Death and the Devil
Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 6:26 amFor a while I’ve been spending a short time every week or so with the tarot trumps, doing a visualisation for each one, just to see what my mind makes of these archetypes. I’m anything but a tarot scholar and I haven’t tried to become one for the purposes of this exercise. The idea is to do this without preconceptions, just to see where my reactions fall naturally. Even when I do know something about a card’s traditional interpretation, I often come up with something else. Two I did recently were Death and the Devil.
Death — image of a bull, in white, red and ochre on a black ground, like a cave painting, rearing upright. His body is painted with various markings, including several “bullseye” rings of concentric circles. I realise that the other markings designate the cuts of beef that a butcher must know. He is marked for death. By his tragic expression, he knows it. The message seems to be of unavoidable fate and the individual’s protest in the face of it.
This card is often read as an indicator of change and transformation. One might read the marked bull as symbolising particularly the inevitability of change and the futility of protesting it. But I think the meaning here is a little sterner: the inevitability of real death. Death is the shadow over life, and one day the shadow will touch you. So, with that in mind, how will you conduct your life? It might also refer to the inevitability, during life’s course, of endings, failures, disappointments, wounds, mistakes that cannot be rectified and losses that cannot be recouped. The bull feels tragic and he wants to resist all this. He knows his own magnificence and it seems unfair to him that all his strength should be useless. Death is the price of life: necessary for the species, unfair to each individual. Perhaps unfairness is also a message here. What will you do when life pours a thoroughly undeserved shower of shit on you?
The Devil — image of a tiger wearing a jade-green silk robe and emerald rings. He is seated at a regal desk, writing a letter. Green is the colour of envy. Pride is the traditional sin of Lucifer, but here the sin must be envy, which comes from dissatisfaction. The tiger is splendid, but he isn’t satisfied. He is writing a letter to God. He says with a self-mocking air that it is a love letter. Whether he wants to be loved the best by God or to become God, he is not sure, or will not tell. Perhaps he does not distinguish between the two. One thing is for certain: nothing but the ultimate will do. Nothing less is good enough. I have always had sympathy for the devil, so that instead of wanting to chide him I find myself wishing him well. To say that there is something tender and touching here, a heart kicking in human pain, sounds soppy — but there it is. We all know what shame and disappointment feel like. Those emotions, at an existential level, seem to be at the root of his troubles. I have a hunch that if he were to take off his rings and robe and leave his desk, he might have more luck in his quest. He says I am missing the point. He wants to succeed as he is, to be loved as he is, vulgar tyrant though he may be.
This one is harder to interpret. If I had to take a stab at it, I would say that it is about identifying with our negative emotions and seeing them as part of our self, which we might call foolish behaviour; however, it is very close to the idea of asking to be loved for exactly and entirely who we are. Pema Chodron (American Tibetan Buddhist nun) points out that our best is often mixed up inextricably with our worst — think of Antony and Cleopatra, magnificent in their faults. A tricky one, as you would expect the Devil to be.
August 17th, 2008 at 9:58 am
That’s great. Are you working from a particular set? Very much liked what you pulled out of death.
August 17th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
No particular set. I use Aeclectic.net for background to the cards, though my subconscious tends to overrule what I read.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Very creative! I might have to do something like this! That is if I knew the meaning behind the cards themselves.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Well, I don’t know much about the meanings. I just take the name of the card, look at a couple of basic designs, then see how my mind responds to the archetype.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Very much like what you came up with for The Devil. An honest twist on the popular concept.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:19 am
An interesting idea; reminds me of the vampire tarot microfictions from Neil Gaiman’s ‘Fragile Things’ and also ‘Castle of Crossed Destinies’ by Italo Calvino
August 19th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Ethan - the Devil is a such a big topic, I think it’s very hard to reduce him to a symbolic soundbite. I don’t know what real tarot readers do, but for me I think the Devil would have to have some quite different meanings in different situations.
Alex - I’ve seen a vampire tarot, but haven’t read Fragile Things. Are there pictures to go with the stories?
August 19th, 2008 at 10:37 am
@KJ: I suppose, but I still need to get my hands on a deck.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Luckily, they’re not too hard to find
August 19th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
@KJ: Nope, just the stories - at least in the paperback version that I have.
Calvino shows the cards however, but does a different sort of thing. In each story in “Castle”, a character tells their tale by selecting a series of cards, and these cards are interpreted by the narrator - so instead of telling the future, they tell the past.
August 20th, 2008 at 6:55 am
I really like your imagery for Death - it resonates. I think people like to pretty up the Death symbolism lately, but really, it’s a damn scary card. Whether you interpret it as symbolizing actual death or figurative, endings are terrifying.
August 20th, 2008 at 7:38 am
I’m glad you think I got something sensible there (since you know a lot more about this than me!). I guess there can be a positive aspect to endings — if the card was in the “best possible outcome” position I’d have to interpret it as the death of something that should die — a bad habit, a useless way of thinking, a damaging relationship; some kind of dragon slain. But even so, for me, this card always has connotations of a memento mori; I think it offers a reminder to solve problems and change habits sooner rather than later, because life is short.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I know they aren’t hard to find, but I am in the south now. If it isn’t Christian and/or Catholic, then it MUST BE SATANIC! Plus, money.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
I thought the south was the place to go for voodoo and such. Or is that only New Orleans?
You can always order them, or if that’s too expensive, print some out and stick them on cardboard?
August 20th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
New Orleans you’re thinking of, Georgia is different! But it’s just finding a store around here. Shouldn’t be too hard considering they believe Savannah to be one of the most haunted cities in United States or something.