Tarot Card Comparison: The Thoth Tarot-Key 15- The Devil & The Witches Tarot- Key 15-The Shadow Side

On the Qabalistic Tree of Life, The Devil-Key 15, is the Tree of Life Path of Ayin, and it connects the 6th Sephiroth of the  Solar Logos, Tiphareth with the Sephiroth- Hod, that is the sphere of Mercury and the intellect. The Path of Ayin, is the Twenty-sixth Path and is formative. In the terms of Self structure, it is the bridge between The Personality and individuality.

As I have stated so often before, the Solar Logos, is the Original Personality of the Divine Child of God, i.e. the Son/Sun. Note: this is not a sexual description of a species, rather it is an Energetic one, For the Son of God is a  Sun that sends "solar flares" (Divine Energy and Data) outward as individual expressions of It's own Self ( Personality); from Self into selves that circumnavigate , through the experiences of self-awareness back to Self, i.e. from Tiphareth to Malkuth and back up the Tree to Tiphareth again.

The Hebrew letter Ayin means -Eye and is a simple letter that also means -Mirth. This double meaning  may invite confusion; However, rest assured, that this Path of Ayin is one of the most difficult for western people to understand, for interpretation flies in the face of Christian cultural definitions that have been applied to the Devil. 

In Barbra G. Walker's Book [ THE WOMAN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYTHS AND SECRETS] which has been honored by the London Times Educational supplement as 1986 "Book of the Year", the provenance of the word devil is noted as Persian. She states." The Words "devil" and "divinity" grew from the same root, Indo-European devi (Goddess) or deva (God), which became daeva (devil) in Persian. Old English divell (devil) can be traced to the Roman derivative divus, divi: gods. Thus it seems that, from the beginning, gods and devils were often confused with one another."   She goes on to explain such enlightening scholarship that I highly recommenced this book to anyone who seeks an honest education.

There is another fact here that may hide from reason, and that is the combination of the words Devi (Goddess)and Lingam ( Male phallus), is Divya Linga ( Sanskrit word for Divine- lingam)  and has also been interpreted by propagandists of Christian past, as the word Devil,:which actually bespeaks of the "Son of God" as the Solar Phallus. Hence, the Christian Devil is always shown with a phallic tail.  Much to study here as most of our "knowledge" is propaganda based misconstructions!

To the Qabalist, the Devil in not viewed as an evil entity (lived spelled backward), having its own god-like existence, as it represents a special mystery (Arcana) that must be experienced and understood before we can hope to directly know the Higher Self. Within our Physical bodies. The Devil is the intelligence that is Master of Manifest form, which we meet on the Path of Ayin, and must face and conquer. The Path of Ayin, takes the traveler into an understanding that we are entering  a transition between the intellect of consciousness (individual conscious) and true spiritual conscious. In other words, our Brain, is our Devil.

Three Paths lead directly into Tiphareth: THE DEVIL {key 15), ART (key 14 called Temperance in Golden Dawn Deck), and DEATH (key 13). Now each of these paths  represents a special trial for the initiate; However, each student is not required to travel all three Paths. One way to experience Path Travel is  the Devotional Path of the Middle Pillar, where one need only experience the Path of Samekh (meaning- Prop) or the Art Card-key 14 (Temperance in other decks), leading from Yesod (Foundation ) to Tiphareth (Beauty). This is more of a gentle path of the Mystics  and demands less mental and emotional will from the Student. The Magi's way of following each and every Path, means the acquisition of control over Forces which each Path symbolizes: every Path confers a unique power

("magical abilities"). A Magus is an active Force of Creation, rather than a Passive one. The difference here, is that the Traveler of the Middle Path does learn to balance and understand within the Self, the forces of  the twenty-two Paths, but understanding these conceptual states of conscious energy does not necessarily develop the ability to manipulate them, which is an art necessary in the development of  a "discerning Personality"; the Spiritual purpose for the human body!.

Now I know, that some students of the Occult (hidden mysteries) enter into the studies seeking a type of "Raw Power", hoping to control others and circumstances to avoid pain and "doing unto others before they can do unto them". Such misinformed students soon learn that if such Power is acquired and then misused there is a devastating price to pay. So there is no question that for the timid, the Middle Path is much safer than facing and conquering the temptations of the Magical Path.

THE DEVIL represents Raw Power (Mars), it is the Force that brings about the transmutation of THE TOWER (key 16) and is in the sign of Capricorn (also shown as the Goat or Goat like image  on the Waite and Crowley card), which is where Mars is exalted.  Capricorn, is a weighty, even blind sign of Earth and symbolizes the highest and lowest states of individual  personality. Yet it is considered a sign of initiation, or release from matter formed limitations. These material limitations are suggested by the astrological rulership of Capricorn by Saturn, the Planet of Binah, The Great Mother that governs the limitations of form, including Time, as does Saturn.These limitations are of both the enclosure of matter or of time, the artificial system by which we meter and enclose all activities. Thus, THE DEVIL also represents the average person's misconception of "reality"; a perceptive belief  that the material eye sight and/or-sensual condition is "Real". The Qabalist knows the physical-material world as the "1%" world, and realizes that the other invisible  "99%"  (often called "the other side of the Mirror") is the unseen Real. This misconception of reality is symbolized on the head of the Ryder-Waite DEVIL, by the upside down pentagram on the entities head. The upside down pentagram indicates delusion as our ideas of spirituality and reality are upside down as it is positioned over the "Third Eye" of Inner Sight.

The misconception of reality is symbolized in two ways on the Thoth Deck- THE DEVIL  card, the smirking mouth and the Goat represents the humorous figure of the childhood nemesis the "Bogey Man"; this "Bogey Man" is more of a demonic character on the Witches Tarot- Key 15-The Shadow Side. Both the Witches Tarot and Thoth Tarot cards emphasizes the knowledge that our belief in the illusion of matter (Matter is only .4% visible as our bodies are 99.6% space!) is actually laughable while implying that laughter is a humorous approach to our lives and is a tool which will help our consciousness to transcend the illusion of "seeing it to believe it". Mirth is the first great corrective and helps us not to take our perceptions of the material world seriously, which only means "fearfully". Therefore, The Devil cautions us not to believe everything we think. 

It pays to noted that the Survival Mind of the animal,is our Devilish tempter that tricks us into believing we are as Moons who are at the mercy of Forces rather than the Magus (The Sun) who manipulates these forces.The Wisdom of Witches, tells one to not believe in the Christian Devil. That the darkness within is merely our fear based thinking initiated by the survival mind of the biological brain.

These delusions of mental weakness, are shown on the Witches Tarot, as our couple are cringing in fear trying to hide in a dark and dreary forest , from some nightmare apparition. Hence, the Shadow Side of our mind is our fear of fate, forces, and other states of enslaved thinking, brought on by our fear of pain, death etc.. Also, limited physical sight, rather than insight, is the bogey-men creator that keeps us from exercising our free Will-Power. This is the Trick of sensuality, it makes us believe only in reaction as reality rather than the Action, that makes the Real of things.  Spirit is action, the body is reaction. Our Action must control our reaction, if we are to exercise our Divine Freedom of Choice.When reacting to others, we are choosing to be ruled by them and spend our lives trying to appease them while we are in a constant state of fear.

The Path of Ayin, means Eye, a representation of the true "I" and/or our Soul/Psyche. Hence, if we believe in only what our physical eyes show us, we lose our inner "I" sight, shown as the All Seeing Eye, that is on the Forehead of the Thoth Tarot- Goat, which symbolizes the astrological sign of Capricorn. The panicked figures on the Witches Tarot card are  indicating their servitude to fear based thought,  shown, however unwittingly, as a comical Bogey man.

The Qabalist knows that there is nothing in the Universe that is not of One Mind. The Devil, as we are taught, is merely a postulation of those who wish to rule the ignorant who fear their body senses.  Intellectually the "Devil " Tarot indicates a state of mind that is a source of forms and appearance of relative existence and is the necessary intellectual means of reaching the Christ-Buddha consciousness that is Tiphareth, the 6th Sephiroth-Beauty- on the Tree of Life.  That is why this necessary state of mind, is also called the "Lord of the Gates of Matter and the Child of the forces of Time" (see the Emerald Tablet). The Devil then is both Tempter and Redeemer. He is also described as the "Prince of the Powers of Air", indicating that this state of energy conscious is mediating in the flow of Astral currents; Air being understood here as being the whole of Yetzirah, the Astral Plane which controls the ebb and flow of Matter.

Therefore the inner Path of Ayin, confers the ability to bring the upside down pentagram indicating "matter's rule over spirit"  right side up, indicating Spirit's rule over matter; which is another way of saying, the ability to reverse the currents of astral light. This process begins with the intellect of Hod (Splendor) and leads into the intuition of Tiphareth (Beauty). Thus, Dr.Paul Foster Case in his text -The Thirty Two Paths to Wisdom, calls the Devil the Renewing Intelligence. The Qabalist understands that only through the forces of the Devil and our right understanding of them, can we come directly to the Higher Consciousness of the Son/Sun of The Divine Creative.

It behooves us to remember that the word Manifestation actually means to create illusion, and while manifestation is the necessary means to create the illusion of earthly form for the Soul/psyche, it is the "dissolution" of these forms that is absolutely essential to the Path of Return. To the Qabalist, "dissolution" means analysis which is precisely what we apply when we intellectually separate the component forces and forms of the Universe and ourselves into 22 paths on the Tree of Life.  By first conceptualizing these component parts and then reintegrating them through our understanding of their operation, can we Return to our Divinity.

The Astral light (Akashic fluid, Odic force, etc.) is manipulated for whatever purpose, through an understanding of the Devil which is a "Great Magical Agent" (Eliphas Levi) for the processes of alchemical manipulation, as to dissolve, to consolidate, to quicken, and to moderate. This is dissolution, re-integration, activity and grounding which can be described as Fire, Water, Air and Earth.

The Thoth Tarot Card is more Arcanely complex than the Witches Tarot Card. This is because, as Crowley states, that Key 15  represents, "creative energy in its most material form", and as "Pan Pangenetor, the All-Begetter" . Crowley's goat is Pan standing on the highest mountain-top on earth, against a,"background of the exquisitely tenuous, complex, and fantastic forms of madness." Between the legs of the Thoth Goat, is the wand of the Chief Adept and all in front of a Phallus and two testicles, implying the Universal "All-Begetter". On the Thoth Devil card, the tip of the male organ is outside of the card, implying it is in the "Greater Heavens", while the testes contain the bound up forms of manifestation. The mysteries behind this card require books of research, so I hope this gets you started towards your discoveries.

WHEN THE WITCHES TAROT- THE SHADOW SIDE OR THOTH KEY 15-THE DEVIL CARD IS THROWN DURING A DIVINATION, IT IMPLIES:

Thank you for your interest and comments. May you live long and prosper.

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