Mercury...
Fulgour said:
Oswald Wirth is the artist who draped a glyph of Mercury
over Le Diable's crotch...Waite likely sat on a corkscrew
and had one of his rare visions ~ how to pay the rent?
Mercury, in astrology, represents 'mental focus'.
In Le Diable's crotch it (Mercury) would indicate that the mental focus of Le Diable is concerned about sexual issues rather than transcendental issues.
The Devil Card is the reversal of The Magician (RWS). Sexual focus binds the consciousness to its material form. The Magician realizes that transcendental bliss can be attained (re-attained, actually) and, in reality, comes from within. It (bliss) is the joy of attaining a cosmic re-connection to the source, or in other words, to become a magician or sorceror (one who eminates from source).
In the Christian cosmology it represents Christ (as the human soul) as having attained trancendence and power to command the elements. This high attainment requies an abandonment of self and a merging with transcendental (beyond the senses) power. In the Hermetic cosmology (See, Hermes, The Emerald Tablet - alchemy) it represents the first step in being able to astral travel (to come and go from material form).
In the eternal journey of The Magician it is likely that, from time to time, The Magician will find him/her self "stuck" in a material context (trapped by the illusion represented by The Devil Card) and imprisoned by time (Chronos - Saturn). The goal is to reverse The Devil Card conundrum, to get off of 'death row' and to become, once again, The Magician who is re-connected to source.
The paradox is that The Magician archetype is always in operation.... as such, any seemig disconnection from source is only an illusion. Once The Magician finds him/her self trapped by illusion the archetype transmutes into The Devil Card (The Magician inverted). The real dilemma is to be trapped in a material illusion and to NOT realize it. This condition is indicated by the spirit being consumed by its material form and forgetting its spiritual (a spirit) reality. The Tarot is a primary tool to assist in correcting this terrible inversion; as such it has been condemned by 'The Church' (turf war).
Waite knew all of this stuff, however, he was bound by an oath of secrecy. He encoded the truth in the cards (in symbol) but was forbidden to state the arcane secrets with words.
The Magician is androgynous, The Devil Card represents (also) the duality of the sexes. In other words, The Magician cleaved (See, swords generally) into two (seeming) opposite genders ceating the terrible illusion of perpetual seeking of an external union when the true 'union' is an inner event.
As such, The Magician and The Devil are inversions of one another.
The Magician is 'at cause' (source) and The Devil is 'at negative effect'.
The illusion can last eternally, if not reversed.
Having to 'pay the rent' is another negative illusion because The Magcian can easily manifest money. The Devil imprisons its captives in the notion of jobs and bondage. The Magician is in the flow of universal abundance, he/she receives from all others because of the selfess intention to contribute to all. The Devil is concerned only with self, become a slave to this ridiculous 'self' and remains in bondage.
Both The Magician and The Devil operate in a 'reality' that is, in effect, a mirror of their inner states. The Magician is aware of 'the mirror' and The Devil cannot see his/her reflection in the mirror. The inability to see one's self in 'the mirror' (of reality) introduces another entity.... one that is popular in horror movies and remains a slave to material cravings. (a metaphor for the inverted condition); at least until their head is cut off (another metaphor representing a reversal of the inverted Mercury energies).