's pretty evil, but little to do with horns and goats. The Tarot Devil is pretty much unrelated to Kabbalistic sources.

hehe One would have to believe that that Tarot is the secret doctrine of The Kabbalah told visually. The image of The Devil in RWS is almost that of Levi's card for the Devil. I think if you are looking for labels Waite would be called a Christian Kabbalist.
So.... usually The Devil gets the Letter Ayin, which originally meant eye, and the zodiacal sign of Capricorn. It's simple letter means Mirth and its esoteric title is The Lord of the Gates of Matter. It is on the 26th path between Tipareth and Hod= Beauty and Splendour, where the 6's and 8's live. The Torch on the card is fire, the wings are air, the body of the devil is Earth- I forget what symbolizes Water. This is our world of the elements. Mirth- because we should not take this reality of material condition as the true reality, it is the inner world that is important- our spiritual world. The world as we see it is our senses and desires etc etc and the Devil is what ties us to that. The Words Temptation and obsession are what comes to mind. Or as Waite would say- The False Spirit. The Devil was not in early Tarot decks; in sayiny that it is now and I would say the Devil card represents a Major Force.
In a Kabalah sense this path straddles between the Creative world and the Formative world- at beauty(Tipareth) we meet our higher selves with Harmony (the sixes) and at Splendour (Hod) we meet the earthly mind- what we understand through our senses. Good place for the Devil to walk. I think this explains the best attributes to you and the RWS. Hope this makes some sense to you- good luck with the fantastic RWS- great Choice! ~Rosanne

interesting

In it's positive aspect the placement of the Devil on the Tree of Life between Tiphareth and Hod is symbolic of powerful and raw creative energy. This is why this card is often associated with sexual energy. God is that which creates in it's own image.

In it's more negative sense the Devil points towards the danger of becoming obsessed with objects and forms. Although it goes against all common sense, the material universe is not real, it's an illusion. The only thing that is real is consciousness. This is what makes the 26th path such a difficult and challenging one for the Western mindset.

WOW Thankyou so much >>I find this tree of Life and its connection to the tarot absolutely fasinating, putting a completely whole new perspective upon the cards as a reader..

Your explanations of the Devil associated with it, have really cleared up the meaning of him in the position he came out..and what it would represent.. In any position from here on in LOL!

I will most certainly be studying more on the Kabbalah and the card association from here on, so please be patient as i can see a whole load more questions coming your way LOL!

Take Care

DB xxx

Perspective...

Goat of Mendes said:

In it's more negative sense the Devil points towards the danger of becoming obsessed with objects and forms. Although it goes against all common sense, the material universe is not real, it's an illusion. The only thing that is real is consciousness. This is what makes the 26th path such a difficult and challenging one for the Western mindset.

Click to expand...

Yes in my eyes that goes against all kabbalistic sense as well...
Maybe if you only live above malkuth it would SEEM an illusion.
But you are human (right?), you live in all these worlds.
All spheres of the tree are equally holy, in fact malkuth, the beloved, causes the influx of the emanations as much as the goal of the emanations is the manifest...
"The Head" coveth the bride as much as the bride wants to give head... hrm...
That is, why cant we strive to make the best of both? And "just" bring them closer...
You are here to learn, not to escape the first chance you get...

Though treating the world as illusion MIGHT possibly be a TOOL for attaining higher states, for some... ? (It would NOT be a TRUTH in my book, more like a mystics missunderstanding...)

I am spirit, I am flesh, and I absolutely love it!

(These are obviously just MY current oppinions anyway, but...)

/Manko

Dancing Bear said:

I am on the understanding the Devil is in between Hod and Tiphareth, Hod being Splendor and Tipareth Beauty and Harmony.. which to me are wonderful to placed upon the Devil BUT; LOL!!

Can anyone tell me where these Kabbalah meanings fit in with the traditional meanings with the Devil.

Click to expand...

I'm going to throw a straight pitch that will seem like a curve in everybody else's 'non-Euclidean' reality.

In researching Kabbalah far deeper than either occultists or rabbis (may they be blessed) have, I tend to think the Hermetic version's version of the paths is correct as to letter, but incorrect of course as to assignment to trumps, since the bardic numbering whereby the assignments were made by tarot's designers (I can easily show) is quite different from the speculative modern methods of associating letters and trumps.

The upshot is that LeDiable, being XV in the Marseilles, is reysh, R-the-elder in Irish tree-lore (to burn which brings the devil in the house, according to English folklore). Reysh occupies (according to the tradition preserved by the occultists) the path from Yesod to Hod: indeed the witches' sabbath would seem to suggest that the devil's significance does tend more towards the moon (9-Hod in the 4th or material world, Assiyah) than the sun (6-Tiferet in that world), and of course has links to Mercury in that Hermes was Hermes Psychopomp (guide to the souls of the dead).

The name Satan is from Hebrew, as I recall, and the concept of the Adversary -- the Left -- pervades the Zohar, but as for horns, previous posters-herein may be right, and this may have more to do with Christians linking the devil to paganism. (In Hebrew, it is 'idols' that represent the pagan, and not many idols in the region of Canaan had horns methinks, although Hathor of Egypt of course did, and perhaps others there as well; one Canaanite idol, or 'false god', however, was 'the Bull El'; still, our devil has stag horns, not bull's-or-cow's horns [the bull's horn would be U-ura-heather or vav, since this in runic is named *uruz, 'aurochs', and is shaped like the upturned drinking-horn made therefrom, though its trump, XVII Star, expresses coition (blending of fluids), one's 'coming-of-age', which is what acquisition of the aurochs's horn meant to the young Germanic warrior in the first place].)

That is all.