View Full Version : The Devil made me do it
Many of us have heard this phrase before.
Last week, for no good reason, I had several Tarot bubbles of realization go "pop" in my head. One was about the Fool and Cliff jumping (http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=33452). The other was this....
I have watched my 3 year old son play with one of his favorite-favorite trucks, and pull on the plastic fireman's crane that slides in and out of his Hot Wheels fire engine, over and over. He loves this ladder crane. It slides in, it slides out. Up, down. It bends and you can swivel the ladder base and make it go over here and here and here.
He plays with it... and plays with it... and talks to it, and eats with it, and sleeps and plays with it... until he breaks it.
In TEARS, beyond consolation, more than once (as any parent knows) is my son... "Mommy! Fix It~!!!!" He holds out the pieces, and it's beyond repair, I can tell.
"Son, we can't fix it, you broke 'em."
Wails of despair.... "No, Mommy! Fix IT~!!!" As if trying to get me to understand this is his favorite truck, and it BROKE, and it's *important* to him... could somehow make these two pieces magically go back together, when they're ripped and bent in half.
Why do we do this? As children, and as adults? We don't know why. The Devil made me do it, we say.
And that's when I could see/sense the whole thought/emotion. We obsess on it, we love it love it love it. We cannot put it down, it glitters... it shines, it swivels and goes up and down. There are no other toys, there is only This Toy.
And then, in our obsession, we break it. We done loved it to death. We drove it away. We broke it. We didn't mean to...!
The horror and sadness and obsession and compulsion.... I could feel all of it, and instead of being dark and horrific and adult, it was a child's sense of injustice in the mysterious workings of the world. That anything you could love so much could suddenly be gone, and that you were at fault. You broke it.
You loved it. And yet, you broke it. Why?
The Devil card.
Alissa, I think that is a marvelous articulation of a very important meaning of the Devil card. Thank you -- it's hearty food for thought.
Moongold
20-11-2004, 09:50
Interesting take, Alissa.
I have not seen the Devil card as the card of obsession. I see the Devil card as the card of Truth, somewhat paradoxically. But then you are saying that we know we are obsessed but keep doing the "obsession". That is a rather scary attribute if Devil then. His third eye is open, watching the split between actions and outcomes: actions and control
I have wanted to see the Devil in some other way than as "evil". In real life I think people often use that phrase "The devil made me do it" when they cannot yet accept responsibility themselves. Their third eye is not quite open yet.
Rhiannon
20-11-2004, 10:08
OMG, I cannot even believe I'm going to say this but... what you described reminded me of the movie "LadyHawke". The part at the end when the Bishop says "then no man will..." and tries to kill Isabeau. He loved her so much he punished her for not loving him back. If he couldn't have her, then no one else could either.
I saw a quote the other day and I can't remember who said it, but it was "how many things would we throw away if we weren't afriad someone else would pick them up?"
Great story, Alissa!
Wonderful story Alissa!
Yes yes.. the Devil made me do it .. isn't that what I say every time I buy a new deck;)
Obsessive compluslive materialism..
A bit of a pessimistic take on human nature, but something that rings of truth to me, is a lyric by the alt-country duo The Handsome Family:
"But darlin', don't you know / It's only human to want to kill / a beautiful thing."
Here's the entire lyric to the song "A Beautiful Thing" from the Handsome Family's website: (http://www.handsomefamily.com/)
Don't you remember that snowy December when we went to see "Singing in the Rain"? I shouldn't have smuggled in that bottle of gin, because after the film, I could barely walk. But, darling don't you know it's only human to want to kill a beautiful thing. When I was seven summer lasted forever. I used to chase fireflies through the woods. Tiny green lights circling warm August nights. I'd catch them inside a washed-out old jar. I dreamed of the stars with the jar by my bed, but each morning my pretty bugs were dead. We should have been dancing like lovers in a movie, but I fell and cut my head in the snow. I wanted to tell you all the ways that I loved you but, instead I got sick on the train.
Yes! I've read the Devil as an obsession card many times, and see it as the other side of the Lovers - not a separate card, really, but only another perspective on relationships - a strong relationship balances between the two states on a regular basis, and the stronger the relationship, the harder the balance is to maintain.
I've got a pertinent quote that I got on a button at one time;
"If you love something, let it go. If it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it."
Excellent allegory ! When it comes to romantic relationships, obsession is usually how I interpret the devil card. I've also noticed the similarities between the lovers and the devil too. The Rider decks seem to illustrate it very well. The cards almost appear to be an inverse of each other.
Oh and another funny little tidbit. A friend of mine in another city once mailed me a Tshirt from the store she works at, FCUK. It arrived the day after I broke up with my boyfriend. When I pulled it out of the package it read : "If you love something set it free, if it doesnt come back, FCUK it." She has an uncanny sense of timing.
The Robin Wood has a good version of the Devil that shows this idea well: the two people are trying to pull a box full of "things we all want" out of a tunnel. They won't let go but because they want it ALL they can't have any of it, since they pull in opposite directions.
I always say: if you are willing to let go, to go out naked (as the two people are) into the light, you are happier. So to call it obsession? Yeah, makes sense to me!
Also: in the RWS, the chains they wear are loose enough to remove so they could walk away. If they CHOSE to!
Alissa: the best way to love is to trust it to be there, to "hang on loosely" as another song says. But we don't, can't, aren't trusting enough or secure in ourselves enough to do so, and we break it!
edited for glaring spelling error!
WhiteRaven
20-11-2004, 15:16
This was a excellent example of obsessive compulsive and I can totally relate it to The Devil card.
Very well put! :)
le pendu
20-11-2004, 16:32
This reminds me of (certainly *my* patron saint) Oscar Wilde's "The ballad or Reading Gaol"...
last line of poem:
And all men kill the thing they love,
**By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
**Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
**The brave man with a sword!
Control and domination? The sense of conquering that which you admire? Pushing that which you love beyond the trials of the ordinary to test it's worthiness, and therefore yours?
I don't thing it's just a guy thing.
robert
Cool! I'm so glad this resonated with a few others as well!!! Thank you everyone who has responded!!!
The image is: Lennie holding his dead mouse that he loved so much, and pet so often and so hard, he killed it, in Of Mice and Men.
This terrible futility/realization/loss/regret/denial/rage/culpability thought bubble....
Moongold writes:I have wanted to see the Devil in some other way than as "evil". In real life I think people often use that phrase "The devil made me do it" when they cannot yet accept responsibility themselves. Their third eye is not quite open yet. I agree with both statements here. I also wanted something other than patently "evil" to associate with this card... and got what I wanted, for me! :D
Rhiannon writes:He loved her so much he punished her for not loving him back. If he couldn't have her, then no one else could either. There is that as well, I can see that, to this whole emotional "space". And, this applies to children, who are often covetous of their toys and do not want to share them.
noby writes:I dreamed of the stars with the jar by my bed, but each morning my pretty bugs were dead.That is a haunting, and perfect, image noby.... Those lyrics are haunting.
Astra writes:"If you love something, let it go. If it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it."I've seen that~! lol
Sushi, that T shirt story... giggle!! ;)
Ace writes:Alissa: the best way to love is to trust it to be there, to "hang on loosely" as another song says. But we don't, can't, aren't trusting enough or secure in ourselves enough to do so, and we break it!Nodsnodsnods... ayup~!
le pendu writes:Control and domination? The sense of conquering that which you admire? Pushing that which you love beyond the trials of the ordinary to test it's worthiness, and therefore yours?
I don't think it's just a guy thing.No indeed! The trials of domination and Worthiness are undercurrents that i can see do apply to this card. And many certainly take this theory from childhood on into adulthood, never ceasing to push those boundaries. The trinket is ours. We love It. We must have It. It belongs to us. And It's precious. And we play with It again. And again....
(But what if it breaks?! }) )
WOOOOOOOooooooooooOOOOOOH! Alissa! SOOOOO Good! Of all the decks I know, this take on the devil is best expressed in the Spiral.
Shadow-Side Up, anyone?
Lady Mary
22-11-2004, 07:06
What's the contrary of obsession or the Devil?
It's terrible if we love something so much that we destroy it. And a lack of freedom always leads to death.
But it's worse not to love anything. Not to be involved any longer. To see a "toy" and lay it aside with a bored look on our faces.
What's the boredom-card? 4 of Cups maybe? This guy won't kill anybody or destroy anything because he cannot even decide what to do with that 4th cup.
Imagemaker
22-11-2004, 08:03
What's the contrary of obsession or the Devil?
Maybe the opposite in tarot is Temperance, not the boredom or inaction of 4 cups. Obsession to me, whether it's playing with a toy truck or loving a pet to death, is about never restraining your wants. Doing it and doing it until something breaks.
There's a thread of ego, power, possession that runs through this. A complete unrecognition of the results of our actions.
Maybe we have to break the truck or kill the mouse before we figure out that "I *will* do it NOW" eventually brings disaster. Simple karma, perhaps.
Alissa,
Loved the reference between your story and Lenny's mouse. The tears really flowed when I got to that part and now my heart's breaking for that precious little boy of yours.Whatever did you do with that sad situation? Just wondering if he would've accepted a new 'just-as' truck, or if; in this case...it's like the family pet;and cannot be replaced.
Just thinking I would've "Maybe" got the truck replaced 'if possible,' of course, and told the little boy it had been fixed when he wasn't looking; (with a slight nod to the Devil card.) I only know I am a complete sucker for kids' tears, and never learned how to handle myself well when it came to them.
Whatever did you do with that sad situation? Just wondering if he would've accepted a new 'just-as' truck, or if; in this case...it's like the family pet;and cannot be replaced.To be honest, I taught him about consequences with it. When we break things, sometimes they cannot be fixed. Sometimes you can't just go out and get another. But, you *can* keep the pieces and put them back together with Play Doh, and still play with them (which, by his standards, is alright - not perfect but....)
I know that probably sounds mean, but honestly, to me it was more important to explain that in this world, there aren't always ways to "make it better." But, also, I'm your Mom... and if I *can* help to fix it, honey... I *promise* I will.
It can be hard to get through to children that once something has broken or lost it sometimes can be replaced or repaired but it won't be the same.
Although my little boy is like a packrat (wonder where he gets that from :P) - his favourite Action Man's leg broke the other day, too much doing the splits and bending the wrong way. My little boy wants another but different Action Man and his old one now sits in pride of place on his bookshelf. But he realised that it couldn't be mended and now he doesn't bend his other Action Men into impossible positions lol
firemaiden
27-11-2004, 12:03
Really cool thread Alissa :). I love that "Mommy, FIX it" - that's so touching! (at the risk of sounding like I missed the whole point.... wouldn't superglue do the trick?)
(at the risk of sounding like I missed the whole point.... wouldn't superglue do the trick?)You're as bad as he is! :P
"No, honey, you can't glue it on. The parts aren't made to do that, and you bent them BACKWARDS and RIPPED part of the gear thingy off."
And no one should get to this point in the thread and think my poor son has no more toys to play with! lol If that were true, I would have less trouble walking around my house and not puncturing the sole of my foot! :D
firemaiden
27-11-2004, 16:22
I know, I know, I couldn't help but get in my little wisearse remark. The Devil made me do it...
Great thoughts on the Devil, Alissa! Thank you for sharing them. This is a card that is sometimes hard for me to explain to others who get all hung up on the overt Devil of the card. Thanks for giving me some concrete examples!
It's frustrating to see a cartoon Devil on the card when you are trying to explain that the real problem in inside-a certain way they are behaving or thinking. That's why I really like the Spiral Devil, holding a mirror up to the querent. And the Gilded devil with his mask on. :D
I know, I know, I couldn't help but get in my little wisearse remark. The Devil made me do it...
ROFLMAO!!!
...And, Lurea_Aure,I agree with you. I also love the Devil cards on both the Spiral and Gilded, not only for their art, but the emphathis(sp?) that the problem could indeed lie within ourselves.
G-r-e-a-t job Alissa, regarding your comment on your little one's dilemna!(All apologies for gettin' somewhat off the track there!)
Sophie-David
27-12-2004, 16:52
I know that probably sounds mean, but honestly, to me it was more important to explain that in this world, there aren't always ways to "make it better." But, also, I'm your Mom... and if I *can* help to fix it, honey... I *promise* I will.
Alissa
I think your two different responses in each of these sentences is perfect, and also very touching.
I would like to present another aspect to the expression of the internal Devil, that of the great possessor who wants to keep you stuck, burdened and going nowhere, so grounded that you are actually sinking into the oppressively material earth and every effort to fly seems to dig you further in. As a Capricorn Sun and Ascendent, with Saturn conjunct Mars, this is the sort of internal devil whom I am well aqainted with. For me, there is a lot of truth in the commonly made parallel that the Tarot Devil relates to astrological Capricorn ruled by Saturn.
This Devil is the ultimate conservative, holding onto the past, resistent to change, and therefore to life. Like the Bible's "Satan", the Adversary, he/she opposes all that is new and creative, telling you that whatever you try will fail, you will never have the energy to pursue your goals, you are trapped in life as it is, there is nothing more to life than the strictly material, and there is no purpose in acting as if there were.
In Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, Clarissa Pinkola Estés calls this Devil or Bluebeard the soul's Predator, and from page 60, this is her advice:
"When we refuse to entertain the predator, its strength is extracted and it is unable to act without us. We, in essence, drive it down into the layer of the psyche where all creation is as yet unformed, and let it bubble in that etheric soup till we can find a form, a better form for it to fill. When the predator's psychic energum is rendered, it is formable to some other purpose. We are creators then; the raw substance reduced down becomes then the stuff of our own creation."
I am happy to say I have taken her advice - and seen quite a few Devil cards in the Past position. :)
wandking
27-12-2004, 19:36
That is an excellent take on, what I consider the pimary meaning of The Devil. You touch on secondary meanings as well. When this card appears in spreads for seekers I find it amussing that they know exactly who The Devil represents and it's his or her fault they're having troubles with few exceptions. Of course, when it appeared in readings I did on myself in the past, it's simply a misdeal! It's due to bad energies in the deck, isn't it?... It's not my fault... Really, it's not... It could be a hex... I'm not to blame, anyone can see that!
This Devil is the ultimate conservative, holding onto the past, resistent to change, and therefore to life.I really liked this. It reminds me of one of Buddha's Four Noble Truths, Life is Change. When we cling to static forms and resist change, we invite heartache into our lives.
As Sophie-David says, the resistance to change brings heartache. Attachment to static forms is a very "Devil" concept to me.
This even works on the level of my son's broken truck. The form was *greatly* favored, he was greatly emotionally attatched to it, while it was unbroken. And as soon as the fire truck broke... the heartache came from my son's desire to hold onto the form that had been (unbroken truck), and wanting that form to continue indefinitely, despite his own actions that caused the damage.
RedMaple
28-12-2004, 10:06
Thanks Alissa for the great story - it will be one I remember. I have a two-year-old grandson who is also obsessed with trucks. I think your decision to have this be a lesson of learning consequences is very wise. Maybe if we learn that at a young age, we don't have to keep learning it later in life.
I find the Devil also comes up as an enabling card, a card of co-dependency, often with the 5 of Pentacles (particularly the Morgan Greer deck which shows a woman supporting a wounded man.) It makes me think of putting all that energy into trying to fix something, in this case a person, over whom you have no power. The only one that can heal the addict is the addict. And the co-dependent has to stop the obsessing about the other person, and focus energies back on their own life. It's the old firetruck story all over again, isn't it?
jumptothemoonyea
28-12-2004, 11:04
When we cling to static forms and resist change, we invite heartache into our lives
one way to avoid this (from Zen sayings) :
"Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself." Zenrin Kushű (The Way of Zen 134, 222)
is this is what we want? poll: heartache or Sitting quietly? :)
Sophie-David
28-12-2004, 16:31
Ah, Jumptothemoonyea, that's a tricky question! Sometimes heartache is unavoidable: it will come whether we sit quietly or move forward. And the resolution to heartache too, may come from either sitting quietly or acting passionately, its a matter of context. :) Discerning which mode leads to enlightenment and which strengthens the internal Devil just makes life a little more interesting!
...And since the Fool and the Devil came to me together years ago, since I just revived the Fool and Cliff Jumping thread, I thought I'd pull this one up too for any of our newer members who might get a kick outta it....
Thanks for having brought back this wonderful thread, dear Alissa.
To me the Devil card always came in the memory of Charles Dickens' Jacob Marley in "A Chrismas Carol" when he appears Scrooge, dragging his cash box behind him to which he is chained. Everything which is "too much" can become dangerous.
Crowqueen
06-06-2006, 08:43
I am not sure if I want to completely expunge the Devil's bad meanings. To me he is apathy and laziness, not doing something that we ought to do, a "comfort zone", the Hare from the Hare and the Tortoise, stagnation, vanity, sins of omission as well as comission...sitting back and relaxing and letting Fate come to us rather than us go to Fate. But your idea of obsession and compulsion could also be seen as Devil meanings, as well as the idea of temptation - go on, just one more! it won't hurt... The Goddess Tarot names the card "Oppression", which conveys to me the idea that we are oppressed by ourselves rather than others (which would relate to the 10 of Wands and is often easier to overcome). The 10 of Wands is the Dog in the Manger - the outside oppressor selfishly hoarding what they can't use for the sheer sake of having power over others. The Devil is within us all, which the original post makes crystal clear. Many spiritualists believe in a perfect God/dess, with the Devil being the misuse of the will that They gave us. It's a good idea and once we acknowledge the Devil, he becomes easier to overcome, hence the ability of tarot to warn us when we are failing in something.
Death is a card with two sides to it, negative and positive, and in some ways transformation - another name in more "positive" decks - does the meaning justice. However, the Devil - and to a lesser extent, the Tower - warns us to watch out for betrayal (how I read the Tower) and temptation (the Devil).
I disagree that all cards should have a softer side. There has to be some bad in a tarot deck - humans when divorced from the real meanings of life and love are bad, and how do you express that when you try and find positives in everything? There are a lot of negative archetypes in stories and folklore, usually overcome by good, but without the shadow side there would be no struggle, even if it is only the sheer struggle for survival in a hostile world rather than deliberate and calculated cruelty. The world has Hitlers as well as Mother Theresas; and the worst part is that often society glorifies those who do the most harm in the long run.
I am not sure if I want to completely expunge the Devil's bad meanings.I agree... this thread was never intended to expunge or "forgive" the darkness of the Devil card, just a new explanation or way of seeing the card... nothing more.
Crowqueen
06-06-2006, 09:36
I agree... this thread was never intended to expunge or "forgive" the darkness of the Devil card, just a new explanation or way of seeing the card... nothing more.
It was directed at some reviewers who think tarot should be all sweetness, light, and politically correct. Just like an electoral system which lets the occasional Hitler through the net, tarot is a mirror on a human soul which has its sloughs of despond as well as its Paradise Regained. Although I love the Goddess deck, it does strike me as papering over the nasty bits which ironically drive the human race forward.
I personally love the Devil card in the Morgan-Greer deck. No punches pulled there!
It was directed at some reviewers who think tarot should be all sweetness, light, and politically correct.Oh oh! Now I understand, and yes... I agree completely. I very much take objection to those who sugarcoat the "bad" cards as a means to make them palatable.
yes, i too have seen the DEVIL card to denote a dangerous obsession...or addiction... it came up in the reading of a guy i did not know, his girl friend and he wanted a reading and this card kept coming up in his readings... i intuitively "knew" what was the dangerous obsession in his life, and i asked point blank if he was addicted to any substance... well, he WAS, even his gf didn t know it, but since it came out that day, he went into rehab and now is totally 'clean'! i feel real good when i think of that... the Devil card actually saved his life, by coming up!