Member Articles

Devil

Following Temperance, the Devil represents the first of a set of challenges to determine if in fact the student has absorbed, and is able to practice, the lessons learned in Temperance. The material plane is fraught with temptations to the student of the Tarot. The Devil asks the students questions such as, "How much will you charge for Tarot readings?" "What will you do if you are physically attracted to your clients?""Can you laugh with the darker side of your own and other's nature as it is revealed?" The Devil stage engages the student to examine honestly their motivations, desires, and material fantasies that are wrapped around the urge to become a professional reader. In Temperance they removed the barriers to blending the stream of opposites with in themselves, and their chosen path. You are only a human reminds the Devil. Listen to the beat of your heart, become aware of your human failings, accept them, and move on. You will feel fear, delight, hatred, love, discouragement and elation; don't allow these swings in your emotions deter you from pursuing your spiritual path. Use the emotional fire generated in your human soul to face the truth in yourself, and make the ethical choice. Don't sacrifice love at the alter of desire, or honesty at the alter of denial, or you will be forever chained to the demands of your lower nature, warns the Devil.

"I'm -----, whom you did a reading onnot too long ago, and a student in your introductory course at Victoria School. You may remember that the Devil card in my Wheel of Change deck was missing yesterday. It is nowhere to be found and I have already spoken to ----- at Holly Oak Bookstore, who will be ordering the card from the distributor for me. What I really wanted to tell you is that, needless to say, the first thing I did when I got home from our lesson was to look up the meaning of the Devil in Genetti's book, and, as you may guess, it nailed it right on at this particular moment of my life and specifically, for concrete reasons, in such a day as yesterday. I told you during my reading that I have been having an addiction for over sixteen years now, so the subject of abuse is painfully present in myriad shades every minute of my life. There are other aspects of the card that speak to me too, like the full acceptance of life and nature as they are and not as our dichotomy good vs. bad would like them to be.

Isn't it interesting that I have had to go and look for a card that symbolizesso much of my agony in order to complete my journey (my Tarot deck)? Myaddiction and other pains related to it (it is everything so intertwined and socomplex) are a pivotal part of my life, which has always shamed me, but maybethe day has come to claim them. Moreover, as the positive aspects of the cardand the move forward of the Fool's journey indicate, the theory is that Iwasn't born with these challenges to get stuck in or get crushed under them,but to overcome them, making myself in the process. Thetheory. The "wounded healer", as the astrologer told me. Wherewill I get the Strength to live it in practice? Is this the card I'll be losing next? Or will they send it to me as well from the distributor, by (again)mistake?