Symbolism
Astrological Glyph: Capricorn
Hebrew Letter: Ayin (meaning Eye)
Color: Blue-violet (Indigo)
Keyword: Bondage
Golden Dawn Title: The Lord of the Gates of Matter or The Child of the Forces of Time

Meaning: a card about materialism, boundaries and limitations; a time to look at our fears, illusions, indulgences, attachments, addictions, and obsessions; being a slave to temptation or to something/someone; feeling disconnected from your spiritual side; becoming self-destructive; having inner chaos and doubt; the ego and shadow stuff; needing to look at the un-evolved aspects of oneself; embracing the dark side of our nature.

divineMusings…
We are bound to our egos; we are bound to our bodies. We all have shadow and we all have light, respectfully, the un-evolved and evolved parts of ourselves.  Both exist and must persist.  You can’t have one without the other. With darkness comes the light, with light, shadow. 

The scary monster made up of a human torso, goat’s head/hooves, and eagle wings are but an absurd illusion created by man. He is a convenient scapegoat for all the evils of the world.  He is merely our shadow, the unresolved part of us that is obsessed with gaining satisfaction from material desires.

The Devil card symbolizes our obsessions with the material world.  This fixation is called materialism, and according to Paul Foster Case, materialism is the cause of man’s worst limitations.

That which is visible and tangible in the world is all there supposedly is because we humans are so bound to physical reality.  Since life is experienced through the five senses, the material world and everything in it is all that seems to exist. As a result of this, we become crazed with quenching a never-ending thirst.

Some of us are hooked on collecting objects, cruising the Internet, shopping, eating sugar/food/chocolate/cheese, smoking cigarettes/pot, drinking alcohol, having sex, or making money.  These addictions keep us trapped in our own personal hell.  

How do we break free from these self-imposed prisons? We can laugh! Humor doesn’t seem like the exact remedy, but if we can release the seriousness of our tone, we may well begin to find relief in this dark comedy of ours.  We can poke fun at ourselves and at the ridiculous cosmic spectacle that is our human drama.

Think about it! Everything in our society is an illusion that we concocted ourselves; the rules, the idea of how we should or shouldn’t exist.  We decided how we were supposed to act and supposed to be.  We have been strutting around the world for millennia defining what is right and what is wrong.  We have been allowing our egos to dictate conflict and to create our living hells.  It does not seem funny, and it actually does feel like hell at times, but if we look at it through that lens – that it’s all just things we make up, a fantasy really – it IS all quite laughable!

If we can cultivate a sense of humor when we face setbacks and challenges we may find some peace.  We can understand that we are just human beings and accept we are programmed to err.

As I worked with the Devil card again this week, I found something so ironic in its message: that I must set boundaries for myself in order to release some of my self-limiting behaviors. It’s all too funny!

The Devil card isn’t all that scary, though it can certainly feel that way when it’s time to face our fears and deal with our demons.  Sometimes it is simply telling us a little fun is exactly what we need! We can let go of seriousness, break our own damned rules and perhaps ignore the repercussions until tomorrow…sound like the little devil on your shoulder? You decide! 

The Devil reminds us that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We aren’t perfect, and we certainly will always have a shadow side to evolve. Let's embrace the darkness as well as our light.  

About the Art:
The drawing Der Daemon is Baphomet created by the French occult author and Magician Eliphas Levi.  It is found in his work Dogme de la Haute Magie (translated: Dogma of High Magic) printed in 1854.  This is the image that inspired the Devil card as we know it today.  The original image has an upright pentagram but I cut it out and reversed it to be in line with the RWS, Albano-Waite and BOTA decks.  In occult mysticism, the pentagram reflects the human body’s head, arms and legs.  The reverse pentagram shows that the legs & Base Chakra are pointing upwards instead of the head & Crown Chakra, conveying the focus on the physical instead of the spiritual.  I added a drawing called Chained Prisoner inked by Francisco Goya c. 1812 to highlight the bondage this card can indicate.

 


©2015 Maree Bento, divineMuses.  All Rights are Reserved. 

Symbolism
Astrological Sign: Sagittarius, the archer & the centaur
Hebrew Letter: Samekh (meaning tent peg, support or foundation)
Color: Blue
Keyword: Verification
Golden Dawn Title: The Daughter of the Reconcilers, the Bringer Forth of Life
Meaning: Tempering, integrating, testing, blending, balancing, synthesizing, and/or adjusting two or more aspects of your life: spiritual & material, intellectual & intuitive, home & work, or your life with someone else’s. It is about alchemy or art, living ones life like art. Moderation. Healing. 

divineMusings…
The image of La Sphynge by Felicien Rops (Belgian 1833-1898) is used in this Temperance collage. This divine being has the torso of a female human, the wings of an eagle and the lower extremities of a lion. The union of Lion and Eagle represent the perfect alchemical blending of the forces of fire and water (respectively).  She is a Sagittarius, a centaur in her own manifestation.  She shows us qualities of our animal and human natures coming together as one.  What happens if we merge different aspects of ourselves?  Hopefully nothing quite so frightening as La Sphynge, but there is a beauty in reconciling opposing elements.  By refining and uniting different facets of our lives we can create a new, more whole way of Being.  It’s an art form, an act of alchemy, mixing a precise ratio of ingredients to create the perfect individual result.  It may be a healing process, or there may even be a complete physical transformation, perhaps that ancient alchemist’s wish of turning lead into gold.  The rainbow represents the practice of this alchemy.  It is the attainment of the transfiguration of the ignorant into the Illuminated. This is the real changing of lead into Gold.  This curve of colors epitomizes the Chakras. Energizing and balancing our internal rainbow assists in the path to our enlightenment.  This awakening to our Higher Self is exactly where we find the elusive Gold at the end of the rainbow.





©2015 Maree Bento, divineMuses.  All Rights are Reserved. 

Symbolism
Astrological Glyph: Scorpio 
Hebrew Letter: Nun (Fish; To grow, to sprout, to propagate.)
Color:  Blue-Green 
Golden Dawn Title:  The Child of the Great Transformers, The Lord of the Gate of Death
Keyword: Transformation
Meaning:  Change; an ending, closure, or purging; regeneration, metamorphosis.  Some part of our life has died (career, relationship, living situation, etc.) to allow for something new to come in. 

divineMusings...
The Sun is rising.  Though one could easily say it's setting. For endings & changes are difficult (painful even) times in our life.  However, in Death we transform.  What dies becomes compost for new life.  Science even says that energy never dies.  Ever-transforming, ever-changing, we are eternally cycling through the Law of Transformation. Death's true meaning is in its never-ending movement and transfiguration which is constant with change. It is fear of change, of the unknown, that makes Death an enemy.  A white rose grows from the skeleton's hand.  The skeleton, aka Death, is fertilizing and feeding it new life.  Like when a tree is felled and then new shoots grow from its stump.  Life brings death and death brings life. The Sun may be setting, but it is certainly rising somewhere else.  




©2015 Maree Bento, divineMuses.  All Rights are Reserved. 

The 3 Symbols from Left to Right: 
1. Water (mirror, reflection, self-reflection) 
2. Neptune (Astrological Planet)
3. the Hebrew Letter, Mem (meaning Water: nourishing, purifying, suspending, protecting, dissolving, reflecting, baptizing) 
Color: Blue
Golden Dawn Title: The Spirit of the Mighty Waters
Keyword: Reversal
Some possible meanings: Surrender and trust. See the world from a different perspective, that is reverse of the "race mind", from a centered or more spiritual position. Unconventional, alternative conduct.  Meditation, contemplation, self-reflection.  Patience & Sacrifice.  Suspension of judgement and of the Manas (Sanskrit meaning personal mental activity, the word man comes from Manas, so the traditional title "the Hanged Man" means to suspend the mind. ). 

divineMusings...
The Hanged One shows us how to suspend judgement of ourselves and others.  We are all One breathing, manifesting, universal being expanding and igniting, ever-changing, ever-moving-forward into nothingness.  Infinitely creating individual sparks from the same source, an eternal source not able to be named for as soon as it is attempted, it changes form.  Releasing the need to always "do",  inviting the pendulum to come to center and in this way finding inner equilibrium.  The capacity to heal, love and restore peace exists here.  The Hanged One knows this and is at ease with the circumstances, accepting even the pain.  Suspend the Manas, suspend the mind, that unquenchable monkey. It has its place but it too must rest.  Clarity comes when we can suspend as the Hanged One does, the Surrendered One…the Suspended One.  We can then reverse our attitude, our thoughts, or situation; thinking in terms of success instead of failure and fear. 




©2015 Maree Bento, divineMuses.  All Rights are Reserved. 

What are the two extra cards that come with the deck? They are significator cards. 

For those who don't know, a significator card is used to represent the person who is getting their cards read, aka the querent.  It is chosen from the deck being used and is generally a court card.  For example, a card reader sitting with an older gentleman may choose the King of Swords to represent him before shuffling & laying out the rest of the cards.  This card selection can vary depending on the reader's designations.  

Some card readers will not use a significator at all as they don't want to remove what could potentially be a crucial card to come up during the reading.  Some readers will use a card from another tarot or oracle deck altogether to represent the questioner.  Others will ask for a picture to use during the session.  

For this deck I found two amazing images of fortune tellers to use as significators. The idea is to use one for the female querent (left)  and one for the male querent (right). 

The card at left,  the female significator,  features a Victorian photo from c. 1901 of a Far-Eastern man reading playing cards for a seated woman festooned in beautiful white attire. She is seated and you get the idea that she might be quite tall.  I wonder where in the world they are?! The reading table looks Indian and my imagination runs with the thought that the woman must be living or visiting abroad in British India.  

The card at right, the male significator, has an image of a young woman reading a man's palm, dated c. 1890's.  The photo is by Fitz W. Guerin, a Victorian photographer who owned several studios and became well-known after winning a prize at the 1878 Paris World Fair.  The thing I love about this image is that the Romany woman, adorned in lovely fortune-telling garb,  has something serious to share with the male Querent. Her formidable pointer finger is raised, cautioning him.  He, in his straw boater hat, gazes at her with a stupefied awe. At least that's what I pick up from his open-mouthed stare.  


I hope you find these extra cards useful.