The Tarot of Eli, LLC-Major Arcana: Thoth Tarot- ATU 15-The Devil & Tarot of The Ages- Key XV-The Devil

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On the Qabalistic Tree of Life, The Devil-ATU/Key 15, is named the Tree of Life Path of Ayin, and it connects the 6th Sephiroth of the Solar Logos (Beauty), Tiphareth with the Sephiroth-Hod-Splendor, which is the sphere of Mercury and the intellect. The Path of Ayin, is the Twenty-sixth Path and is formative. In the terms of Self structure, it is the bridge between The Personality and individuality.

As I have stated so often before, the Solar Logos, is the Original Personality of the Divine Child of God, i.e. the Son/Sun/Soul. Note: this is not a sexual description of a species, rather it is an "Energetic one", For the Son of God is a Sun that sends "solar flares" (Vital Energy and Data) outward as individual expressions of It's own Self ( Personality); from Self into selves that circumnavigate, through the experiences of self-awareness back to Self, i.e. from Tiphareth to Malkuth and back up the Tree to Tiphareth again.

The Hebrew letter Ayin means -Eye (I) and is a simple letter that also Means-Mirth. This double meaning may invite confusion; However, rest assured, that this Path of Ayin is one of the most difficult for western people to understand, for interpretation flies in the face of Christian cultural definitions that have been applied to the Devil. The All Seeing Eye, and/or 3rd eye, represents the Primal I and/or First Identity. The Great Self, from which all self-copies come from. A Great Self Fractal we call the Divine Creative, and if you know yourself, we call the I AM. Kether takes this place on the Tree of Life, However, the Greater Self is the entire upper triangle of the Tree and is called Western Qabalistic circles, the Supernal Triangle.

In Barbra G. Walker's Book [ THE WOMAN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYTHS AND SECRETS] which has been honored by the London Times Educational supplement as 1986 "Book of the Year", the provenance of the word devil is noted as Persian. She states." The Words "devil" and "divinity" grew from the same root, Indo-European devi (Goddess) or deva (God), which became daeva (devil) in Persian. Old English divell (devil) can be traced to the Roman derivative divus, divi: gods. Thus it seems that, from the beginning, gods and devils were often confused with one another." She goes on to explain such enlightening scholarship that I highly recommend this book to anyone who seeks an honest education rather than an indoctrination. This confusion of gods and devils, is also why the Devil card, ATU/Key 15 is a gematria 1+5=6; which is the Christ-Buddha consciousness 6th Sephiroth-Tiphareth-Beauty. Hence, it is the "unseen" or shadow side of the Sun of God. Interestingly, the old statement "Beauty is in the eye (I)of the beholder", now has a new meaning for beauty is in the Identity of the beholder.

There is another fact here that may hide from reason, and that is the combination of the words Devi (Goddess)and Lingam (Male phallus), is Divya Linga (Sanskrit word for Divine- lingam) and has also been interpreted by propagandists of Christian past, as the word Devil, which actually bespeaks of the "Son of God" as the Solar Phallus and the Moon god-Sin whose sacred Mountain is Mnt. Sinia who was born of the Virgin Queen of Heaven, Inanna, has become christianized as evil and sin . Hence, the Christian Devil is always shown with a phallic tail. Much to study here as most of our "knowledge" is propaganda based misconstructions!

To the Qabalist, the Devil is not viewed as an evil entity (lived spelled backward), having its own god-like existence, as it represents a special mystery (Arcana) that must be experienced and understood before we can hope to directly know the Higher Self. Within our Physical bodies. The Devil is the intelligence that is Master of Manifest form (the Instinctual Mind), which we meet on the Path of Ayin, and must face and conquer. The Path of Ayin, takes the traveler into an understanding that we are entering a transition between the intellect of consciousness (individual conscious) and true spiritual conscious. In other words, our Brain, an artificial intelligence, is programed to be our Devil. Hence, the devil is always linked with illusion and the dark side of the moon.

On the Qabalistic Tree of Life, 3 Paths lead directly into Tiphareth: THE DEVIL {key 15), ART (key 14 called Temperance in Traditional Medieval Tarot decks), and DEATH (key 13). Now each of these paths represents a special trial for the initiate; However, each student is not required to travel all three Paths.

One way to experience Path Travel is the Devotional Path of the Middle Pillar or Pillar of Mildness, where one need only experience the Path of Samekh (meaning- Prop) or the Art Card-key 14 (Temperance in other decks), leading from Yesod (Foundation) to Tiphareth (Beauty). This is more of a gentle path of the Mystics and demands less mental and emotional will from the Student. The Magi's way of following each and every Path, means the acquisition of control over Forces which each Path symbolizes: every Path confers a unique power ("magical abilities"). Therefore, a Magus is an active Force of Creation, rather than a Passive one. The difference here, is that the Traveler of the Middle Path does learn to balance and understand within the Self, the forces of the twenty-two Paths, but understanding these conceptual states of conscious energy does not necessarily develop the ability to manipulate them, which is an art necessary in the development of a "discerning Personality"; the Spiritual purpose for the human body!

Now I know, that some students of the Occult (hidden mysteries) enter into the studies seeking a type of "Raw Power", hoping to control others and circumstances to avoid pain and "doing unto others before they can do unto them". Such misinformed students soon learn that if such Power is acquired and then misused there is a devastating price to pay. So there is no question that for the timid, the Middle Path is much safer than facing and conquering the temptations of the Western Magical Path.

THE DEVIL represents Raw Power (Mars), it is the Force that brings about the transmutation of THE TOWER (key 16) and is in the sign of Capricorn (also shown as the Goat or Goat like image on the Waite, Tarot of the Ages and Crowley card), which is where Mars is exalted. Capricorn, is a weighty, even blind sign of earth and symbolizes the highest and lowest states of individual personality. Yet it is considered a sign of initiation, or release from matter formed limitations. These material limitations are suggested by the astrological ruler-ship of Capricorn by Saturn, the Planet of Binah, The Great Mother, that governs the limitations of form, including Time, as does Saturn. These limitations are of both the enclosure of matter or of time, the artificial system by which we meter and enclose all activities. Thus, THE DEVIL also represents the average person's misconception of "reality"; a perceptive belief that the material eye sight and/or-sensual condition is "Real". The Qabalist knows the physical-material world as the "1%" world where the Mind believes it is a body, and realizes that the other invisible ”99%” (often called "the other side of the Mirror") is the unseen Real of the One Mind. This misconception of reality is symbolized, by the upside down pentagram on the goat like entities head of traditional tarot. The upside down pentagram indicates a delusion caused by the bodies senses, as our ideas of spirituality and reality are "upside down", making the body the power over emotions and/or energy-in-motion.

The total misconceptions of Life based on fear, is what the devil card implies. As in the Tarot of The Ages, fear is the dark evil that lurks in the fear constructs of our subordinated unconscious minds.

The misconception of reality is symbolized in two ways on the Thoth Deck-THE DEVIL card; the smirking mouth and the Goat represents the humorous figure of the childhood nemesis the "Bogeyman". This "Bogey Man" is more of a demonic goat on the Tarot of the Ages - Key XV. Rather than show the Devil as some demonic netherworld god, the Thoth Tarot cards emphasizes the knowledge that the physical body is only .4% of our totality, as we are mostly space (99.6%) Hence, the delusion that our body controls our "Space" is actually laughable. Hence the smiling goat, which also implies that laughter is a humorous approach to our lives and is a tool which will help our consciousness to transcend the illusion of "thinking it to believe it". Mirth is the first great corrective and helps us not to take our perceptions of the material world seriously, which only means "fearfully". Therefore, The Devil card cautions us not to believe everything we think.

It pays to note that the Survival Mind of the animal, is our Devilish tempter that tricks us into believing we are as Moons who are at the mercy of Forces rather than the Magus (The Will) who manipulates these forces. The Wisdom of the ages, tells one to not believe in the Christian Devil. That the darkness within is merely our fear based thinking initiated by the survival mind of the biological brain that is stimulated by imaginary bogey men, created by those who wish to rule our imaginations. For fear filled imaginations are easy to rule.

These delusions of mental weakness, are shown on the Tarot of the Ages, as a dark and unwholesome nightmare apparition of predatory "goat/man demon". Implying that the Shadow Side of our mind is our fear of fate, forces, and other states of enslaved thinking, brought on by manipulating our fear of pain, death, and rejection. Also, the limited physical sight, rather than insight, can be the bogey-men creator that keeps us from exercising our free Will- Spiritual Power, as we constantly react to the environment rather than the spiritual act of acting in that environment. This is the Trick of sensuality, it makes us believe only in reaction as reality rather than the Action, that makes the Real of things. Spirit is action, the body is reaction. Our Action must control our reaction, if we are to exercise our Divine Freedom of Choice. When reacting to others, we are choosing to be ruled by them and spend our lives trying to appease or condemn them, keeping us in a constant state of fear and/or "stress".

The Qabalist knows that there is nothing in the Universe that is not of One Mind. The devil, as we are taught, is merely a postulation of those who wish to rule the knowledge by keeping others ignorant of their inherited Divine power and making them fear their body senses. Once, the Spirit, Mind and body are divided, by dogma, one becomes a "body bedeviled". The blue flowers on the Thoth Goat image, are called "forget me nots" and/or fear of rejection. It is known to the Qabalists that the foundation of survival thinking begins in the child who wails and cries, so that are not forgotten/rejected. Fear of rejection is a primal instinctual fear of a social animal. By exploiting this fear of being rejected, through the mechanisms of indoctrination and dogma, the Patriarchy has gained control of the common person's avatar-the homo sapiens sapiens body. For when you control the imaginations of mankind, you control them and enslave their minds to your rules of identity. The Devil card reminds us that we have been tricked into believing that we are "seeking spirituality" rather than being it. However, the Psyche, and/or Soul, is the Divine Child of the Divine Creative, whose feminine aspect is Imagination, the birther of images. Each of us is a trinity of Spirit-Mind-Body. The body puts intimacy/sensuality to whatever is imagined and/or created.

Intellectually the "Devil " Tarot indicates a state of mind that is a source of forms, a mind of measurement and appearance of relative existence and is the necessary intellectual means of reaching the Christ-Buddha consciousness that is discerning and is represented as Tiphareth, the 6th Sephiroth-Beauty- on the Tree of Life. For without measurement, there is no self-awareness and therefore, no discernment. That is why this necessary state of mind, is also called the "Lord of the Gates of Matter and the Child of the forces of Time" (see the Emerald Tablet). The Devil then is both Tempter and Redeemer. He is also described as the "Prince of the Powers of Air", indicating that this state of energy conscious is mediating in the flow of Astral currents (Mental Currents of the Universal Collective Unconscious) ; Air being understood here as being the whole of Yetzirah, the Formative Astral Plane which controls the ebb and flow of Matter.

Therefore, the inner Path of Ayin, confers the ability to bring the upside down pentagram indicating "matter's rule over spirit", right side up. Right side up, the pentagram indicating Spirit's rule over matter; which is another way of saying, the ability to reverse the currents of astral light. This process begins with the intellect of Hod (Splendor) and leads into the intuition of Tiphareth (Beauty). Thus, Dr. Paul Foster Case in his text -The Thirty-Two Paths to Wisdom, calls the Devil the Renewing Intelligence. The Qabalist understands that only through the forces of the Devil and our right understanding of them, can we come directly to the Higher Consciousness of the Son/Sun of The Divine Creative.

It behooves us to remember that the word manifestation actually means to create illusion, and while manifestation is the necessary means to create the illusion of earthly form and therefore, measurement for the infinite Self, to "I-Mage" itself, it is also the "dissolution" of these forms that is absolutely essential to the Path of Return. To the Qabalist, "dissolution" means analysis which is precisely what we apply when we intellectually separate the component forces and forms of the Universe and ourselves into 22 paths on the Tree of Life. By first conceptualizing these component parts and then reintegrating them through our understanding of their operation, can we Return to our Divinity.

The Astral light (Akashic fluid, Odic force, etc.) is manipulated for whatever purpose, through an understanding of the Devil which is a "Great Magical Agent" (Eliphas Levi) for the processes of alchemical manipulation, as to dissolve, to consolidate, to quicken, and to moderate. This is dissolution, re-integration, activity and grounding which can be described as Fire, Water, Air and Earth.

The Thoth Tarot Card is more Arcanely complex than traditional Tarot cards. This is because, as Crowley states, that Key 15 represents, "creative energy in its most material form", and as "Pan Pangenetor, the All-Begetter". Rather than some child's bogeyman. Crowley's goat is Pan standing on the highest mountain-top on earth, against a "background of the exquisitely tenuous, complex, and fantastic forms of madness." Between the legs of the Thoth Goat, is the wand of the Chief Adept and all in front of a Phallus and two testicles, implying the Universal "All-Begetter". On the Thoth Devil card, the tip of the male organ is outside of the card and into a heavenly vortex, implying the fertility of creation is in the "Greater Heavens", while the testes contain the bound up forms of manifestation. Manifestation is the "illusion of form" and/or information: illusion, because information, becomes "in-form-action" in the One Mind. So within Self are "selves" created. Selves, being Self-information and/or Self-Awareness.

The Tarot of The Ages- Key XV-the Devil, uses the art of a more traditional tarot card. However, it uses the Hebrew letter- Samekh -meaning Prop (support), and as a simple letter, that also contains the meaning of Anger. Here the "boogeyman", is the traditional goat head and lower legs of a Satyr. The upside down pentagram forms its dark head, with symbol for mercury (the messenger of the gods)over its genitals. The male and female forms were a hood of dark thoughts over their heads. They are therefore, chained to the indoctrination of these thoughts, that are shown pouring out of the fingers of the devil form. Here the bodies are burned by vice, are begging the serpent for satisfaction. The snake or serpent shown on the altar, is a symbol for the primal DNA that demands that the "fruit of the loins" be used in reproduction, as in "beastile ruting".

The homo sapiens sapiens, generates gods, and things, from the union of the Imagination (female intuition) and the ratioation (measurement) of the masculine rationale. However, when these 2 are separated, we are all deprived of our creative power. That Power is under the Rules of Definition, which are in the control of Ruler's whose whole philosophy is based on "divide and conquer". A demon has taken control of our brains. This demonic bondage of indoctrination and/or dogma must be exorcised by the Soul/Psyche, to reclaim its dominion over the body it makes live. The illusion is that we are being demonized by our own thinking; we have created our own bondage.

Remember: Only the homo sapiens sapiens through observation, can make itself less than what it really is. Dog's are always dogs and Lizards are always lizards; animal's are very predictable . It takes a "god" to make itself , less or more.

WHEN THE TAROT OF THE AGES OR THOTH KEY/ATU 15-THE DEVIL CARD IS THROWN DURING A DIVINATION, IT IMPLIES:

• Materialism.
• Material Force.
• Sometimes obsession. (especially if thrown with the Lovers card)
• Upside down thinking, where the illusion of fear rules your thought and one thinks that "everything bad happens to me".
• Not seeing the forest through the trees.
• Living in your own illusion of suffering and being obsessed with pain or fear thereof. Such as a hypochondriac. 
• Needing mirth in your understanding, as you are too serious. Time to laugh at your assumptions.
• Needing more action and less reaction in your life.
• Subordination. 
• Bondage.
• Downfall. 
• Upside down thinking.
• Self-punishment.
• Unable to realize one's goals.

When ill defined and by surrounding cards:

• Release from bondage.
• Throwing off shackles.
• Respite.
• Divorce.
• Overcoming severe handicaps.
• The beginning of spiritual understanding. 

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