Forum Camoin du Tarot

[andruian]

Hello,

I recently became acquainted with a new perspective regarding the tarot cards and their meanings after viewing the Tarot special feature on Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain DVD. Particularly the explanation he provided for the Le Diable card. The question I have to anyone is...

Do these cards or their images ever present themselves in your life outside of a reading?

For example, I often see images of Le Diable or am inexplicably drawn to other characteristics of the card. It's as if the universe is attempting to communicate to me something of importance. I am a believer in synchronicity however lately I have become jaded. What I find most interesting is that coming from a loose christian upbringing in america the "Devil" automatically is charged as negative, but the tarot leaves this open to much more interpretation. From my basic understanding the Diable card can represent a fear of progression through a tight grip on the familiar... Any thoughts?

I am quite unfamiliar with all the meanings of the cards and their symbology at this moment, so any recommendations on reading would be great as well.

Good day,
Andrew

[Paul]

Hello Andrew, and welcome.

Yes, it is the Western religions that have compartmentalized aspects of the human expression into their little good and bad boxes. But, there's a place for Le Diable in our lives. If you have seen the movie Pan's Labyrinth, for example, you feel the ambivalence of this figure, at once attractive and disturbing at the same time. Pan was a revered divinity/demi-god in ancient pagan religions. These dichomoties were not so surgically clean in Paganism. But, that's what I like about the Pagan era: It reflected what IS, not what we fantasize humankind to be. Certainly, the Tarot was cooked in a Christian broth, but it is synthetic and incorporates many spiritual systems. Some Tarot authorities purport that the average 15th century folk person would see the Tarot card Le Diable and recoil in revulsion or fear. I'm not so sure. I think they would say, "Uh huh, I've been there."

In the Camoin Method, the upright cards signifiy positive energies, thus even our naughty Devil can signify useful concepts.
There's a time and place for everything under the sun, even a time to be devilish, bold, brash, assertive. Le Diable can signify material things, money, se*uality, instinct. If I needed a trial lawyer, I might appreciate Le Diable appearing to signify my lawyer's approach, for example. Reversed, he degenerates. But, all of the Tarot card energies have this potential for the Dark Side. Think of times when seduction, materiality, se*uality, boldness, assertion, unorthodoxy, even aggression, and essentially sticking your tongue out at convention is a useful and responsible concept.

I'll give more thought to more reading materials. I have learned the Tarot de Marseille begging and scraping, because until recently in America, the Tarot de Marseille has been virtually invisible. You can also have a looksie at my website, which is a celebration of the Tarot de Marseille, but forgive it as a work in progress.

[iñigo]

Hi!

I do agree with Paul almost completely. Our cultural inheritance is modular, as Paul said, manequeist and lineal, it doesn´t behold the possibility of ambivalence.
In fact, to complete the posit before, I would like to add that, in a positive sense, Le diable shows creativity, passion, deal, illusion, challenge...as a verb le diable could be TO DARE. "Dare to do something", this card says us
Le diable, in a positive way, is a good challenger, someone that makes you doubt about our solid references of our life and the nature of them.

I would like to encourage you guys to find the "postmodern" image of the Diable...any suggestion?

Best regards!

[Paul]

I would like to encourage you guys to find the "postmodern" image of the Diable...any suggestion?

That would be the quintessential Rock Star.




"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."
- Henry David Thoreau

This is the postmodern spirit of Le Diable, to me.