Dancing with the Devil

"The devil plays on your desires with a masterful touch.  Break free from the puppeteer's strings by looking beyond the material blockades and temptations."
~Barbara Moore, Shadowscapes Tarot

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The Devil (card number XV in the Major Arcana of the tarot) has shown up with consistency over the past few years for me - almost as if to nudge me now and again, as I navigated extremely trying times, to say, "Hey, you know there is still something up with this, right"?

Just the other morning as I was clearing and shuffling one of my favorite tarot decks, a card jumped right into my lap.  For me this is always a sign to stop and pay close attention - any card that suddenly flies into my lap has something important to say.  

I turned over the card, and there was the Devil - REVERSED! 

I thought for a moment, and could not think of any time the Devil had shown up reversed in these past years - it was always upright.  

I examined the imagery of the card.  The Devil seems to sadistically play with a heart he holds between his hands while he dances over a woman who sits curled up with her face buried in her knees in the cave below. She makes no attempt even to lift her head and look around.  She cannot see out of the dark that surrounds her - but it is her own dark that blinds her and allows her to remain imprisoned, to the Devil's delight.  

It is only the woman's beliefs that keep her a hostage - the Devil only plays on this.  It was she who allowed the Devil in; it was she that allowed him more and more power over her until she felt - she believed - she was hopelessly imprisoned. 

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XV The Devil, Shadowscapes Tarot, Artist Stephanie Law

• Losing Independence
• Addiction/Enslavement
• Caught up in the Material Realm
• Choosing to Stay in the Dark
• Pleasures, Lust and Desire
• Feeling Hopelessness/No Options

"She feels the walls closing in on her, oblivious to the fact that she is not completely surrounded - there is the wide world open to either side!  The skies cry with songs of beauty and freedom, but she tucks her head down to hide in fear, bound within walls and shackles though it is only a thin thread that binds her, red as her heart's blood, and the key is so close, so close.  Look up!  you wish to cry at her.  Raise your eyes and look around!"

"But her ears are deaf to any voice but that of the Devil.  All she hears and feels is the Devil dancing above her, driving her, goading her, pressing down upon her.  Tap tap tap goes the dancing of his hooves in a merry, mocking rhythm.  Tap Tap tap in the seductive patterns of entrapment of the willing.  Tap tap tap he dances, and he laughs with the knowledge that it is with such ease he can hold a vibrant spirit captive."  

"Look up!  Faintly, the voice pierces through the stones and seeps up into her body, and she reaches out."     ~Barbara Moore, Shadowscapes Tarot

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I had come to know the scenario depicted on that card all too well.  The past years had been so challenging that I had spent much of them in a dark hole, unable to see the world beyond my suffocating depression.  

But on this morning, when I turned over the card which so eagerly took flight and landed in my lap, it was the Devil reversed!  I sat there staring at it, as hope sunk into my bones.  Dare I believe that I was nearing the end of this walk through the underworld and things were going to get better soon? 

XV The Devil (Reversed)

If the Devil speaks of our imprisonment, then the Devil reversed speaks to our liberation.

I saw the Devil reversed as a sign that things would soon be looking up, but my excitement was tempered. Even with the card flipped on its top so it looks like the woman has "turned the tables" on the Devil and reclaimed her power in the situation, I know the Devil is not an "easy" card.  

The Devil is a card of Saturn, and the zodiac sign it rules, Capricorn.  Saturn has the qualities of cold, dark and dry.  Capricorn is represented by a goat.  To get a feel for Saturn and Capricorn, think of a mountain goat climbing a steep and rocky face. Sturdiness and determination is required for the goat to  survive as it navigates such a harsh and barren environment. 

Saturn is about how we survive in this world where we exist within the limits of natural law - if we are not able to feed our bodies, we will die - there is no way for a human body to get around that.  Saturn rules over discipline, work, time, deadlines, limits, bones, skin, teeth, rules and boundaries..  Saturn is associated with karma and authority.  With Saturn, we must "do the work" - the ideas of "easy" and "comfortable" don't really exist in Saturn's domain - it is more the black and white reality of cause and effect.  You will reap exactly what you sow.  Either you plant your fields and tend to them and have food to harvest, or, if you don't put in the work, you don't get the harvest and you won't have food.  

The lesson of the goat climbing that unforgiving mountainside is one we can apply directly to ourselves and our lives.  It reminds us that there are certain rules or laws governing this life that create the reality of what is required of to survive in this world in whatever environment we may be in.  There is a lesson for us in how the goat simply does what it must do.  As humans, we don't always do that, and our lives can easily turn into a living hell.

There are times in life where find ourselves suddenly thrust into our own personal hell and a slave to our own demons. To free ourselves, we must face our shadows and reclaim our power. 

in this life we must take responsibility for ourselves and we must do our own work.  It simply cannot be done for us. 

The Devil in tarot refers to something in our lives we have allowed to control us.  It is something we have become dependent on, believing we cannot survive without it.   We have some belief that has resulted in an attachment to something or someone to the point that we have traded our freedom and autonomy for a false sense of security.  

Here is where the concepts of Saturn and the Devil very obviously come together: 

​whatever is not taken responsibility for in the shadowlands will manifest in real life as something like addiction or codependency.  If we ignore our demons they will only bring hell to us in our everyday life.

Our life experiences, our socialization through family, education systems, religious systems, political systems, even media, creates our beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world we live in.  Many times we feel like these beliefs we have taken on are "just the way it is."  Maybe out of fear of being secure we stay in jobs we hate or abusive relationships.  Maybe we chose a profession that we have no passion for based on the opinions and desires of our parents.  Maybe our childhood environment left us codependent and with no idea of what a healthy relationship or independence even feels like.  

The Devil ultimately represents what holds us prisoner under its spell.  

What form does the Devil take in your life? 
Under what spell does he hold you captive, not seeing you could so easily walk away?
 What lies does this Devil fill your head with to keep you under his control?  What does he say as he laughs at you, feeding on your shame and embarrassment? 

Some favorites spells of the Devil get you to believe lies about yourself such as: not good enough, not worthy, not smart enough, not lovable, not acceptable, not okay, not valuable, not important, not useful...the list goes on and on. 

​But the Devil is not that clever. 

When we become aware of these thoughts about ourselves, this is when we know that these are the Devil's lies, and we are being kept somehow, in some way under his spell. 

Then we can open our eyes and look around and see that we were only ever imprisoned by our beliefs that were not allowing us to see the truth.... 

The truth is, we are the ones with the power, and we choose to keep it or give it away.
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We have, and always have had, the power to set ourselves free.

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