Stance of the man on The Devil card ("I'm A Little Teapot" or what!?)

Someone asked me the other day why the man on The Devil card in the RWS is standing in a funny position (which to me looks like the "I'm a Little Teapot" dance).

I thought perhaps is was a "magic" thing, but I have only one book on the topic and it doesn't seem to match up with any of the positions shown. Anyone have an ideas or theories?

Thanks!

Hi Similia- the stance of the man in the Devil card is called 'Akimbo'. It is a Middle english word thought maybe to have come from Norse possibly meaning curved handle of a jug. It used to be a sign of aggression and defiance, but in the last hundred or so years it has the connotation of campness from a homosexual point of view. An upraised arm can show piety, the hand on the hip can show contempt. I do not know if it has a Masonic meaning. I know the right hand palm outward is a sign of faith and the left hand on hip/behind the back/elbow forward, is associated with cheating/theft and weakness. Maybe there is some ritual magic meaning in arms akimbo, but I do no know what that could be. ~Rosanne

A.Kimbo & B.Kimbo

XV The Devil showing Man twice...
viewed side by side, right and left:

Click on: The Teapot Twins

NOTE: This is a composite "splice"
done on my computer for contrast,
side by side, to show perspective.

Hehe, with that adjustment it now looks like the Devil is within the vase! like a Genie- make a wish and get what you asked for lol ~Rosanne

Wow, Rosanne and Fulgour,

I'm impressed. Akimbo, eh? I'm willing to give Pixie credit for this subtlety and you know I'm somewhat anti-PISH. But I think it's this sort of creativity by Pam that makes the RWS what it is. I dug out my Wang GD type deck and the same card is not nearly so interesting. And mind, the general description of the card would appear identical.

BTW, I had an AT friend who read the palm of the devil in this card. That was a total hoot. I can't remember all the details but she mentioned he was a terrible egotist, only interested in his own concerns.

Waite says that the Raised hand of the Devil is the "reverse" of the hand used for bendiction by the Hierophant. Yet when I look at V, the Hierophant's right hand is also the one raised in benediction with the sceptre in the left.

Also, I often think with this deck (in some decks, there are no figures, in some both hands of both figures are behind their backs)...

that the Devil is a "parallel" to the Lovers...(VI) ...Each card, XV and VI has two figures below the central figure and to each side. On the Lovers, a male and a female, but with both arms open in a more free stance.

In the Devil, I always thought of the stance as being either a
yin/yang kind of thing...mirror positions...

or...that the hands on the hips of each figure, served to "close them within the circle of the Devil, inner hands extended.

On my RWS, study deck...the figures are not in the "teapot" position, only the male's. The female has both arms down and free.

The one in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot also has both hands of the female down.

terri

I don't know about him being a tea pot (which is what I will think every time I see this card, now!)
But why is his tail on fire?
And her tail is a bunch of grapes?

I have always wondered.

Waites book doesn't even mention it.

Although it *is* kind of a campy gesture now comming from a guy, I'd say that's *because* of who most often uses it as a sign of defience and aggression: think "Uh-uh, I know you didn't, girlfriend!"

In regards to the "opposite of the hierophant", I just thought that was in terms of the *sign*, not which hand - The hierophant is gesturing with 3 fingers out, and 2 in, a usual benediction sign from Christian priests, whereas the devil is making that star treck sign... ;-)

Lillie said:

I don't know about him being a tea pot (which is what I will think every time I see this card, now!)
But why is his tail on fire?
And her tail is a bunch of grapes?

I have always wondered.

Waites book doesn't even mention it.

Click to expand...

My informal interpretation of that is sex (grapes) and violence (fire). I, too, wonder what Waite intended.

I compared the figures of the Devil with those
of the Lovers, and my first impression was that the stances of figures on the Devil card seemed more sexually suggestive. I can't explain why, that was just my intuitive feeling. Maybe it's the horns?

-fof