Creating the Webbd Wheel: The Devil
In which we consider the threat of authentic experience ...
One of the reasons I love working with Tarot cards is their open-endedness. Each card may be considered from several different aspects and may have several layers of meaning.
Some people are quite concrete and fact based. Anything that can’t be proven with hard data is discarded. They appreciate black and white facts and figures. Others are completely untethered from any kind of fact-based exploration or information and believe anything and everything fitting their ideology or coming from their tribe.
I believe the most powerful position is to be able to navigate in both the symbolic/intuitive/archetypal realm and the realm of science. Please note neither of these arenas include “alternative facts,” just so we’re clear!
Tarot cards are based on archetypes, which are typical examples of well-known people or things. Examples are the solitary hermit, the warrior, the mother, the anguished artist. Old stories are nearly always archetypal, because they speak to the experience of being human. Although each of us is unique, the broad cycles, seasons, challenges and emotions we experience are common to all of us.
The Tarot has its roots in pre-Christian antiquity, so it’s a mistake to interpret The Devil card as necessarily negative, frightening, or evil. In Tarot, The Devil symbolizes authentic experience, seduction, and power. As you can see below, classic Tarot decks are unfortunately influenced by Christianity, which is why I don’t use them.
Authentic experience. I’ll never forget how thrilled I was when I first began working with Tarot and came across that. I was also amused. After all, many people do behave as though authentic experience is the greatest evil there is. A sad comment on modern culture, and also, from my point of view, on many western religions.
Authentic pleasure. Authentic sensuality and sexuality. Authentic needs and desires. Authentic bodies and physical expression. Authentic feelings.
Being real. Telling the truth.
Authentic experience is power.
On the other hand, we humans are famous for taking everything too far. Hedonism, or complete self-indulgence in sensual pleasure, is neither healthy nor powerful. Speaking nothing but the complete truth all the time is also problematic. Seeking to reclaim our rightful personal power is one thing. Seeking power over others is a different agenda.
Old stories are frequently inhabited by enigmatic travelers, often attractive male peddlers who travel from place to place, buying, selling, and acting as a magical catalyst in the lives and places they brush past.
I wanted a character like that, an unconventional fellow who refused to be absolutely civilized or follow social rules, a free spirit with clear eyes who encouraged the full range of human emotion and experience in those around him without judgement. Such a man would be full of stories, unshockable, sophisticated, independent, and sexy. He would annoy people. His irreverence would amuse people. He would make people uncomfortable. He would speak inconvenient truths.
The Devil, indeed!
What would be the strengths and weaknesses of such a character? What kinds of personal challenges would he face? Would he be content to travel all his life, or as he aged would he want to slow down and grow roots? Would he be content with relationships lasting no longer than a night or two, or might he one day fall in love and decide to stop traveling? Would he be as good at authentic experience as he teaches others to be? We nearly always teach what we most need to learn ourselves.
The Hanged Man: Part 3 opens the cycle of Samhain, which is modern-day Halloween. Sunlight diminishes. The veil between the worlds thins. Historically, people culled their herds, finished harvest, and settled down to survive the cold, dark, winter. It was a time to remember and honor ancestors and tell stories around the hearth.
Modern culture associates darkness with fear, death, black magic, and The Devil.
But I believe miracles happen in the dark and authentic experience is healthy and powerful. I’m very pleased to draw The Devil card …
(This essay was published with post #10 of The Hanged Man.)
