MAAT - I don't get the Devil--Do you?

Northwind

Thanks for your reply, Julie :).

I think cycles of the year could be adjusted to reflect the climatic differences as you say. I'm sure there are people here who do this. In fact I'm currently attending a series of classes by a local woman who has her own eclectic interpretations of all of this.

For me, however, it somehow feels uncomfortable. Modern Australia has Anglo-Saxon roots but many of the early settlers were Irish and Chinese, though the gold rushes brought people from all over the world.

Before them, however, the aboriginal people were here for more than 40,000 years and although we have killed many and impoverished most of these people in the 200 or so years of our occupation of this Great Southern Land, the richness of their culture affects many of us deeply now. The British and the Europeans transposed much of their culture on to a land which was completely different. For example, we don't actually experience four seasons over much of this country, yet that notion still predominates. In the Australian North the indigenous people actually spoke of six discernible climatic periods in each year which were attuned closely to the weather.

My point is that it somehow feels uncomfortable to import a Northern Hemisphere model to a culture and environment which is so different. Some of that may purely be personal preference and others may not have the difficulties that I do with some of this. Although I could never be a part of aboriginal culture for obvious reasons, I am very drawn to their spiritual view. They are such a generous people that they would welcome me if I wanted to live in one of their communities, however.

Clearly, I need to learn much more about how you've actually created the Maat and will visit your website to have a more detailed look on the weekend. I will also keep an eye on the discussions here. I guess it does sound a little incongruous to say that I really like the Marseille which also had its origin in Europe :).

Thank you for the discussion, and I look forward to exploring your work further.
 

victoria.star

An Alternative Metaphor

One of the reasons I feel so lucky to be able to work with Julie Cuccia-Watts' Maat Tarot is the alternative metaphor it offers: A Female metaphor in a Male metaphor world.
Not only do all the images "loosen up" my intuition, the Devil card provides a wide angle lens through which to view ancient mythological archetypes, the Goddess and the God.

For me, the Devil card shows the Great Mother Goddess giving birth to the sun. Because of the Winter Solstice connection, I thought of the Christian Christmas, the birth of the "son", and immediately thought of the birth of the patriarchy...the matriarchal religions giving way to the patriarchal ones...then I thought of the unrest throughout the world--especially between the dominant patriarchal cultures (as depicted on the hilts in the Maat Three of Swords)--and that explained the 'Devil' aspect to me: unrest, war, abuse of power.
The Great Mother still exists though and there is hope.
This, to me, is a great part of the beauty of the Maat: Hope Exists,
Even in the darkness there is the promise of coming Light.
 

juno-lucina

I own MAAT's original DEVIL oil painting, it spoke to me so deeply...

I just discovered this thread, or I would have written sooner...but I felt that I HAD to respond to these insightful questions and meanderings of spirit.

I must tell you that I, unabashedly, LOVE this deck. Out of all decks from the feminine perspective, this is the one that I go back to again and again for my own private readings. I also own the Blue Moon Tarot, but in MAAT I truly feel that Julie has realized her spiritual vision.

Upon first viewing the entire deck online, I fell in love with the DEVIL--I see so many levels to its symbolism, which I'll share now (some of these have already been noted in this thread, some are new)....

*Women have so often been deemed "witches" in HIS-story... "demon" or "devil" -ized by patriarchial society for their natural, unruly, wild nature; women have been feared for the very things which are their greatests gifts...they are desired, they incite lust, they are undeniably necessary since they give birth to our future, they bleed monthly, contain torrid emotions, etc. This DEVIL reveals woman at her most woman-est...at her most potent and powerful...birth was something that often men throughout history both feared and didn't understand, and so they sought to control it...yet, here we have pictured the essense of that which is beyond our control, of that which we blame or scapegoat for life not being "perfect", "neat" and completely within our control...of Mother Nature which we come from and will return to, and yet whom we ultimately fear because of her power to both give and take life.

*Mythologically speaking, Lucifera (or Diana) was the light-bringer, the morning star, associated with the planet Venus...and of course, Capricorn (which is normally associated with the Devil) is an earthy, feminine, receptive sign of the Zodiac.

*At Winter Solstice, the Pagan Goddess gives birth to the God Sun (the Light)...a belief that was, once again, devil-ized by the Catholic church and syncretized with the Catholic birth of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World.

*From a Qabalistic perspective, which is not really a part of Julie's conception of MAAT (but is a part of me, and so I see its associations), BINAH (which means "understanding"), the great, black sphere of the Great Mother, the path of materiality, the material cause of creation...while Venus is the Great Mother (Empress) within the phyiscal plane, Binah is the archetypal Great Mother who gives birth to the golden sphere of Tiphereth, the Redeemer of Light. She is the Giver of Form, the "spirit...moving over the surface of the waters". This card also reminds me of the Shekhinah, the restoration of the divine feminine to the concept of Divinity, which begins with the third Sephirah, Binah. This card also reminds me of Malkuth, the Daughter, the manifestation of spirit into matter and the physical uniververse into being.

*Women represent darkness (yin), that which is beyond the human mind's control...they have been demonized as the scapegoat or the witchy crone throughout much of history simply for being who and what they are...they are responsible for the incarnation of spirit into matter (birth),which many faiths of the Western World have viewed as the birth of sin, but which is really the birth of Life--and Life (light coming from the shadows) is delightfully beyond our small rules and laws.

Life simply IS, no matter how we may devil-ize it...we must embrace the Devil, for she is all that we cannot accept about our messy, wild, uncontrollable selves.

The truth is not to be controlled...it simply IS.

--Juno
 

TenOfSwords

Sexuality is the emotional life of all living things seeking physical expression. It is life itself manifesting and living and it is therefore the most powerful thing in creation and of course extremely scary to those with ambitions of control... Enter 'the devil' as a label to put on sexuality to define it as evil and therefore subject to oppression and control by those in a position to define such things.

Great seeing sexuality portrayed as something beautiful. I think I like this Devil a lot. :)
 

Zedekiah

Doesnt the Devil card have a sort of phalic quality about the card ?