No. 16

Tarot 16

Il Diavolo, the Devil, is portrayed in the tarot of Marseille with facial features in unusual places, such as a mouth on his stomach, eyes on his knees, and so on, and has both female breasts and male genitalia. He has mammal (batlike) wings, and not goosefeather wings, unlike angels - and in some cases hooves and a hairy tail. Two demons stand somewhat loosely chained in front of him.

The Devil has animal horns in younger pictures, and batlike wings, and may also hold a pitchfork.

Superficially, the Devil - a renamed Pagan Pan, the Horned All-God of Nature of feared sexual activity - could seem alarming [Alexander 88-90] and far out to suppressed persons, but the "cloud" has at least one silver lining:

Baron Georges Leopold Cuvier (1769-1832) was a French zoologist who laid the foundations of comparative anatomy and paleontology. His outstanding achievement resulted from his ability to reconstruct whole skeletons from fragmentary remains, for he understood how particular features related to other features in a huge fabric of hallmarks.

Cuvier's logical mind once troubled a group of students who tried to play a practical joke on him. They broke into his rooms in the middle of the night, and one of them, dressed in a devil's outfit with horns, tail, and hoofed feet, approached his bed, intoning, "Cuvier, I have come to eat you!"

Cuvier woke up, gave him a single glance, and said, "All animals with horns and hooves are herbivorous. You won't eat me." Then he went back to sleep again at once. [Fadiman 1985]

Natural life and natural human behaviour is traditionally much suppressed, even sleeping in church. In some circles, brutish violence and murder is less censored on TV than delightful sex. [Aomiel 53 ff]

Alignment

A bad marriage can halfway enslave two people till they are old.

To be well fed and tied a lot is not all there is to a happy marriage.

Much depends on superiors. In the spiralling coding system that is applied here, the Horned God shares the fourth life field (area) with the Empress, that is presented as someone that is easily emotional, family-nurturing, and protecting good love. If emotions and family love-making goes too far or get suppressed, it may chain us to some extent - and we are thereby turned away from a healthy and happy life - not just by lust in some directions. Unsound repressions may harm us much and for long too.