Maat Tarot Study Group The Devil (Winter Solstice)

[Barefoot Fool]

Originally Posted by juliecucciawatts

I think most of all it is hard to give up that wonderful archetype of a male devil which embodies ultimate evil in the universe and serves as the duality for the Male Christian God as ulitimate Good.
If we don't have our Devil to blame our bad behavior on, then we may have to take responsiblity for our own actions.

I have issues with a pregnant woman as the devil in this deck, tho I like the image as a solstice image. Also I am pregnant.

Never having been to church, I always just thought the devil has to do with being chained to our own poor decisions. Christians co-opted pagan god images as a method of propaganda to illustrate their devil as a way to show that pagan gods are evil, and they named the place where this (d)evil (god) lives after a pagan goddess. That's just the regular method of conquering a people: tell them their gods are evil and out-law their religion and their language. So, to me, this devil co-opts something that I see as a goddess-figure of beauty and tells me it is evil, just like Christians did with pagan gods. I can't connect to how she is the devil.

[juliecucciawatts]

I have issues with the demonization of the feminine that occurs within the Christian religion. It began with the early Roman church and it is perpetuated by extreme right wing fundamentalist Christianity today. This Devil card is a way of sticking everything these types find offensive right up in their faces. From the ridiculous idea of male creation myths to children as a gift from some invisible abstract male god. This "Devil" holds the truth in all it's glory. Life comes from woman it comes from the dark womb. Period. It does not spontaneously appear because a male god said some magic word.
As the artist I do not believe in a Devil and that is my point. It is as you say in your post the dehumanization of foreign gods and a way to control the masses with fear.

And that is the point I was making. Here is "your" devil (oh church) here is what you are most afraid of. The fact that She is the power of creation, She is the power of eternal life and She is the power of rebirth. It is all found in HER, not in magic words on bits of paper or the blood of a dying male god.

I didn't think this card would be so hard to decipher.But here I am years later still explaining it.