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The Devil — A’ayin and the Vision in the Abyss

In the Western Hermetic Qabalah, The Devil corresponds to A’ayin—the Eye that sees into form, the lens through which the Soul perceives the density of manifestation. A’ayin is not merely eyesight, but inner sight distorted by attachment, the faculty that can bind or liberate depending on the consciousness behind it. It is the power to see through illusion—or be hypnotized by the glamour of form.

Assigned to Capricorn, The Devil expresses the Mystery of the Goat: the creature who thrives in the harshest terrain, climbing sheer stone toward the Sun. This is not the cartoon goat of medieval fear-propaganda, but the Initiatory Goat of the Mysteries—one who demonstrates that illumination is achieved through matter, not by fleeing it. In Capricorn we do not transcend incarnation; we master it.

Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris understood this with crystalline Hermetic precision. The Thoth Devil is not the tempter of Sunday-school dualism, but the ecstatic, all-generating force of Pan—PAN, meaning “All.” His horns are not symbols of damnation but of expansive nature. His third eye glows because A’ayin is the doorway to the supernal vision hidden in material experience. He is the hieroglyph of creative power freed from shame.

The Shadow as Gateway, Not Enemy

Key 15 is the card of shadow reclamation. The Devil teaches that we do not become enslaved by our instincts—
we become enslaved by the fear of them.

What we repress becomes our captor.
What we face becomes our power.

Every desire, impulse, or instinct cast into the psychic dungeon through guilt becomes animated as a “demon” of the Unconscious. These shadows only gain strength when banished or disowned. The Devil shows us that the monster in chains is one of our own Powers—misunderstood, misnamed, and misaligned.

This is why the Thoth Devil radiates joy, fertility, and cosmic humor. Pan laughs because nothing binds consciousness except the illusions we agreed to hold. A’ayin can be an Eye clouded by fear—or the Eye that illuminates the unreal.

Liberation Through Contact with the Real

This Key marks the initiation into spiritual adulthood, where one confronts the raw creative energies of life—sexuality, ambition, instinct, embodiment, pleasure, and the primal Will-to-Be. These forces are not obstacles to enlightenment; they are the fuel for it. Qabalah does not reject form—it consecrates it as the womb of Self-realization.

The Devil is therefore the Keeper of the Gate, not the Adversary of the Soul.

• He teaches sovereignty over desire, not repression of it.

• He reveals the link between pleasure and creation.

• He breaks the false dualism between spirit and matter.

• He exposes the lie that the body is unholy.

When this card appears, the aspirant is being summoned to reclaim what they once feared, to re-own their inner engines of power. Nothing in the self is forbidden—only misunderstood.

The Hermetic Key: The Body Is the Lantern of the Soul

A’ayin teaches that illumination does not descend upon an empty vessel. It ignites through the body, through desire, through sensation, through the encounter with limitation. Capricorn’s climb is the pilgrimage of the Soul discovering that divinity expresses itself through structure, discipline, and the mastery of form.

The Devil is the reminder that our incarnation is not a fall from grace but the proving ground of the Adept.

He is the guardian who stands at the threshold saying:

“Know thyself—even in the places you fear to look.”

For in those very places lies the power you thought you lacked.

The Devil as Laughable Illusion — The Wetiko and the False Ego

For the truly awakened, the “Devil” is not a lurking cosmic adversary but a concept so hollow, so transparently fabricated, that it becomes almost comedic. The enlightened laugh because they recognize the trick: the Devil is nothing more than the shadow cast by the false ego—that artificial mind-structure built from fear, survival reflex, and inherited programming. It is a parasite of identity, a counterfeit “self” made entirely of reaction and conditioned belief.

When one has touched their true Solar Self—Tiphareth’s radiant “I AM”—the Devil dissolves like mist in the sun. What remains is the recognition that the only chains we ever faced were the ones we forged from misconception.

This is why traditions speak of the Scapegoat. Humanity projected its guilt outward, inventing a supernatural culprit to absolve the weight of its own choices:
“The devil made me do it.”
 

But that scapegoating is simply the avoidance of inner shadow-work. The so-called Devil is the unintegrated part of the psyche, the anxious animal-emotion we have not befriended, the childhood wound we have never illuminated, the instinct we were taught to fear.

In Qabalistic terms, this is the shadow of A’ayin—the Eye clouded by misperception. Not the faculty of true Sight, but the distorted perception infected by a parasitic thought-form. Indigenous peoples of North America called this psychic infection Wetiko: a mind-virus that feeds on fear, scarcity-thinking, and the belief in separation. It thrives only when unobserved, hiding in the blind spots of our subconscious, leeching vitality from the very person it afflicts. Wetiko cannot survive the gaze of Self-awareness; it evaporates when confronted by the sovereignty of inner Light.

Modern culture, more flippantly, calls this phenomenon the “drama queen”—a mundane mask for the same energy. This “drama queen” is simply Wetiko wearing cheap theater makeup: the compulsive emotional spiral that convinces a person they are powerless, persecuted, or defined by conflict. The outer theatrics are the last shrieks of a dying illusion.

What the Devil archetype reveals—especially in the Thoth Tarot—is that the real enemy is not a demon in the shadows but the unconscious agreement to remain asleep. The Devil is the dark-side of the personality when it remains severed from its source of Light. When that Light is restored, the Devil becomes nothing but an empty costume: fear mistaken for truth.

The task of Key 15 is to strip the mask away, reclaim the energy trapped beneath it, and recognize the truth:

The Devil was never an opponent—only a distortion.
The Light was never absent—only forgotten.

I would highly recommend Paul Levy's book-Wetiko (Healing the mind virus that plagues our world).

The Wetiko concept profoundly resonates with the Hermetic understanding of the false ego, or the parasitic thought-form that hijacks the light of the soul. Here's an esoteric elucidation that synthesizes the Wetiko mind virus with the Qabalistic and Thothian perspective of the Devil and false self:

Wetiko: The False Ego and the Inverted Mirror of the Soul

The “Devil” is not some external demonic entity lurking in the shadows of the cosmos—it is the inverted reflection of the Self, generated by unexamined fear and unintegrated shadow. In both Western Hermetic Qabalah and Paul Levy’s interpretation of Wetiko, we are dealing with the same phenomenon: a parasitic, self-replicating thought-form that feeds off of unconscious energy. It is not a being—it is a pattern, a distortion of consciousness.

What is Wetiko?

Wetiko is a concept derived from Native American teachings (especially Cree and Algonquin), popularized in metaphysical psychology by Paul Levy. It describes a psychic infection—a mind virus that consumes the soul’s vitality by convincing the host that it is them. Like a spiritual malware, Wetiko tricks the person into identifying with thoughts of fear, scarcity, jealousy, victimhood, and self-loathing.

It thrives in the unobserved corners of the psyche, spreading through emotional reaction, projection, and unconscious behavior. Wetiko cannot survive the light of conscious awareness, for it is a parasite, not a creator. It has no energy of its own and must feed on the luminous energy of the awake Self—the I Am presence, or what Hermeticists would call the Tipherethic consciousness.

False Ego in the Western Hermetic Model

In Hermetic Qabalah, particularly the teachings aligned with the Thoth Tarot, the false ego is seen as a construct of the Ruach (the intellect), cut off from Neshamah (the higher soul) and misaligned with the will of the Solar Self. It becomes an artificial identity—a mask that claims dominion over the body and its instincts while masquerading as the true self. This misidentification is what gives The Devil card (Key 15) its psychological relevance: it symbolizes the seduction of form, the illusion of separation, and the bondage of unconscious habit.

Key 15, The Devil, as the path of A’ayin ("eye") between Hod (intellect) and Tiphereth (beauty/self-awareness), reveals that liberation comes through seeing—illumination of shadow. When one becomes aware of the parasite, observes its patterns without feeding them, the power returns to the true Will.

Spiritual Warfare is Observation, Not Opposition

The battle is not fought with resistance, but with awareness. Just as shadows vanish in light, Wetiko dissipates when brought into the field of conscious Self-realization. In this sense, the Hermeticist becomes a Solar Alchemist, turning the base metals of fear and illusion into gold through integration and observation.

To observe the false ego without judgment is to sever its hidden roots. To name the parasite is to begin the exorcism. The more we identify with the Light of the I Am, the less foothold the false self has.

The Devil as Inversion: Trickster of the One Mind

The ancients preserved a subtle and dangerous teaching—one that was never meant for the profane or the literalist. They taught that the Devil is God inverted, the reflection of the Absolute as seen through the lens of matter, desire, and conditioned perception. This is not a claim of dualism; it is the recognition that polarity is the language through which the One Mind experiences itself.

To the exoteric religions of the Piscean era, this sounded like blasphemy.
To the Western Adept, it is simply optics.

Inversion is the inevitable distortion created when infinite light bends through finite form.

Just as a concave mirror bends straight lines into a warped image, so too does the density of matter warp the pure radiance of Spirit into a figure perceived as “other,” “fallen,” or “adversarial.” The Devil is that warped image—a projection of the One Light in a world that has forgotten its source.

The Devil as Trickster of the Universal Mind

In this deeper view, the Devil is not a lord of evil, but a Trickster-Teacher, a force whose nature is paradox:

• He reveals truth by hiding it.

• He liberates by first appearing as bondage.

• He awakens sight by clouding perception.

• He forces the soul to remember by first letting it forget.

This is the role of A’ayin—the Eye that sees distortion so it may eventually see clearly.
This is the mystery of Capricorn—the descent of Spirit into matter so that mastery may be gained.
 

This is the secret of Pan—the All, disguised as the animal, laughing at its own cosmic game.

The Devil binds the soul not out of malice, but through the universal law of polarity.
Anything that enters manifestation acquires a shadow.
Anything that takes form enters limitation.
Anything that sees itself as separate forgets its origin.

The Trickster’s joke is that none of this separation is real.

This duality is symbolically captured in the ancient esoteric glyph of two interlocking triangles—one black, one white—pointing in opposite directions. This image, found in alchemical diagrams, Qabalistic seals, and magical iconography, reveals a deeper mystery: light and darkness are not enemies but complementary expressions of unity. Similarly, the classic occult image of a face split into white and black halves teaches that within every “holy” visage is a shadow, and within every shadow burns a hidden light.

The Trickster, then, is the great initiator of transformation. He breaks rigid belief structures, exposes self-deceit, and forces us to confront that which we deny. In myth and magick, this force is often personified as Loki, Hermes, Pan, or even Set—figures who disturb order to bring about revelation. The Devil in the Tarot (ATU/Key XV) is just such a force. He confronts us with our attachments, addictions, and false identities, daring us to awaken—not through denial, but through integration.

The One Thing Playing Both Parts

Hermetic philosophy teaches that the One Mind (Nous) expresses itself through a self-created polarity:

• Spirit (outflow, unbounded, luminous)

• Matter (inflow, limited, structured)

The Devil is the symbol of the second pole—the condensation of the One into apparent multiplicity. It is the shadow cast by the Supernal Light as it descends into form. But a shadow requires a light to exist.

Thus the Devil is not anti-God;
he is God as experienced through limitation.
God, viewed from the bottom of the Tree instead of the top.

The Qabalist understands this and does not fall for the illusion of separation.
The Devil is the mirror face of God reflected in Malkuth.
The Trickster is the guardian of the Gate—testing the initiate’s ability to discern reality from reflection.

The true trap is not the Devil;
the true trap is thinking God and Devil are two.

Liberation Through Recognition

When consciousness realizes that the bondage of matter is simply the friction through which Spirit reveals itself, the Trickster’s mask falls. The Devil ceases to be an adversary and becomes what he always was:

A glyph of creative power,
a guardian of thresholds,
a necessary inversion of the One Mind expressing itself through form.

The laughter of Pan resounds, echoing through the initiatory chambers of the soul:

“There is no ‘other.’ There is only the One playing hide-and-seek with itself.”

In that recognition, inversion becomes reintegration, and the Devil becomes the stepping-stone to illumination.

Occultism—literally meaning “the study of that which is hidden”—teaches that the path to enlightenment leads not away from the shadow, but through it. The Devil is not to be feared or worshiped but understood as a necessary polarity within the play of consciousness. He is the lock that makes the key of liberation meaningful.

The Devil Within: Banishing the Trickster Mind-Virus

In the Western Hermetic tradition, The Devil is never an external tyrant or a cosmic rebel. He is an inversion of perception—the distortion created when consciousness forgets its own origin. The Devil is the archetype of self-sabotage, the force that reveals how deeply we cling to illusions that drain our vitality. This concept aligns with the occult psychology of A’ayin (the “Eye”) and finds resonance in Paul Levy’s articulation of Wetiko, the psychic mind-virus that feeds on unconsciousness.

Wetiko, like the Devil of the Qabalist, has no life of its own.
It survives only by hijacking the host’s perception.
Its entire existence depends on one thing:

You not seeing it.

The moment the Solar Self in Tiphereth shines awareness into its hiding places, the illusion collapses. The Devil evaporates like a shadow at dawn.

The Denial that Feeds the Parasite

Wetiko thrives wherever we refuse to look.
Denial is its oxygen.

Rather than recognizing how we undermine our own sovereignty through addiction, resentment, stagnation, or despair, the Trickster-mind projects these shadows outward. We blame others for the very patterns we have not yet integrated within ourselves.

This projection manifests in countless familiar disguises:

• gossip and character assassination

• bigotry born of internalized fear

• religious or moral zealotry used as a shield

• obsessive distraction that replaces authentic self-honesty

• outrage addiction and the cult of perpetual offense

Each of these is simply the Wetiko-pattern disguising itself as virtue, certainty, or moral clarity.

When we judge others harshly, we momentarily stop seeing the fragmented parts of ourselves. When we demonize others, we unconsciously mask the unclaimed power within our own shadow.

The ancient Hermetic law states:

“All that appears ‘outside’ is a mirror.”

The Devil archetype personifies the refusal to look into that mirror. He is not the cause of our bondage—he is the symbol of our unwillingness to witness the inner truth.

Awareness: The Sword that Cuts the Chain

But the banishment is neither complex nor ceremonial.

It is conscious self-observation.

This is the Solar weapon of Tiphareth, the 6th Sephiroth—the inner Sun, the true “I AM,” whose light dissolves illusion without effort. The Devil’s chains are not forged of iron but of inattention. The moment awareness turns inward, the Wetiko-parasite loses its camouflage.

Awareness breaks the spell because Wetiko cannot co-exist with witness-consciousness.

It requires:

• trance

• distraction

• emotional reactivity

• projection

• ego-driven narrative

Remove any of these, and the illusion collapses.

In Hermetic terms, the Sword of Ruach, the rational and solar faculty of the mind, cuts through the binding glamours that hold the personality hostage.

Consciousness, not exorcism, is the true banishment.

Divide and Conquer: The Devil as Anti-Life

In its deepest esoteric meaning, the Devil archetype is not anti-God; it is anti-life.

He represents:

• the division of body and spirit

• the condemnation of instinct

• the fear of nature

• the moral shame of desire

• the repression of the feminine principle

• the weaponization of dogma against human freedom

This fragmentation is the real “Devil”—the engineered distortion that trains humanity to distrust its own nature. Patriarchal dogma and authoritarian hierarchies thrive by severing the individual from their inner source of power. A divided psyche is easier to control.

This is the ancient mechanism of “divide and conquer” applied to the inner world:

• Divide the self from its instincts.

• Divide desire from holiness.

• Divide body from soul.

• Divide the feminine from the masculine.

• Divide the present self from the higher self.

A human being who believes they are fragmented is easily manipulated, for they spend their entire life looking for an external authority to restore what was never lost.

The Devil archetype symbolizes precisely this state of misalignment—a consciousness that has forgotten its wholeness.

Reclaiming the Throne of Tiphereth

To banish Wetiko is not to wage war—it is to reclaim sight.

The Devil does not need to be destroyed.
He needs to be unmasked.

When awareness returns to its rightful center in Tiphereth, the Solar Self reclaims its throne. The mind-virus finds no foothold where consciousness stands sovereign.

And the Adept realizes that the Devil was never a monstrous adversary, but a Trickster-teacher revealing the places where we abandoned our own Light.

The banishment is eternal because the Light is eternal.

Awareness restores sight.
Sight restores sovereignty.
Sovereignty dissolves the illusion.

Above all things, know thyself!

The Devil’s Etymology: When Divinity Was Turned Upside-Down

Barbara G. Walker—whose Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets remains one of the most daring and meticulously researched reference works of the last century—reveals an etymological truth that dismantles the entire foundation of the exoteric “Devil” concept.

She points out that the modern word devil descends from the same Indo-European root as deva and devi—words for god and goddess. In Sanskrit, Deva means “shining one.” In Persian, this same root was flipped into daeva, meaning a harmful spirit. Old English divell, and its Latin source divus/divi, still carried the meaning “godlike ones.”

Walker captures the paradox perfectly:

“From the beginning, gods and devils were often confused with one another.”

This linguistic inversion is not a coincidence—
it is a blueprint for how spiritual authority was inverted during the patriarchal conquest of older Goddess-centered cultures. Words were weaponized. Divine principles were systematically rebranded as adversarial ones.

What was once holy became “evil.”
What was once the source of life became the great threat.
What was once our inner divinity became the “enemy.”

This is the original mind-virus—the Wetiko-pattern expressed through language itself.

The Angel Within, Rebranded as the Adversary

When we trace the historical shift in meaning, we uncover a disturbing pattern:
our Angelic Will-to-Be—the innate impulse toward sovereignty, creation, and self-realization—was redefined as a demonic force.

Why?

Because authoritarian systems cannot tolerate individuals who recognize their own divinity.

A being who knows the Deva within cannot be manipulated.
A consciousness aligned with Tiphereth cannot be controlled.
A person who trusts their instinct, intuition, and authentic desire cannot be subordinated to a doctrine.

So the oldest trick in the authoritarian playbook was simple:

Weaponize language.
Invert meaning.
Turn gods into devils and devils into gods.

Call the Will of the Soul “sin.”
Call desire “unclean.”
Call the Feminine “dangerous.”
Call the body “corrupt.”
Call sovereignty “rebellion.”
Call inner sight “temptation.”

This is the real “Devil”—
the linguistic inversion that divides us from our own Light.

Walker’s scholarship exposes what Hermetic Qabalists have always known: the Devil is not an external force, but the distortion produced by language, culture, and fear.

The Word-Hypnosis of Divisionism

Western Hermetic Qabalists have named it precisely: word hypnosis.

When a culture repeats a lie for long enough, the mind accepts it as truth. Patriarchal institutions mastered this technique—shaping entire civilizations by redefining the vocabulary of spiritual experience.

By dividing:

• goddess from god

• body from spirit

• sexuality from sanctity

• intuition from reason

• selfhood from divinity

they created a fractured psyche vulnerable to fear, guilt, and external authority.

The Devil, in this sense, is the linguistic shadow cast by the suppression of our inner Deva/Devi nature. It is the result of centuries of cultural conditioning that taught humanity to distrust its own divine spark.

The word became a spell,
and the spell became a cage.

The Hermetic Revelation

For the Adept, reclaiming the true meaning of “devil” and “deva” is not an academic exercise—it is a magical act. It reconfigures the psychic architecture. It restores the connection to the Solar Will. It dissolves the Wetiko-program that keeps consciousness subordinate.

The Devil card (A’ayin) in the Thoth Tarot is a glyph of this restoration:

• seeing through the spell

• breaking the inversion

• reclaiming the Will-to-Be

• reintegrating the Light-in-Matter

• dissolving the false split between God and Devil

The Trickster-mind virus cannot survive in a psyche that remembers the original meaning of its own name: Deva—shining one.

The Divya Linga and the Devil: How the Solar Mysteries Were Inverted

There is yet another esoteric thread—rarely explored, often dismissed, and intentionally buried—that deepens the linguistic and symbolic inversion surrounding the word Devil. When we trace this current through Sanskrit, Roman astro-theology, and Christian propaganda, we uncover a profound distortion: the radiant mysteries of the Divine Lingam were recast as diabolical.

In Sanskrit, the sacred union of the Devi (Goddess) and the Lingam (creative phallic principle) forms the term Divya Linga—literally the Divine Phallus or Divine Creative Power. This is not a crude sexual reference, but a mystical representation of the Solar generative force—the power that brings life, light, and consciousness into the phenomenal world. The Linga is a vertical ray of light; the Yoni its receptive vessel. Their union is the cosmic engine of manifestation.

But during the long centuries of religious conquest, particularly under patriarchal Christian authorities, this sacred term was distorted. Propagandists eager to demonize pagan and tantric spirituality reshaped Divya Linga into a phonetic ancestor of the English “Devil”—a deliberate slander of the most ancient symbol of divine creative energy.

Thus the Solar Phallic principle—the Son/Sun of God—became synonymous with the adversary.

This inversion was not accidental.
It was strategic.

The Solar Phallus and Lucifer as the Bringer of Light

In Roman and Hermetic traditions, this same creative principle is embodied by Lucifer, the Light-Bringer—an epithet originally referring to the planet Venus as the Morning Star. Venus rises before the Sun, heralding its arrival. The ancients saw this as a metaphor for illumination, awakening, and the dawning of consciousness.

Lucifer was not a fallen angel. He was a Solar herald.

The irony is staggering:

• Lucifer means bringer of light.

• Christ is called the Light of the World.

• The Sun/Son is the life-giver, the divine phallic ray.

• Divya Linga is the Sanskrit root concept—divine light, divine generation.

And yet, through centuries of institutional propaganda, these concepts were rebranded as “demonic.”

In the process:

• the Goddess was demonized,

• the Lingam was demonized,

• Venus/Lucifer was demonized,

• and the Solar generative spark within humanity was turned into an object of fear.

This is nothing less than a psychic castration ritual applied to an entire civilization.

The Hermetic Revelation: The Devil Is the Inverted Sun

When we look through the lens of Western Hermetic Qabalah, this inversion becomes obvious. The Devil corresponds to A’ayin—the Eye obscured by material illusion. He is not the enemy of God, but the shadow-cast of the Solar Self when consciousness is trapped in fear, shame, and projection.

The historical inversion of Divya Linga into “Devil” echoes the psychological inversion of the Solar Will into the “evil will.” Humanity was taught that its own life-force—desire, creativity, sexuality, sovereignty—was sinful.

This linguistic and symbolic distortion is one of the most successful tactics of the “few who wish to rule the many.” By disconnecting people from:

• their bodies,

• their instincts,

• their inner divinity,

• their creative power,

• their Solar identity,

• and their sacred sexuality,

they manufactured a frightened population easily ruled, guilt-ridden, and dependent on external authority.

It is Wetiko through language—
a parasitic distortion delivered through etymology, doctrine, and fear.

The Adept’s Task: Reclaim the Solar Will

To understand the Devil, the Deva, the Divya Linga, Lucifer, and Christ as expressions of the same primordial current is to dismantle the entire edifice of fear-based religion. It restores the original Hermetic truth:

The Light was never divided.
Only perception was divided.

The Devil is simply the Solar Mystery turned upside-down—a trick of language, history, and psyche. When we reclaim the Divya Linga, we reclaim:

• our creative sovereignty,

• our sacred sexuality,

• our Solar Will,

• our true identity as Light-Bearers.

And the “Devil” returns to his true form:

the radiant power of the God/Goddess within,
misnamed, inverted, and waiting to be remembered.

Being that I am a Western Hermetic Qabalist I find that the Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris ATU- 15 card best explains the Devil as a institutionalized way to enslave a person's imagination to a point of using one's own mental power against themselves.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

-Oscar Wilde

Triple Goddess Tarot – Key 15 – The Crone

The Fear of Death as the First Devil

In the Triple Goddess Tarot, Key 15 appears not as a horned Trickster, but as The Crone, the elder aspect of the Sacred Feminine. She is the final face of the Maid–Mother–Crone triad, embodying the mystery most cultures seek to avoid: Death, the great dissolver, the final initiation, the transmuting fire through which all forms must pass.

Where the Thoth Devil exposes the mind-virus of distortion and self-sabotage, The Crone reveals the root fear from which all lesser fears arise:
the fear of endings.
the fear of release.
the fear of no longer being “who we were.”

Fear of death—physical, emotional, psychological—becomes the archetypal Devil that enslaves the psyche.

The Crone Walking Away: The Ritual of Release

The imagery is subtle yet profound. A grandmother clothed in black steps away from her home, leaving behind the artifacts of her identity: a handkerchief, a red scarf, a silver pendant. Each item is a symbol of a persona or attachment she no longer needs—echoing the Qabalistic mystery that all forms are temporary garments of the Soul.

She is framed by two trees, unmistakably echoing the twin pillars of the High Priestess. These pillars represent:

• memory and forgetfulness

• life and death

• manifestation and dissolution

• the known and the unknown

The Crone walks between them, signaling that she is making her passage through the veil of A’ayin—the Eye that must look directly at mortality without flinching.

This is the real Devil:
the fear of impermanence.

The Devil as Fear of the Ending of the Self

In the Triple Goddess deck, The Crone embodies the psychological core of the Devil archetype: the clinging to what is familiar, the terror of what lies beyond the known path, and the desperate hold on identity.

Every addiction is ultimately an attempt to avoid death—
not just literal death, but the death of:

• an old self

• a habit

• a belief

• a relationship

• a coping mechanism

• a story we have outgrown

Fear of death fuels all survival-based illusions.
Fear of death feeds Wetiko.
Fear of death animates the false ego.
Fear of death creates the Devil we fight against.

By walking away from the symbols of her past, the Crone models the fundamental spiritual truth:

To be free, one must be willing to let the old self-ego die.

The Meaning of the Card: Breaking the Chains of Fear

When Key 15 – The Crone appears in a reading, the message is direct and uncompromising:

• Break away from addictive patterns.

• Release what no longer supports your vitality.

• Stop feeding the false self built from fear.

• Withdraw your power from people, substances, or narratives that control you.

• Step boldly into change, even if it feels like a small death.

• Reject the illusion that you depend on anything outside your own soul.

This is not a gentle card.
It is a wake-up call: a demand to reclaim sovereignty over the psyche.

The Crone stands as the elder Priestess who knows that freedom requires sacrifice—the sacrifice of illusion, not life.

She shows the querent the open door of liberation, but she does not walk through it for them.
She demonstrates that the true Devil is the fear that keeps us clutching a life we have already outgrown.

The Crone and the Hermetic Devil: A Unified Mystery

Placed beside the Thoth Tarot:

• Thoth Devil = illusion, inversion, the trickster mind-virus

• Triple Goddess Crone = fear of death, clinging to identity, refusal to release

Together they reveal a single truth:

The Devil is not an external being—it is the internal refusal to evolve.

To dissolve the Devil is to face death consciously—not with dread, but with the dignity of the Crone, who knows that endings are simply gateways to greater becoming.

This trickster false soul figure knows exactly what will set your psyche ablaze. He holds up a mirror not to your fears, but to your longings—the things that make life seem worth living. He appears not as a tormentor, but as a liberator—offering access to unbridled passion, sensual intoxication, artistic fire, and emotional catharsis. He whispers, "Why deny yourself what you secretly crave?"

But herein lies the initiatory paradox: the Devil does not lie about pleasure—he lies about its cost. To dance with him is to flirt with your own shadow, and every indulgence comes with a price. If you surrender your Will—the Solar directive of Spirit—to his charm, you risk enslavement. You become bound not by chains, but by cravings. You do not possess the desire; the desire possesses you.

In Qabalistic terms, this Devil is the force of Ayin—"the Eye"—the path between Hod (intellect) and Tiphereth (the true self). He is the inverted reflection of the Sun. He is not evil, but he is dangerous, precisely because he masquerades as freedom while covertly binding the soul in illusion.

The key, then, is not repression, but mastery. The wise magician does not deny the Devil, nor pretend he doesn’t exist. Instead, he looks him in the eye, learns his nature, and never cedes authority. Pleasure, desire, and fire are divine gifts—but only when you are the one wielding them.

The boundary is subtle. The Devil teaches by crossing it.

Hermetic Maxim

“Desire is sacred when it serves the Will.
Desire is slavery when the Will serves it.”

The difference between a comedy and a tragedy is that in a comedy, the characters figure out reality in time to do something about it.

--Bennett W. Goodspeed

The institutions of the Patriarchy (Military Industrial Complex) are created to subdue your natural tendency to use your will freely and become under the control of an outside will (false will) who calls your instinctual mind and/or subconscious, evil and set self-destructive programs (traps) in your brain by indoctrinating your imagination. Imagination being the Creative aspect of your mind (feminine) and subjecting it to a false rationale (male)called dogma.

The Devil card asks a very important question, who is controlling your will? Is it the false egregore of Patriarchy control of "good or bad" the Spirit within you? In other words, is your subconscious, the mind of the soma, a *Pavlovian experiment or your Soul's personal representative on earth?

*Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, conducted groundbreaking experiments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that led to the discovery of classical conditioning. While studying the digestive processes in dogs, Pavlov observed that the animals would begin to salivate not only when food was presented but also in response to stimuli associated with feeding, such as the sight of the lab assistant who fed them.

Verywell Mind

Intrigued by this anticipatory salivation, which he termed "psychic secretion," Pavlov designed a series of experiments to investigate this phenomenon systematically. He introduced a neutral stimulus, such as the sound of a metronome, just before presenting the dogs with food. Initially, the metronome's sound did not elicit any salivation. However, after several pairings of the metronome's sound with the presentation of food, the dogs began to salivate in response to the metronome alone, even when no food was presented.

Wikipedia

In the context of Pavlov's experiments, the components of classical conditioning are defined as follows:

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without prior learning. In this case, the food served as the UCS.

• Unconditioned Response (UCR): The unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus. The dogs' salivation in response to food was the UCR.

• Neutral Stimulus (NS): A stimulus that initially does not elicit any intrinsic response. The sound of the metronome was the NS before conditioning.

• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Previously the neutral stimulus, after association with the unconditioned stimulus, it comes to trigger a conditioned response. The metronome's sound became the CS after conditioning.

• Conditioned Response (CR): The learned response to the previously neutral stimulus, now the conditioned stimulus. Salivation in response to the metronome's sound was the CR.

Pavlov's experiments demonstrated that behaviors could be learned through association, a process he termed "conditioning." This discovery laid the foundation for the field of behaviorism and has had profound implications for understanding learning and behavior in both animals and humans. It is the Devil in your brain.

Under the behavioral conditioning, one is nothing but a "knee jerk" marionette of ruler controlled "self-definition".

Chokmah – The Will to Force and the Wisdom of Experience

On the Qabalistic Tree of Life, Chokmah, the second Sephirah, sits at the summit of the Pillar of Mercy. It is the archetype of pure, dynamic force—called the Will to Force, the active Logos of Divine Will before it meets structure. The Hebrew name Chokmah translates as Wisdom, and its sacred color in Atziluth (the world of archetypes) is gray—not black or white, but the synthesis of both. This grayness is not ambiguity, but integration—the merging of opposites into a unified knowing.

Wisdom: Not Morality, But Mastery Through Experience

Wisdom is not the memorization of facts, nor the possession of truths—it is the result of living, failing, correcting, and evolving. In this light, error is not evil, it is the raw material of wisdom. Pain is not punishment, it is the friction of transformation. What we call “evil” or “bad” is often only an experience we haven’t yet understood.

• Error corrected becomes Wisdom.

• Pain transcended becomes Healing.

• Death is the doorway through which Life transforms and evolves.

All things in Chokmah are tools of becoming, not final judgments.

This is why in Hermetic and Qabalistic philosophy, there is no evil in Chokmah—only the Will expressing itself through contrast. The Fool (Aleph) leaps into existence through Chokmah (Yod), setting the dance of light and shadow in motion. It is not about escaping experience but using it alchemically.

The Body: A Crucible for Self-Knowledge

In this divine schema, the body is not a prison—it is a sacred laboratory. We, as sparks of Spirit—beings of “I AM”—descend into the physical world not to escape it, but to experience Identity through direct, embodied knowing. Without a body, a soul cannot test its beliefs, prove its inner theories, or taste its own concepts.

This is why the Hermetic maxim, “As Above, So Below,” is not a comparison—it is a reverberation. The divine Will above seeks confirmation below. Chokmah’s fire is tested in the furnace of form. The body is the means by which the Soul becomes self-aware.

To reject the body is to reject the alchemical vessel of the Great Work. To embrace it is to enter into the mystery of Chokmah itself—Wisdom born from Union, from motion, from the collision of force and form.

Chokmah and the Divine Masculine

As the archetype of the Divine Masculine, Chokmah does not dominate—it initiates. It is the Father, not of rules, but of momentum. When paired with Binah—the Divine Feminine form-giver—it creates the universe in all its glory and terror, joy and pain, life and death. This is the sacred dance of Wisdom: the polarities that birth Understanding.

Closing Hermetic Thought

“Wisdom is not the absence of error, but the knowing that transcends it.
It is not avoidance of pain, but the Will to alchemize it.
Through the body, I prove the Soul. Through living, I awaken the I AM.”

In the context of psychology and metaphysics, both the personality and the ego are significant concepts, but they refer to different aspects of an individual.

1. Personality:

   • In psychology, personality encompasses a set of enduring traits, patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make each person unique. It's the way an individual consistently interacts with the world.
   • Personality is shaped by a combination of genetic factors, experiences, and environmental influences. Psychologists often use various theories, such as the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism), to understand and categorize personality characteristics.

2. Ego:

   • In psychology, particularly in psychoanalytic theory developed by Sigmund Freud, the ego is one of the three parts of the mind, alongside the id and superego. The ego is responsible for mediating between the instinctual, impulsive desires of the id and the moral and social constraints of the superego.
   • The ego operates based on the reality principle, seeking to satisfy the id's desires in a way that is realistic and socially acceptable. It helps individuals navigate the external world and make decisions that balance their internal needs with external demands.

In summary, while personality refers to the overall pattern of characteristics that define an individual, the ego is a specific part of the mind responsible for managing conflicts between internal drives and external demands. The ego is a component of the broader personality structure. Understanding both concepts can provide insights into human behavior and thought processes. The subconscious has two aspects, ego and personality. Both are profaned by indoctrination and dogma. These two partners in cooperation of the body, have been divided by dogma, propaganda, and indoctrination producing a false battle between personality and the ego who are fighting each other for control of the brain.

The black background of the RWS-Key 15-The Devil represents the darkness of ignorance. The inverted pentagram on the brow of the RWS Devil symbolizes mental inversion and/or "upside down thinking". It is also the sign of man in reverse position and thereby, representing falsehood and delusion. This is because the Devil represents the "Dark Son"/The Trickster/the mimic deceiver and/or "false ego". Whereas, the half-cube pedestal, this laughable R.W.S. figure sits on, represents an imperfect understanding of the physical World, that is represented as a cube.

The Devil as the Divided Mind: The Trickster of Life and Death

In both the RWS Tarot and the Triple Goddess Tarot, Key 15 personifies not an external enemy, but the split within consciousness itself. The Devil is the fracture between the Self-Conscious mind (the “awake” ego) and the Subconscious mind (the emotional and instinctual strata). When these two aspects of mind cease communicating, a shadow is born—a false self that operates through fear, survival reflex, addiction, and denial.

The RWS Devil expresses this split through the playful Trickster of inversion, the Pan-force that shows how easily perception is distorted. The Triple Goddess Crone expresses the same mystery through the inevitability of death, aging, and release. Both reveal the same truth in different robes:

The Devil is the story we tell ourselves when we forget we are eternal.

The Crone as Trickster of Death

The Grandmother in the Triple Goddess card is not simply an elder walking toward the end of life—she is the Trickster of Death, the one who reveals that death is not an annihilation but a transformation. Just as the Thoth Devil reveals illusion by exaggerating it, the Crone reveals mortality by performing it.

She scatters her possessions because she is playing the sacred joke of aging:

“Watch closely—everything you cling to is temporary.”

But she is not decaying.
She is revealing.

For death, like the Devil, is a teaching device of the One Energy—a forced shedding of false identities so the eternal Self can expand, evolve, and continue its journey beyond form.

The Crone shows the aspirant that old age is not a punishment, but a ritual disguise, a costume worn by the eternal Psyche to mimic impermanence while never actually being touched by it.

Life as a Trick of Transformation

In Hermetic Qabalah, consciousness arises from the One Energy—Ain Soph Aur, the Infinite Light—that cannot be created or destroyed. The psyche is immortal, not because it resists death, but because it is not a product of time. The body is temporal; the psyche is not.

This gives rise to a profound metaphysical paradox:

Organic life survives by consuming itself.

The Soul survives by transforming itself.

Flesh must “eat” to remain animated—a desperate imitation of immortality.
It decays, rebuilds, replaces, regenerates, always on the brink of collapse.

This biological recycling is not true continuity—it is the illusion of continuity. An imitation of the eternal nature of the Psyche, which needs no consumption, no fuel, no raw material. It persists because it is the Life-force.

In this sense, the body is the Trickster’s greatest illusion: a machine that must cannibalize the world to persist, pretending to be eternal while constantly dying and resurrecting itself at the cellular level.

It is a biological echo of the Devil’s symbolic function:
the appearance of division, where there is only unity.

The Devil as the Personified Split

Thus, the Devil in both decks becomes the personification of the divided mind:

• Self-Conscious Mind → The builder of identity, names, stories, boundaries.

• Subconscious Mind → The primal depths, instinct, memory, mythic shadow.

When these two fall out of harmony, the psyche believes itself mortal, separate, endangered. Wetiko emerges. Ego becomes tyrannical. Fear masquerades as instinct. Addiction tries to replace connection. The organism clings to survival as if survival were the same as life.

This false split is the Devil:
the belief that you are the body rather than the Being animating the body.

The Crone walks away from her objects to teach this very lesson.
The Thoth Devil laughs because he knows it.
Both point to the same truth:

The psyche is eternal. The body is the costume. The Devil is the misunderstanding.

The Great Hermetic Insight

When we see the Devil and the Crone in this light, the entire archetype transforms:

• Death becomes initiation.

• Fear becomes a teacher.

• Illusion becomes a mirror.

• The split mind becomes whole.

• The “Devil” becomes the shadow of a truth too radiant to see all at once.

The Devil is not the enemy of the soul—he is the shadow that reveals the presence of the soul. The Crone is not the end of life—she is the opening into life beyond the mask of the flesh.

Both together whisper the oldest Hermetic secret:

Nothing dies.
Only forms change.
Consciousness continues.
The Devil was only the disguise.

In history, the Knights Templar were accused of worshiping the Devil in the form of Baphomet. Again, a divide and conquer ploy used by the Roman Catholic Church to destroy a rival concept of Spirit.

The Baphomet, often associated with the Knights Templar, is a symbol that has evolved over centuries and carries a rich tapestry of symbology and metaphor.

Historical Context:

The term "Baphomet" came into prominence during the trials of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century. Under torture, some Templars confessed to worshipping a deity named Baphomet. The confessions were likely coerced, and the descriptions of Baphomet varied greatly, suggesting that it might have been a fabricated charge.

The Symbolic elements of Baphomet are:

1. The Goat:

• Head of a Goat: The goat's head, especially with its horns, has been historically associated with fertility gods, like the Greek Pan. In medieval Christian symbolism, goats were often linked to the devil and sin.
• Goat of Mendes: This concept combines aspects of the goat with ideas of duality and balance, stemming from ancient Egyptian mythology and later interpretations.

2. Duality:

• Androgyny: Baphomet often appears as an androgynous figure, embodying both masculine and feminine characteristics. This represents the unity and balance of opposites.
• "Solve et Coagula": The Latin terms for "dissolve and coagulate" on Baphomet's arms signify the alchemical process of breaking down substances and recombining them into a new form, symbolizing transformation and the pursuit of enlightenment.

3. Pentagram:

• Inverted Pentagram: The inverted pentagram on Baphomet's forehead has been interpreted as a symbol of the material world and earthly desires. In some contexts, it's associated with the subversion of divine order and the embrace of the physical realm over the spiritual.

4. Torch Between the Horns:

• Illumination: The torch symbolizes enlightenment and the pursuit of knowledge. Positioned between the horns, it signifies the merging of animal instincts and higher consciousness.

Metaphorical Interpretations

1. Gnosis and Esoteric Wisdom:

• Baphomet can be seen as a symbol of the quest for hidden knowledge and the integration of diverse aspects of existence. This aligns with the Templar's rumored secret teachings and their role as custodians of esoteric wisdom.

2. Balance and Harmony:

• The dual nature of Baphomet (male and female, light and dark, human and animal) embodies the concept of achieving balance and harmony within oneself and the universe. It challenges the dichotomous thinking of good vs. evil, suggesting a more nuanced understanding of morality and existence.

3. Transformation and Transcendence:

• The alchemical motto "solve et coagula" encapsulates the transformative journey of the individual. Baphomet represents the potential for personal and spiritual transformation through the reconciliation of opposites.

Modern Interpretations

In contemporary occultism and popular culture, Baphomet has taken on various meanings. For some, it remains a potent symbol of rebellion against orthodox religious structures and the embrace of individual freedom and enlightenment. For others, it serves as an icon of occult wisdom and the mystical path to self-knowledge.

Conclusion:

The Baphomet associated with the Knights Templar is a complex symbol blending historical accusations, esoteric traditions, and modern interpretations. It embodies duality, transformation, and the pursuit of knowledge, serving as a powerful metaphor for the journey toward enlightenment and the integration of opposites within the self. It is us; we are all Baphometic wisdom.

In the more Qabalistic Key 15 cards, the Devil is associated with the Hebrew Letter Ain. The Path of Ayin, means Eye, a sigil for the All Seeing "I" of the One Mind and if we believe in only what our physical eyes show us, we lose our inner "I" sight, shown as the third eye, that is usually on the forehead of the Tarot-key 15 Goat (scapegoat) and as the point of the inverted pentagram on the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot.

Inverted pentagrams represent "upside down" thinking and/or reversal of true knowledge. and in this case, reversal of false knowledge. The enchained figures on the Rider-Waite-Smith card are shown horned indicating their servitude; However unwittingly, to this comical Bogeyman the woman figure sports a "fruitful" tail, implying she is sexual-Fecund (Will-to- Form) and the male figure's tail is aflame, implying sexual- expressive force (Will-to-Force).

Ayin: The Eye of the One Mind and the Inversion of Sight

If you aspire to be the True Self, you need to know this-not believe it, so let's go over this one more time. In the Qabalistic tradition, the Devil of Key 15 corresponds to the Hebrew letter Ayin (ע), meaning “Eye”—but not merely the pair of physical organs that receive light. Ayin is the symbol of inner sight, the “All-Seeing I” of the One Mind. It is perception itself.

Thus Key 15 warns that when we rely solely on what the physical eyes present, we lose access to the inner Eye, the spiritual faculty that sees beyond appearance. The result is upside-down thinking—knowledge inverted, wisdom reversed, perception occluded by illusion.

This is why the Goat of the Thoth Devil carries a bright third eye in its forehead, and why the Rider-Waite-Smith Devil is framed by an inverted pentagram above its head. The pentagram reversed is not inherently evil; it is the symbol of consciousness turned upside down, Spirit subordinate to matter, perception trapped in form. It is the emblem of the false ego believing itself to be the whole truth.

Ayin, therefore, is the path of learning to see through the illusion—not with the eyes, but with the “I.”

The Chains, the Horns, and the Comedy of the Bogeyman

The Rider-Waite-Smith Devil amplifies this teaching through its symbology. The two human figures are horned, signaling that their bondage is self-inflicted—they have unconsciously become servants of their own misperception. Their tails reveal their trapped vitality:

• The female’s fruitful tail shows fertility, the Will-to-Form misdirected through shame or repression.

• The male’s flaming tail shows passion, the Will-to-Force misused or misunderstood.

Both are symbols of natural, divine impulses distorted by cultural conditioning and the false ego’s fear of its own power.

The Devil’s smirking face amplifies the card’s deeper truth:
this “Bogeyman” is a joke we tell ourselves, a childish caricature of danger.

Traditional decks intentionally portray the Devil as ridiculous or theatrical. The Devil is not terrifying because he is monstrous—he is terrifying because we believe the monster is real.

The RWS Devil mocks our gullibility.

It is the fear that enslaves.
Not the thing feared.

Matter as Illusion and the Laughter of Liberation

The Rider-Waite-Smith and older versions of the card emphasize the profound Hermetic understanding that matter is illusion, or more accurately, appearance masking underlying unity. Modern physics echoes this: our bodies are over 99% space—only a microscopic fraction of ourselves is “visible” matter. The rest is energy, vibration, and fields of information.

The Devil card tells us that to fear form is absurd.

To cling to it is even more absurd.

Hence the humor woven throughout the card. Laughter is a tool of liberation, a way of breaking the spell of fear-based conditioning. When we can laugh at our illusions, we reclaim the Ayin—the Eye that sees beyond them.

This is the deeper alchemy of Key 15:

When we recognize that our self-image is simply a story told to explain an illusion of solidity, we transcend the Devil entirely.

The Devil is the mask.
We are the one wearing it.
And the moment the “I” stops believing the eyes, the chains fall away.

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 Card cautions us not to believe everything we think or "feel".

It pays to note that the Survival Mind of the animal (subconscious), is profaned by the Devilish tempter that is the medial controlled false ego which tricks us into believing we are as Moons who are at the mercy of Forces rather than the Magus (The Sun/Son) who manipulates them.

This doesn't mean the subconscious is evil, it just means it is the creator of survival thoughts and instincts that once profaned by indoctrination and dogma behavioral Patriarchal modification are often the "thoughts" that bedevil us throughout the delusions of material life and the admonishments of the false soul (egregore) of culture.

THE DEVIL represents Raw Power (Mars) of consciousness; "Raw" because 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 headed or Goat like image on the Waite Tarot), which is where Mars is exalted-in the Survival Mind. 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, thereby showing us the positive side of the mind rather than the viral programing that torments us.

These material limitations of time 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-Space, as does the Greek- 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 eyesight and/or-sensual condition of ruler-controlled measurement/definition 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 Self that is behind all creation:

All is Mind! 

The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot- key 15 (ATU-15) is named the Devil-key 15. The Goat headed image represents the old Goat headed God and the Sign Capricorn as well, which is only appropriate since this is the sign attributed to this card. Capricorn is a sign attributed to the element earth and therefore, a horned being is often shown.

.

Everything is a failure until it isn't. There can be no light without darkness, no form without shadow; there can be no Perfected Self, without Imperfect Self: no Christ without Antichrist; there can be no resolution of dualities of consciousness without encountering the black waters of discord. However, our true power lies in our shadow self, for it is the place of all dreams, illusions, and fantasies, all which contribute to Willful creation and exploration! For therein lies our Imagination-The Creatrix of all Forms!

The Misogynistic Patriarchy is the one who wrote the "genesis" story of Adam and Eve. Here the Female was shown as being responsible for getting mankind expelled from the "garden of Eden", a false slaver utopia, by seeking knowledge. She "ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge". That Tree is the Qabalistic Tree of Life. This makes clear the mockery: How dare anyone seek knowledge in a society of ruler-controlled ignorance? Happiness is to stay ignorant!

How foolish is knowledge! It is time you Un-Know yourself.

When the Devil Key 15 card is thrown in a divination, it implies:

• Strong instinct and suggestive power.
• Lust for power. 
• Black magic (fear-based magic).
• Ritualized sexuality.
• Ego transformation through group rituals.
• The encounter with the shadow.
• The Subconscious is considered the Shadow of the Unconsciousness.
• The sum of unlived possibilities.
• Perception of the truth.
• Complete self.
• Lucifer as the bringer of Light.
• Determining what is the cause and what is the symptom.

If reversed (shadow):

• Fateful entanglements.
• Self-destructive tendencies and/or drives.
• Hell within.
• Dark power.
• Collective hysteria.
• Getting caught up in fear and worry.
• Addictions.

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

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