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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.tarot,alt.divination,alt.pagan.magick,talk.religion.misc,alt.mythology,alt.astrology,alt.occult From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva) Subject: Death/Devil/Tower Research (LONG) Date: 12 Jan 1998 13:28:09 -0800 49980102 aa2 Hail Satan! Research on the Connections Amongst the Tarot Cards Death, the Devil and the Tower (XIII, XV and XVI) ========================================================= by nagasiva (tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com) ----------------------------------------- Introduction the tarot cards Death, the Devil and the Tower all suggest deep mystery, dynamic and sometimes cataclysmic change. their commonalities may be found in astrological, qabalistic and mythological associations. the traditional names and attributions of the cards are: XIII Death/Lord of Gates: Scorpio, Pluto, Water, Nun XV The Devil/Typhon: Capricorn, Saturn, Earth, Ayin XVI The (Blasted) Tower/War/The House of God/ The House of the Devil: Mars, Fire, Peh. Brief Overview of Connections the astrological commonalities surround the sunsign of Scorpio, the planets Mars and Saturn. Mars is exalted in Capricorn (cf. Crowley below) and rules the sign of Scorpio. it is traditionally associated with Atu XVI, The Tower. there are saturnine symbols or themes within all three cards, and a popular version of Atu XV (Smith-Waite) has aquiline feet, also suggestive of Scorpio (cf. Case below). on the Lurianic Tree of Life as paths are usually portrayed in paired matchings with the Higher Cards the three mark out a triangle directly below Sphere 6, Tiphareth, across which Atu XIV, Art or Temperance, is usually found. as such they form the structure between the Spheres of Venus and Mercury, 7 and 8, Netzach and Hod, Victory and Glory, respectively), underlying Beauty, Tiphareth, the Sphere of the Sun. this region is often described as the World of Yetzirah, Formation, within which dwell spirits. traditionally rendered, the symbolism of the three cards implies a trifold Threat-Punisher-Penalty, and this is most plain in the associations where Death is the Penalty for the Original Sin or Wage of Sin generally; the Devil is Satan or Sammael, the Tempting Serpent, Angel of Death and Tormentor of Lost Souls; and the Fall is from Grace or is a Righteous Punishment. these cards are, by modern expositors, given explanations and interpretations that are easier to accept than this, transcending Biblical paradigms and settling for psychological or mystical allegories. in general, Death is treated the least deeply of the three, and the Devil and Tower are typically combined into some form of relationship, be that over-extension and repercussion or challenge and revelation. Death is most often facilitated as a certain type of change. the Devil is either explained as a Guardian or Adversary, sometimes pacified by submersion in a form of Pan, and the Tower's rupture is emphasized as a massive entry of extraconscious power (divine, unconscious), usually alluding to Babel or a pretension (the Tower of God or the Tower of the Devil) which brings judgement, with repetition of the revelation and conversion of St. Paul at Damascus. Readings for Your Pleasure (1) Crowley's commentary, as usual, was the most cogent, all of which is included here: --------------------------------------------------- [on XIII] The card itself represents the dance of death; the figure is a skeleton bearing a scythe, and both the skeleton and the scythe are importantly Saturnian symbols. This appears strange, as Saturn has no overt connection to Scorpio; but Saturn represents the essential structure of existing things. He is the elemental nature of things which is not destroyed by the ordinary changes which occur in the operations of Nature. Furthermore, he is crowned with the crown of Osiris; he repesents Osiris in the waters of Amennti. Yet more, he is the original secret male creative God: see Atu XV. "Redeunt Saturnia Regna." It was only the corruption of the Tradition, the confusion with Set, and the Cult of the Dying God, misunderstood, deformed and distorted by the Black Lodge, that turned him into a senile and fiendish symbol. ... [on XV] On the Tree of Life, Atu XIII and XV are symmetrically placed; they lead from Tiphareth, the human conscious- ness, to the spheres in which Thought (on the one hand) and Bliss (on the other) are developed. Between them, Atu XIV [Art, formerly Temperance] leads similarly to the sphere which formulates Existence. (See note on Atu X and arrangement.) These three cards may therefore be summed up as a hieroglyph of the processes by which idea manifests as form. [the only text in Atu X which pertains to the three cards of our study is the following: But this card, like Atu XVI, may also be interpreted as a Unity of supreme attain- ment and delight. The lightnings which destroy, also beget; and the wheel may be regarded as the Eye of Shiva, whose opening annihilates the Universe, or as a wheel upon the Car of Jaganath, whose devotees attain perfection at the moment that it crushes them.] This card represents creative energy in its most material form; in the Zodiac, Capricornus occupies the Zenith. It is the most exalted of the signs; it is the goat leaping with lust upon the summits of the earth. The sign is ruled by Saturn, who makes selfhood and perpetuity. In this sign, Mars is exalted, showing in its best form the fiery, material energy of creation. The card represents Pan Pangenetor, the All-Begetter.... The three vowel-consonants of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Yod, 'Ayin, these three letters form the sacred name of God, I A O. These three Atu, IX, O, and XV, thus offer a threefold explanation of the male creative energy; but this card especially represents the masculine energy at its most masculine. Saturn, the ruler, is Set, the ass- headed god of the Egyptian deserts; he is the god of the south. The name refers to all gods containing these consonants, such as Shaitan, or Satan.... Note that Shabbathai, the "sphere of Saturn", is the Sabbath. Historically, the animus [sic] against witches pertains to the fear of the Jews; whose rites, supplanted by the Christian forms of Magic, had become mysterious and terrible. Panic suggested that Christian children were stolen, sacrificed, and eaten. The belief persists to this day.... [on XVI] ...the doctrines of Yoga, especially those most widely current in Southern India, where the cult of Shiva, the Destroyer, is paramount. Shiva is represented as dancing upon the bodies of his devotees. To understand this is not easy for most Western minds. Briefly, the doctrine is that the ultimate reality (which is Perfection) is Nothingness. Hence all manifestations, however glorious, however delightful, are stains. To obtain perfection, all existing things must be annihilated. The destruction of the garrison may therefore be taken to mean their emancipation from the prison of organized life, which was confining them. It was their unwisdom to cling to it. ... The dominating feature of this card is the Eye of Horus. This is also the Eye of Shiva, on the opening of which, according to the legend of this cult, the Universe is destroyed.... Bathed in the effulgence of this Eye (which now assumes even a third sense, that indicated in Atu XV) are the Dove bearing an olive branch and the Serpent.... The Serpent is portrayed as the Lion-Serpent Xnoubis or Abraxas. These represent the two forms of desire; what Schopenhauer would have called the Will to Live and the Will to Die. They represent the feminine and masculine impulses; the nobility of the latter is possibly based upon recognition of the futility of the former. This is perhaps why the renunciation of love in all the ordinary senses of the word has so constantly been announced as the first step towards initiation. This is an unnecessarily rigid view. This Trump is not the only card in the Pack, nor are the "will to live" and the "will to die" incompatible. This becomes clear as soon as life and death are understood (See Atu XIII) as phases of a single manifestation of energy. -------------------------------------------------- _The Book of Thoth_, by Aleister Crowley, Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1981; pp. 91, 99-109. __________________________________________________ Crowley's text applies particularly to the Thoth deck but by no means is its significance limited to this. he was one of the authors who commented on the traditional symmetry of XIII (Death) and XV (Devil in association with Life), and one of the few who explained the relationship betwixt XV and XVI (Tower) in more than strictly moral terms. his commentary on the saturnine symbolism of the cards was also quite insightful. (2) Rachel Pollack inspires with her discernment of pattern even while she fails in the simplicity of her psychological and mystical analyses. nonetheless, I feel it valuable to include the entirety of her comment on the relationships: ------------------------------------------------- [on XVI] The Tower's meaning depends on how we view the Devil. If we see the Devil as simply illusions then the Tower shows them shattered by violent upheaval. However, if the Devil signifies release of repressed energy, then the illusion shattered by the lightning is nothing less than the veil of consciousness itself. ... ...given no other outlets the unconscious energy will erupt all around us, and... we can use this experience to find a better balance. Some decks call this card 'The House of the Devil'; but others call it 'The House of God', reminding us that it is spiritual force which destroys our psychic prisons. There is a deeper meaning in the linking of God's and the Devil's houses, a meaning implied even more directly in the fact that the Hebrew for 'snake' bears the same numerical value (and is therefore seen as equivalent to) the word for 'messiah'. The Devil is God's shadow. In trump 15 we saw that the person seeking unity with life must bring out the energy normally repressed by the conscious person- ality. By embracing the Devil, however, we endanger that calm and balance shown in Temperance. We set the psyche on a violent course leading to the explosion of the Tower. Jung described consciousness as a dam blocking free flow of the river of the unconscious. Temperance acts as a kind of sluice, letting the waters through at a controlled rate. The Tower blows away the dam completely, releasing the locked up energy as a flood. Why take such a dangerous course? The answer is that no other way exists to finally go beyond the barrier of consciousness, or to break free from that which separates life into opposites and which cuts us off from the pure energy contained within ourselves. The veil across the temple is the conscious personality, protecting us from life itself. As mystics, shamans, and ecstatics have testified, eternity is all around us, blinding and overwhelming. The unprepared mind cannot encompass such power, and so consciousness comes to our rescue, closing off the major part of our spiritual energy, parcelling experience into time and opposing categories. The mystics will tell us as well that revelation comes as a lightning bolt which destroys the illusions of the material world in a single blinding flash, like that seen by Paul on his way to Damascus, or that which struck Buddha under the Bo tree. No matter how long the meditation, the years of prayer or occult training, the truth comes all at once or it does not come at all. Which is not to say that the preparation was meaningless. The work shown in the first two lines of the Major Arcana serves a double purpose. Not only does it make us strong enough to withstand the lightning when it comes, it also puts us in a position to bring about the lightning. All occult practices begin with one assumption: that it is possible to call down the bolt of revelation, that a person can take definite steps to make this happen. These steps include the teaching, the meditations, the ego death, and finally the embracing of the Devil. By releasing that energy we get past the barriers of repression and open ourselves to the lightning. For the spirit exists all the time; it is we who are blind to it. By going into the darkness of the self we open ourselves to the light. Obviously, this is a dangerous process. The unprepared person can become trapped in the illusions of the Devil. We will see also that the release the energy carries its own dangers as the psyche tries to integrate it with the conscious awareness. The hero on the way back from the centre of the labyrinth can become lost if he has not carefully prepared himself. ------------------------------------------------------ _Seventy-eight Degrees of Wisdom_, by Rachel Pollack, Aquarian Press, 1980; pp. 100-8. ______________________________________________________ Pollack favors a restricted and possibly faulty Jungian approach that bears fruit even while it participates in worn themes (e.g. 'going into the darkness in order to get to the light', etc.). her focus on the shadow ('darkness') and embracing the Devil is refreshing while it may also be naive. (3) contrast this with a small comment from Vicki Noble and Jonathan Tenney, who speak of XVI and XV with more of a focus on battle-mentality: ---------------------------------------------------- The Tower is an image of disruption and change. The power generated within the self by the battle to overthrow the Devil bursts up through you, causing enormous changes in your psyche, an eruption of selfhood. This is the Plutonian aspect of the card, and very appropriate during this decade when Pluto is at home in Scorpio, putting us all through enormous changes within. ----------------------------------------------------- _The Motherpeace Tarot Playbook_, by Vicky Noble and Jonathan Tenney, Wingbow Press, 1988; p. 31. _____________________________________________________ (4) or the more general analysis of XIII by Ziegler: ----------------------------------------------------- As a rule, the card Death does not mean physical death. It generally points to radical external transformation. (The card XVI, The Tower, is the expression of internal change.) ------------------------------------------------- _Tarot: Mirror of the Soul_, by Gary Ziegler, Samuel Weiser, 1988; p. 41. _________________________________________________ (5) these are less specific and yet provide none of the dualism and simplicity offered by Pollack. instead consider the insight of Kenneth Newman, who is probably more attuned to conservative Jungian psychology when comparing XVI with XV: -------------------------------------------------- The fact that there are two figures depicted, one falling to the right and the other to the left, shows this to be, as in Arcanum XV, another phenomenon taking place at the threshold of the unconscious or at the moment of its first conscious appearance. While in the Devil the two figures are tied down to earth, here we find them thrown to earth. Each arcanum, therefore, speaks in behalf of knowing one's human limits, which is precisely what the shadow does. Thus, the two arcana following Temperance illustrate two aspects of the shadow incurred upon acknowledgement of the unconscious, but also the dangers in identifying with either, namely, a negative and a positive inflation. Just as having a shadow does not imply we are the Devil, having an aspiring, creative spirit does not identify us with God, and the lightning serves to remind us of this fact. ------------------------------------------------- _The Tarot: A Myth of Male Initiation_, by Kenneth D. Newman, C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc., 1983; pp. 74-5. _________________________________________________ (6) this leads us back to more traditional Hermetic commentaries and their punitive themes. the thread seems to be too great an involvement with or attachment to the material realm, possibly symbolizing a particular malady of placement on the Tree of Life, possibly fabricating the basis for a moralistic theosophy within which to describe the Higher Cards: ---------------------------------------------------- [The Devil's] feet are the claws of an eagle. The eagle is the bird corresponding to the sign of Scorpio. Here the eagle's claws refer to the materialization and misuse of the reproductive power, and its debasement in the service of sensuality. ----------------------------------------------------- _The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages_, by Paul Foster Case, McCoy Publishing, 1947; p. 158. _____________________________________________________ (7) the Ciceros seem to follow in this theme but with a bit more balance and style: ----------------------------------------------------- The whole figure shows the gross generative powers of nature on the material plane, and is analogous to the Pan of the Greeks and the Egyptian Goat of Mendes (the symbol of Khem). In certain aspects, the Key represents the brutal forces of nature, which to the unbelieving man only obscures and does not reflect the luminous Continence of God. It also alludes to the sexual powers of natural generation. Thus therefore the Key fitly balances the symbol of Death on the other side of the Tree of Life. ------------------------------------------------------- _The New Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot_, by Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, Llewellyn Pubs., 1991; pp. 59-60. _______________________________________________________ (8) while the Epiphany Press (an anonymous author) goes right off into Christian dualism proper as it begins expounding on the XVI: ------------------------------------------------------- This Key depicts the second stage of spiritual development, or the stage of waking from the nightmare of delusion depicted by the Adversary [Key XV]. As long as dreams remain pleasant, man is content to enjoy their illusions, regardless of how fleeting or unfounded they are; and as long as Life serves him up ease and material goods according to his fancy, he finds no reason to seek beyond the level of his body and brain. But dreams can only last so long, and it is time for him to arise and get busy with his own development and that of his fellows. Then a vicious nightmare may be just the thing needed to startle him awake into reality and to make him glad to rise. He eventually becomes grateful -- both for being free of the terror, and for the nightmare itself, which set him free from fanciful delusions. In the same way, you are reluctantly grateful to the person who strips off the blankets and forces you to rise, to enjoy the sunshine of reality. For your dreams have been unbearable delusions brought about by Adam's fall into the realm of sense where the devil tried the old "world." What relief to know it was false and that you are free, even though to the average man, this unreality is all he believes in. The "eye" of Ayin [associated here with XV] enabled us to receive visual impressions. Now the "mouth" of Peh makes possible our expression of them. While in spiritual darkness, one gathered impressions and founded opinions on things seen in the realms of sense, depicted here by the earthly-brown foundation on which the structure is built, of the same color as The Adversary.... ... In Key 13 Scorpio, co-ruled by Mars, brought about the end of physical manifestation as applied to generation and regeneration. In Key 15, Capricorn finds Mars exalted and sight is again exalted, but superficially so. Superficial sight had carried man as far as it could -- too far in fact, as in the case of Paul, who over-zealously defended the words of the Pharisaic Hebrew law in which he had been educated. Then came the searing flash of realization which blinded and threw him to earth. And he heard the words of Christ Jesus, through the voice of Spirit, speaking to him from the heavens. In one moment, the structure of centuries was for Paul broken. And he was alone, blind, reversed in belief, not knowing where next to turn. --------------------------------------------------- _Jewels of the Wise_, no author stated, Epiphany Press, 1979; pp. 145-8. ___________________________________________________ (9) Steiger and Warmoth's note on Atu XVI makes a valuable palate cleanser: ------------------------------------------------------ In the negative aspect, the struck tower symbolizes "the dark night of the soul" when the spiritually untested and immature querent is confronted with his total confusion by truth denuded of all her vestments. In this negative aspect, *La Maison Dieu* [The House of God] has been referred to as the "Fall of the Angels," the fall or descent being in terms of the Pilgrim's "fall from grace" in Arcanum fifteen because of his own lack of good judgement, karmic debts, or the misuse of his own free will. ---------------------------------------------------- _The Tarot_, by Brad Steiger and Ron Warmoth, Award Books, 1969; pp. 120-2. ____________________________________________________ (10) and for des(s?)ert, I'll include an extensive excerpt by R.J. Stewart from his Merlin Tarot. it appears that he has altered the structure and enumeration of the cards substantially, using a Tree of Life arrangement which fits the three cards in question -- 10/The Guardian (Devil) 11/Blasted Tower and 12/Apple Woman (Death) -- around the Sphere of Geburah (extending to Hod, Tiphareth and Binah respectively). --------------------------------------------------- The Guardian [XV] is a male lesser reflection of the most powerful catabolic image: Death [XIII], or The Apple Woman.... Just as ancient legends and rituals initiate us into mysteries of nature, so does The Guardian initiate us into the mysteries of the nature of the Solar World. Indeed, he exists to protect us from approaching levels of consciousness which might destroy us or drive us mad; his highest reflection, in a feminine archetype, is Death. In the old legends she would be his Mother, the Great Mother of death and change to whom we must all return, even the gods. If we have understood and passed The Guardian and his test, death can hold no fears. If we are not able to understand upon this higher level of awareness, we return to the nature cycle of life, death and rebirth. ... [In the Merlin deck a] narrow Path leads to a distant Tower; we shall encounter one aspect of this structure shortly in the Trump The Blasted Tower, though this is not its sole aspect. The Guardian prevents us from approaching this awesome stronghold; he protects us from the devastating power that it contains. The Tower is the last *artefact* or human building that we find in the Ascending Path, and it may be blasted away by divine lightning. If we learn the lessons of The Guardian, we learn to transform ourselves through harnessing the taking forces and balancing them within ourselves. If we enter into the Tower with his blessing, we can delve into its mysteries of energy, which are the ever-present Dragons hidden in the Hill below. The Guardian teaches the higher mysteries of the Element of Fire. [on XVI] In his role of Lord of the Animals, Merlin flings a set of stag's horns with great force, and kills a man looking out of a high tower. His victim is a lover or potential new husband of Guendoloena, the wife whom Merlin abandoned when he was driven mad by grief. This motif was originally connected to nature, to a cycle of the seasons. Conflict between the Lord of the Animals, the Lady of Flowers, and a rival lover has become attached to Merlin in his role as primal magician of the Land. It seems no mere story-telling ploy that the Lord of the Animals and The Tower are brought together in the *Vita* [_The Vita Merlini_, by Geoffrey of Monmouth]; in esoteric tradition they are connected in a very specific manner. The ancient god of guardianship over life and death is a natural or imaginative form for abstract potent forces symbolised by The Blasted Tower. Both images represent the catabolic effect of energy, destruction of form, or purification. While The Guardian mediates this process to both life forms and consciousness, The Tower reveals a higher order of the same energy upon a cosmic scale. ... The Tower is built upon a Mountain Peak, but it is not one of the highest peaks revealed in the tarot. It symbolises the highest point at which personality may remain within consciousness; beyond this peak, awareness becomes transhuman. This theme is dealt with repeatedly in higher Trumps.... The Tower is one of three Trumps (Guardian, Tower, Death) that relate to the 5th Sphere of Severity and The Wheel of Justice. --------------------------------------------------- _The Merlin Tarot_, by R.J. Stewart, Aquarian Press, 1988; pp. 105-115. ___________________________________________________ and as an afterdinner mint, let us allow Colin Wilson to perhaps overgeneralize in summary as he claims that: ----------------------------------------------------- The ominous symbols of the Tarot -- the Hanging Man, the Tower Struck by Lightning, Death and the Devil -- are intended less as omens of disaster than as shocks to jar the mind out of 'the triviality of every- dayness,' to induce concentration upon the essentials. ------------------------------------------------------ _The Occult_, by Colin Wilson, Random House, 1971; p. 118. ______________________________________________________ copyright 1998 tyagi nagasiva, authors cited. permission granted to copy to cyberspacial forums without profit from so doing provided this notice and proper attribution on all quotes is maintained. EOF -- (emailed replies may be posted); http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi; 408/2-666-SLUG join the esoteric syncretism in alt.magick.tyagi; http://www.abyss.com/tokus
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