Death and the Devil
Contemplating that which shall not be discussed, for greater clarity, wisdom and understanding
I work with the tarot regularly. Early in this substack I posted a few readings, about the state of affairs in America. The message of both was, hard times ahead, steel thyself.
The morning after the summer solstice (which, happening on June 20th, earlier than usual, I uncharacteristically missed) I pulled my “not-quite daily divination card,” a card I semi-regularly pull in the morning, to give context to the day, something to consider, reflect and meditate upon.
I always say a few words and offer gratitude, while I am shuffling the cards. Very occasionally a card will fly out of the deck as I am shuffling. Being a “magical”, “enchanted” thinker, that is always something to take note of. I had barely got through, “Good morning cards, this is my not-quite daily…” when a card flew out of the deck onto the floor at my feet.
Good morning indeed! That is something of a wake up call. People who do not understand the cards tend to take the death card literally, as if it presages some actual death. Death in the occult perspective is a prime-ultimate transformation, equal opposite to birth. Death in the Tarot is the primary symbol of change. Death is the death of form, not of life. Death is as necessary to life as is birth. What comes from the earth will return to the earth and will come from the earth again in a different form. The death card is a sign to reflect on change and mortality, which is anathema in this materialist, secular culture. As an old saying goes, the only sure things are death and taxes. It does not serve well to deny either.
It used to be more common to give offering to honor the dead. It was/is believed, not to give respect to the dead, the dead will demand it, exacting death in the absence of ritual respect. A society that denies this, that does not honor the dead, will suffer more death and destruction, the dead will exact payment. I’m thinking now, all the dead due to covid jabs and pathological covid treatment and policy, that we are not allowed to discuss. I’m thinking about those Americans killed by migrants who are illegally in the country, said to be 2000 yearly before 10,000+ military aged men crossed the border since 2020. What about the 100,000 a year dead by fentanyl, because of the wide open border? How many have died in Ukraine, because Western elite want to control Russia? We do not acknowledge death as a general rule in this culture, let alone give honor to the dead1; according to this old way of thinking, we can only suffer more death, not honoring the dead. Increasingly, our elite mock the dead, or deny those killed by their pathological policies.
In the martial arts it is well understood, the warrior must accept that he will die if he is to truly live. To fear death is to not be fully alive. To fear death is to be tentative, hesitant, too careful such that life becomes more like glorified sleep. To be afraid of death is to guarantee a bad death. Occult study in many ways is preparation for a good death. The body and the ego die, the soul endures.
Normally when I pull my not-quite daily divination card, I set it face up on the deck and set the deck on my desk, to hold space. It might hold space like that until I feel called to pull another card, some days later. Not about to leave the death card on the table to hold space, I put it back in the deck and decided to pull another card, to give context to the death card.
Well then. Good morning! I hadn’t even had coffee yet. So, today (and ongoing) is going to be about reflecting on death and the devil. Interesting, to say the least.
The devil in this image is similar to Pan, the god of nature in the classical West. The satyrs chained to his footstool represent the female and male, elemental animal nature. The candles are reminders that Lucifer is also called the “light bearer.” The wings represent “the nocturnal, or shadow, inferior sphere.” The shield in the upper corner is the Tetragrammaton, the sacred name of God inverted. The symbol on his skirt represents Venus, the 15th Trump reduced to 6 (1+5), The Lovers card, ruled by Venus, a reminder of the dual nature of Venus, in the negative aspect, “abandonment, emotion and excess,” or in another sense, love inverted becomes hate. Six is also “a number associated with balance and equilibrium,” so there is no true understanding without contemplating both God and the Devil, light and shadow.
The devil is sometimes conflated with death, to the life that is God. Lucifer as the “light bearer” is a reminder that too much light is blinding. Too much sun worship, as an analogy for light, leads to megalomania, to the sacrifice of children, to the raising of children to believe they exist to be sacrificed. “The false light which guides unillumined souls to their undoing.” The devil in the occult tradition is the infernal, inversion of the good.
Lucifer is not the sun, the sun is not Lucifer. Without the sun there would be no life. Satan by contrast, is merely a fallen angel who wished to usurp the divinity, who is become like the reservoir or the focal point of those energies that are an inversion of the good. I make the analogy of the sun with light, and sun worship, merely to show how too much light, too much information, too much power can be a problem. The Society of the Golden Dawn, of which the poet William Butler Yeats was a member, imploded with the likes of Aleister Crowley becoming a megalomaniac because he tried to personify the sun. Similarly, in those cultures of antiquity, particularly along the line of the equator, which often worshiped the sun, too often descended into human sacrifice.
Consider now in this modern society, the likes of Anthony Fauci, who literally suggested himself to be the personification of The Science. This is the information age and all that information seems to lead more to madness than broad enlightenment. The devil is also know as the prince of lies; is there any more an expert liar than Anthony Fauci? But his kind are legion in the technocracy, in the intelligence community, the media, leading institutions of all kinds public and private. There is the reality that is true, and then there are neo-cons and neo-liberals who believe they make reality for all of us with their words. The word is a kind of magic, we are all creating our own reality in a sense, with words, with language, defining who and what we are. There is a language to facilitate what is good, and there is a language for facilitating the inversion of the good. Just about every word that flows from institutions, the technocracy and the elite who lead, is a kind of sorcery, the inversion of the good, the inversion of truth, becoming ever more apparent.
See if this quote from Eliphas Levi, from his chapter on necromancy, in The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, resonates at all about the DIE, ESG, woke and trans phenomenon and the unaccountable technocracy so many on the left seem to worship like a stand-in for God:
“the names of Satan, of Beelzebub, of Adramelech, and the others do not designate spiritual unities but the legions of impure spirits. “I am called Legion,” the spirit of darkness says in the Gospels, “for we are many.” In hell, anarchy reigns, it is the crowd that rules, and progress occurs in the inverse direction, that is to say the most advanced in Satanic development, in consequence the most degraded, are the least intelligent and the weakest. Thus a fatal law pushes demons to descend when they believe and wish to climb up. Also, those who call themselves the leaders are the most impotent and despised of all. As to the mass of impure spirits, they tremble before an unknown leader, invisible, incomprehensible, capricious, implacable, who never explains his laws and who always has his arms extended to strike those who cannot perceive it…but this phantom is nothing but a shadow and a memory of God, disfigured by their voluntary perversity.”
Previously I discussed demons and the devil:
On the Problem of Evil, Part One
About 30 years ago my mother asked me to attend an overnight weekend gathering in Fergus Falls, MN. The focus of the event would be about addiction. My mother was convinced I was addicted to cannabis (despite that I wasn’t smoking a tenth of what some others I thought were addicted were smoking.) The gathering would be held at a former mental hospital. …
On the Problem of Evil, Part II
There seems to be a revival of devil worship in America. Some might recall Sam Smith’s performance at the most recent Grammy’s (the Grammy’s were sponsored by Phizer, you might recall as well.) Lil Nas takes it from behind from the devil, then kills the devil and takes over hell.
This is how much the culture of elite and of liberalism generally has come to resemble a sun-worshiping death cult, sacrificing children to the god of trans, demanding obedience to the gods of pharma, mocking or denying those murdered by migrants, sacrificing the dead by fentanyl to the gods of open borders and internationalism, demanding energy and food production policies that could only result in economic collapse and the death of millions, causing a competency crisis leading to the inevitable collapse of complex systems in obedience to the gods of DIE policy, ever escalating the war in Ukraine against Russia, risking WWIII in service to some inversion god called Saving Democracy.
Not that conservatives or Republican are generally anything like a bulwark of the good, captive as so many are by the gods of scientific materialist progress.
Not about to let The Devil card hold space on my desk, I pulled another card, to make it a typical set of three: the present, the challenge and the outcome.
The Queen of Coins:
The vesica inside the cube displays the power of creation in balance with the senses. The white backdrop with the white four-leaf clover suggests how the balancing of passion with soul can lead to the highest creativity in the dense realm of matter.
Coins are also the symbol of wealth, of the true wealth of clarity, wisdom, understanding and justice. There is also the symbolism of the three, in the levels of the platform and the tassels of the pillow she rests her feet on, out of creation the one emerges, the one becomes a unity in two, the unity of two creating three.
I didn’t die, the Death card flinging out of the deck like it did. That is just a reminder, I have left behind my youth (I have been playing baseball with the local 35 and older team, which has been a lesson in being 50 and not playing the game in 25 years.) I have gone from marginally employed, to “running a business becomes your life.” The culture I was born in seems to be dying. Both of my parents are showing ever more signs of advanced age.
The Devil “challenge” card is about me taking a hard look at my anger and rage at the state of the culture. That is shadow stuff. I can do something meaningful about my rage, but little about the state of the culture. It might also have something to do with my distance from women, from Venus and love. There is some anger there, about the effect of feminism, on me, on women, on my relationships, on the culture. Something too about embracing compassion, letting go of frustration and shortness, about taking care of my elderly parents.
The Queen of Coins is the outcome, if I do the work. Balancing the power of creation with my senses, my passion with my soul, that I might fulfill my creativity, the art that is truly living. Probably something too about coming to a greater understanding about women, and about real wealth.
Many of the protestors calling to end the war in Gaza are not honoring dead Palestinians, they are protesting because it makes them feel powerful and rightious, which is the inversion of honor.
What can I say about women? The Feminine is not the opposite of the Masculine. Instead it is the missing half. The integrated person is both feminine and masculine, those aspects are complementary. One does not dominate. A man without a woman, and vice versa, is incomplete. This is not to say that any male-female couple is by definition balanced, we must be careful to find balance with the opposite sex. I suspect this is difficult when you are 18, as you haven’t found yourself yet. The single man can evaluate candidate women for their ability to provide balance and completeness. Likewise, the single woman can evaluate candidate men for their ability to provide balance and completeness.
I wish I had known this 30 years ago!
Excellent reading! I grew up a very conservative Christian, and Tarot was very verboten. However, I see it as a tool now. It may be applied or abused based on the intent of the operator, nothing more. It illuminates truth and helps gives life, or it can be misused to bring destruction and deception.
I got some good stuff to mull over from your reading. I especially appreciated this point.
“Many of the protestors calling to end the war in Gaza are not honoring dead Palestinians, they are protesting because it makes them feel powerful and rightious, which is the inversion of honor.”