[MD] THE TOWER

[MarshaV]

And what lead this THE TOWER?  What came before?  (I do love a good story!)



THE DEVIL

Basic Card Symbols

A winged, horned devil, a black pedestal, a naked male and female 
figure, chains, inverted pentagram.

Basic Tarot Story

The Fool comes to the foot of an enormous black mountain where reigns 
a creature half goat, half god. At his hooves, naked people linked to 
the god's throne by chains, engage in every indulgence imaginable: 
sex, drugs, food, gold, drink. The closer the Fool gets, the more he 
feels his own earthly desires rising in him. Lust, passion, 
obsession, greed. "I refuse to give into you!" he roars at the Goat 
god, resisting with all his might. The creature returns a curious 
look. "All I am doing is bringing out what is already in you," the 
beast responds. "Such feelings are nothing to fear, nothing to be 
ashamed of, or even to avoid." The Fool gestures angrily at the 
chained men and women, "You say that even though they are enslaved?" 
The Goat-god mimics the Fool's gesture. "Take another look."

The Fool does so, and realizes that the chained collars the men and 
women wear are wide enough for them to easily slip off over their 
heads. "They can be free if they wish to be," the Goat-god says, 
"Though you are right. I am the god of your strongest desires. But 
you see here only those who have allowed their base, bestial desires 
to control them." At this the Goat-god gestures upward, toward the 
peak of the mountain. "You do not see those who have allowed their 
impulses and aspirations to take them up to the top of that mountain. 
Inhibitions can enslave as easily as excesses. They can keep you from 
following your passion to the highest heights." The Fool realizes the 
truth in this, and that he has mistaken the Goat-god. Here he 
understands now that it is not a creature of evil, but of great 
power, the lowest and the highest, both of beast and god. Like all 
power it is frightening, and dangerous...but it is also the key to 
freedom and transcendence if understood and well used.

Basic Tarot Meaning

Perhaps the most misunderstood card of all the major arcana, the 
Devil is not really "Satan" at all, but Pan the half-goat nature god 
and/or Dionysius. These are gods of pleasure and abandon, of wild 
behavior and unbridled desires. With Capricorn as its ruling sign, 
this is a card about ambitions; it is also synonymous with temptation 
and addiction. On the flip side, however, the card can be a warning 
to someone who is too restrained, someone who never allows themselves 
to get passionate or messy or wild - or ambitious. This, too, is a 
form of enslavement. As a person, the Devil can stand for a man of 
money or erotic power, aggressive, controlling, or just persuasive. 
This is not to say a bad man, but certainly a powerful man who is 
hard to resist. The important thing is to remind the Querent that any 
chain is freely worn. In most cases, you are enslaved only because 
you allow it.

Thirteen's Observations

This card explores some very frightening things, things we are taught 
to view as evil or shameful. Like earthy materialism, sexual desire, 
valuables, food, or drugs. Lack of control, excess, obsession and raw 
ambition. At its absolute worst, this is either the addict or the 
stalker, totally obsessed, enslaved. At its best, this is a card 
about giving into impulse, cutting lose, going for the gold, climbing 
every mountain. Among all the cards, this is one of the most complex; 
interestingly because no other card is so one-sided. Most cards urge 
balance, unity, restraint, yin-yang. Not this card. Completely tilted 
toward the masculine, it is a card that revels in extremity. There is 
a convincing argument that this is the most powerful and dangerous 
card in the deck. Magically speaking, it is the one card in the deck 
that holds the secret of how to escape the material and temporal 
bonds of Earth. It is a very potent and fascinating card.




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Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.........
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