phallic devil?

I posted some thoughts on this card in another thread a few days ago.

Yes, it's a wonderfully phallic card. And what a liberated image! On the RWS Devil card, one can see undertones of the Osirian-Age demonization of the fleshly, sensual, and sexual. The flesh is bondage which must be overcome. None of that in this card. Just raw sexual energy. "The Lord of the Gates of Matter." Drunkenness on the pleasures of the world and the experience of incarnation, of being a fleshly being. And of course one of the chief incarnate pleasures is sex. This card shows the mad energy of the life force just wanting to copulate and merge with everything, and create, and come, and roll around in all of life's juices, enjoying the big sticky mess it all is. The dance of existence. The horny goat inside all of us.

And I think it's neat that the goat has its third eye open. This isn't blind, enslaved addiction, but the experience of the living world of sex and sensuality as no different from divine revelation. I think this is one of the key features of the Aeon of Horus. We now are more able to marry spiritual pursuits with the pleasures of the flesh, without guilt or fear. We are slowly waking up to the understanding that saying "all is Divine" really means that all is divine. We can have a hard-on for all of life, for the physical world and its pleasures as well as for the Divine!

God isn't going to smite us or send us to Hell for having an animal nature. We don't have to become puritans in order to experience spiritual realization. We still struggle with this, as the new Aeon is still so new. We cling to the old divisions of spirit/flesh, and it will likely take quite some time before we really see the world dropping the shackles of repression and fear which are what really bind us.

Hail Satan !

It's funny how a simple change of perspective can transform Satan into Lucifer, the light bringer.

A.E.Waite's use of the inverted pentagram on his version of the Devil card is based on the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Here's what they had to say on the subject:

Traced as a symbol of good, it should be placed with the single point upward, representing the rule of the Divine Spirit. For if thou shouldst write it with two points upward, it is an evil symbol, affirming the empire of matter over that Divine Spirit which should govern it. See that thou doest it not.

The Pentagram with a single point upwards is called the "Sign of the Microcosm," and is a good symbol, representing man with his arms and legs extended adoring his Creator, and especially the dominion of the Spirit over the four Elements, and consequently of reason over matter.
But with the single point downwards it is a very evil symbol. The Head of the Goat, or Demon's Head, representing the abasement of reason beneath the blind forces of matter, the elevation of anarchy above order, and of the conflicting forces driven by chance above God.

The Golden Dawn ~ Israel Regardie.

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As you might expect Crowley disagreed with this dualistic interpretation of the pentagram. To him the inverted or "averse" pentagram was a symbol of the descent of spirit into matter. The upright and inverted pentagram are merely two sides of the same coin.

Crowley hints at this in his qabalistic fairy tale, Konx Om Pax.
(The Fairy Prince is symbolic of the Holy Guardian Angel, the True Will.)

But in the first we came to a mighty throne of gray granite, shaped like the sweetest pussy cat you ever saw, and set up on a desolate heath. It was midnight, and the Devil came down and sat in the midst; but my Fairy Prince whispered: "Hush! It is a great secret, but his name is Yeheswah, and he is the Saviour of the World." And that was very funny, because the girl next me thought it was Jesus Christ, till another Fairy Prince (my Prince's brother) whispered as he kissed her: "Hush, tell nobody ever, that is Satan, and he is the Saviour of the World."

We were a very great company, and I can't tell you of all the strange things we did and said, or of the song we sang as we danced face outwards in a great circle ever closing in on the Devil on the throne. But whenever I saw a toad or a bat, or some horrid insect, my Fairy Prince always whispered: "It is the Saviour of the World," and I saw that it was so. We did all the most beautiful wicked things you can imagine, and yet all the time knew they were good and right, and must be done if ever we were to get to the House of Gold. So we enjoyed ourselves very much and ate the most extraordinary supper you can think of. There were babies roasted whole and stuffed with pork sausages and olives; and some of the girls cut off chops and steaks from their own bodies, and gave them to a beautiful white cook at a silver grill, that was lighted with the gas of dead bodies and marshes; and he cooked them splendidly, and we all enjoyed it immensely. Then there was a tame goat with a gold collar, that went about laughing with everyone; and he was all shaved in patches like a poodle. We kissed him and petted him, and it was lovely. You must remember that I never let go of my Fairy Prince for a single instant, or of course I should have been turned into a horrid black toad.

Konx Om Pax ~ Aleister Crowley.

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I appologise if anyone thinks I have gone completely off topic. I assure you, this post is very much on topic

Interesting posts, guys. Just thought I'd add my 2p.

I think that it says something of the current human condition that when we think of the Devil we automatically leap forward to thinking about the sexual function and a certain lasciviousness. It seems that even in attempting to express our freedom from the limited Osirian viewpoint of this card that we fall foul of it once more in that we define our new viewpoint in terms of the old.
I think it's correct that the subject of sex comes up when thinking about the Devil, but I also think that it's very easy to stop there and go no further. The Devil is a card of fertility - the outward male creative energy - and that is his raison d'etre. Sex is one mode of expression of this energy but not the only one.

There are a couple of things that leap to the fore for me when thinking about the Devil. First, his position on the tree of life - between Hod and Tiphareth. He is therefore saying something about the relationship between thought (or thoughtform) and the Will. He represents the nature of the intellect to unite with everything it can; or to use DuQuette's words "He is life itself, unrestrained, in mad love and seeking to grow and unite with absolutely everything." Thought operates thus, as does life - even the most seemingly inhospitable environment spewing forth life. The mind "mates" with any idea which causes it excitement, and attempts at repression have a tendency to increase the level of excitement and therefore the mind apprehends the object with increased vigour. Such is the way psychoses are born.

Also, viewing the Devil as the key and initiator to the path from the flighty mind to the stable sun - he teaches freedom of movement, lack of restriction, and lust of experience.

Consider also Crowley's "Instructions of the master", speaking of Atu XV:
"With thy right Eye create all for thyself, and with the left accept all that be created otherwise". There is a stong element of mindful non-discrimination in this also, and this is the key to the Devil's creativity. He is, if you'll pardon the very English expression, "a right slag". He represents the fertility in movement, in extroversion, in penetration. This applies not only to the sexual arena, but to life's experiences in general. It is Hadit delighting in coupling with Nuit - a flash of experience, creating new life, moving perspective forward.

I see it more as penetration, if you look closely the tip is in a circle... the devil penetrates our lives, keeps us bound and restricted, but has the ability to be removed.. the webbing in the background brings to mind "oh, the tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive".. after all... isn't that what the devil really is?

Two? Hung like a...?

Why is it, everyone sees a tree, which I do too, but no one comments on the double goat penis meaning?
Being around goats I know this is a correct drawing of such, but TWO is a bit rare..

Since this is a card of self addiction/hangups/fantasy or real, it reminds me of that song, Double your pleasure, double your fun...!"

Barb

Double goat penis?

Really?

I'm going to get the card and look.



I've seen it!

It's a double dick goat!

No wonder it's got that smile on it's face.

Oh great!

Edited for Indeed.

Ok.
What does a double dick on a goat mean...

*thinking....thinking...thinking*

Right, Ok, it's the thing earliert in this thread, about the upright and inverted pentagram.
2 dicks means the light and the dark are equal, opposite sides of the same coin.
ying yang,balance of opposites, all that.

No! I've got a better one!
Two dicks would be very difficukt to use properly (unless you found a she goat with 2 .... things.)
So, poor double dick goat probably isn't getting any.
Therefore this is an illustration of 2=0.

How's that?

I'm still giggling here!

Ok..2 = 0
I can handle that equasion, not that double whammy of that goat...ROTFLOL!

Oh, and if he can't have it, he enjoys watching the weaker (or braver) give into their desires as he sings,
"Memories like the corners of mind"

Thanks Lillie! You are way to good!

Barb

OK- I have a dirty mind, but when I look, all I see is a caduceus.

Women! Everywhere they look, it's always about the same thing!

(although those are very interesting pink hats that the snakes are wearing, eh?)