The Devil is Your Daddy, pt. 3

In the Sun and the Sea series, I started off by questioning the Original Sin. It would do well, however, to take a look at another momentous occasion in Christian mythology: the Crucifixion. I thought it was strange that the Fall of Man was arguably not his fault. Similarly, the crucifixion of Christ makes little sense when we delve into the issue of responsibility. If a man is sinful, should it not be up to him to repent? Did people just get a free pass when Jesus turned himself in? My spider sense (there's another idea worth exploring) is tingling...

Imagine you're the manager of a project with lots of different sectors involved. The project was a disaster, failing on every aspect, each sector having made its share of mistakes. One man then comes up and says to you: "Absolve all others, and punish me instead." Would you accept his proposals and make no changes to the staff, other than firing him? I don't think many would.

"All areas were somehow involved: mechanics, management, logistics, navigation, and so on. However, the death of the on-board physician absolves everyone else of guilt."

The reason the Crucifixion is understood as it is nowadays shows that Man clearly has a fragile relationship with the concept of responsibility, as I mentioned in the second part of the series. I made a semiotic analysis of then-current events, but perhaps today it would be more interesting to go with something a little more chthonic: music. Take Cake's "Satan is my Motor."

The car is a frequent symbol in dreams. It is the equivalent of the Chariot archetype in the Tarot: the mind/body's ability to roam freely and independently, the mastery of the soul's physical vehicle, the guiding of the instinctual/Promethean fire. Notice that the chariot is guided by two sphinxes, one black, one white. These are not stallions. The square necklace of the rider further enforces the material, and his wand denotes mastery and ability. It is the seventh archetype, the Great Way of the Mind.

I've got wheels of polished steel 

A clever nod here to the cyclical nature of the universe. "Wheels within wheels," saw Ezekiel:

15 Now as I looked at the living creatures, behold, a wheel was on the earth beside each living creature with its four faces. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 17 When they moved, they went toward any one of four directions; they did not turn aside when they went.

Well, so not much a circle as a spiral, but cyclical nonetheless. As an aside, steel is ruled by Mars, tying us back to the Chariot (I once had a dream with a red car/motorcycle, given to me by an old man/White Wizard) - Mars is the rider here, taking the primal dual energy and harnessing it into motion in the material world.

I've tires that grab the road

Once more we have the image of wheels and the material - on the Great Way!

I've got seats that selflessly hold my friends

And here we have our first feminine allusion, which is crucial to the Satan dimension. The Moon is a symbol for the negative, recipient, female polarity - and it's reinforced here: seats, selflessness, holding, friends are all Lunar concepts.

And a trunk that can carry the heaviest of loads

The heaviest of loads indeed - the Moon carries all potentialities within it. Needless to say, trunk = Moon.

I've got a mind that can steer me to your house

Now we come back to the masculine. This interplay is very dynamic, as you can see. The mind steering = Mars; your house = Venus.

And a heart that can bring you red flowers

The heart is where the Devil resides (or at least close enough - the heart is the 5th house, the 4th being the one of the Dark Night of the Soul). Red flowers are an even closer meshing of yin and yang.

My intentions are good and earnest and true
But under my hood is internal combustion power

So basically we have the dynamic being discussed throughout this series: Male -> Female -> Male. Here we have the male principle taking the potential of the female principle and realising it. The key point is that you cannot understand the engine unless you look under the hood.

And Satan is my motor
Hear my motor purr
Satan is my motor
Hear my motor purr

Satan is the only one who seems to understand 

Self-explanatory.

I've got brakes I'm wide awake
I can stop this car at any time

Once again, steering is determined by both male (wide awake) and female (brakes).

At the very last second I can change directions
Turn completely around if I feel so inclined

Changing directions is also something that combines both male and female - movement/inclination is yang, turning is yin.

I've got a mind that can steer me to your house
And a heart that can bring you red flowers
My intentions are good and earnest and true
But under my hood is internal combustion power
And Satan is my motor
Hear my motor purr
Satan is my motor
Hear my motor purr
Satan is the only one who seems to understand
Satan is my motor
Satan is the only one who seems to understand

And so on. And how does this tie in to responsibility? Well, say your car breaks down in the middle of the road due to a lack of motor oil. Would you complain, or believe that it's a valid argument, that it was the car manufacturer's fault that your car broke down? I doubt that very much. Of course, it helps to know about the design of the engine, to take a look at other engines, but you can only really understand/fix your engine if you take a look under your own hood.

Recently, I've been discussing the tale of Bluebeard in therapy. Fairy tales are another aspect of creative expression of the ineffable, much as music is. The basic plot goes something like this: Bluebeard is a wealthy charmer who has a certain difficulty attracting women due to the fact that his beard was, well, blue. However, he successful courts a young maiden, who reasons that anyone who is so polite, dashing and considerate can't be that bad, and they get married. One day, Bluebeard is set to depart on a trip, and gives his wife the keys to the castle, saying she could open any door she pleased but one. Her sisters, however, convince her to open the door, and in the room they find the rotting corpses of Bluebeard's former wives. They flee in horror, and the missus notices that the key to the room is stained in blood - a blood that won't go away regardless of how much she wipes. Bluebeard returns and inevitably discovers his wife's "wrongdoing," but her brothers slay Bluebeard before he can get to her.

The key to the story is that the young maiden distrusts her female instincts and marries someone of whom her guts were very suspicious. When she discovers the truth, it is essential that she realise that she had a part to play in the drama, and that it was her own fault for marrying someone she knew, deep down, she had to avoid. Once you acquire knowledge, there's no way to unacquire it. Sadly, most people prefer to simply look away, and play in the castle, leaving the room of Truth closed up. The reason why is very simple: understanding the world implies understand your part in it, both your achievements and your shortcomings. Here hubris rears its ugly head once more.

It does well, then, to take a peek into the forbidden room, where you will discover nothing more than a mirror, for within the dark room lie all potentialities of being - within YOU lie all potentialities, good and bad. Within you lies a shadow, but a shadow whose power is beyond your wildest dreams. Grab a hold of the Devil, but make sure he's aware of who's in charge. History is filled with cautionary tales of men who attempted to harness the Devil without the Wisdom of the feminine:

Theophilus was tempted by the Devil but saved by the Virgin

The modern Prometheus, brought to life (= Moon) by lightning!

The Devil is an imposing figure, but you mustn't forget that he is a figure that lies within you, and is thus a part of you. Therefore, make not bargains with the Devil, for he is your servant. He cannot, however, be approached merely through the masculine - heed the warning of Dr. Faustus. Employ your female side's faculties of patience, reception and rest, then take her on your Chariot for a spin around the world, and grok that, as they say, it takes two to tango.

Take your shadow out to dance this weekend. She'll thank you.

Truth
The truth is that I never shook my shadow
Every day it's trying to trick me into doing battle
Calling out "faker" only get me rattled
Want to pull me back behind the fence with the [cattle]
Building your [lenses]
Digging your trenches
Put me on the front line
Leave me with a dumb mind
With no defenses
But your defenses
If you can't stand to feel the pain then you are senseless

[Since] this
I've grown up some
Different kind of fighter
And when the darkness come let it inside you
Your darkness is shining
My darkness is shining
Have faith in myself
Truth

I've seen a million numbered doors on the horizon
Now which is the future you choosen before you gone dying.
I'll tell you 'bout a secret I've been underminding
Every little lie in this world come from dividing
Say you're my lover, say you're my homie,
Tilt my chin back slit my throat take a bath in my blood get to know me
All out of my secrets
All my enemies are turning into my teachers.
Because, lights blinding, no way dividing what's yours or mine when everything's shining
You darkness is shining my darkness is shining
Have faith in ourselves
Truth
Yes I'm only loving, only trying to only love
That's what I'm trying to do is only loving
Yes I'm only lonely loving feeling only loving
Till I'm feeling only loving
Ya say it ain't loving ain't loving my loving
But I'm only loving only loving only loving
Only loving the truth.

The Truth is out there, but it also within.

The Devil is Your Daddy, pt.1

Today I would like to discuss one of the most important archetypes out there, the Devil. This figure features prominently in all mythologies, from the god Set in Ancient Egypt to the classic horns-and-tail Satan. It is also possibly the most misunderstood out there. The Devil is typically associated with evil, with sin, with arrogance (and all the other negative traits), with dark sides. It tends to be a very negative image. However, like the figure of Death, the bad side is just one half of the coin. The Devil is not all hellfire, and is actually a very transformative archetype, dealing with the union of opposites (as do all of them to some level).

The Devil is actually a means to an end, and is a necessary part of every process. If we split the world into the dualities of light, reason and logic on one side and darkness, spirituality and emotions on the other, the Devil would not actually represent the latter, but a means of reaching the latter through the former. A very simple example can be seen in the Moon Landing (whether it actually happened or not is irrelevant here, since we are dealing with memes more than with facts). The Moon represents the female side of Man, as the Sun represents the male. Yet for centuries all the human race could do was gaze at the Moon, although it was indeed a source of great inspiration. We finally did reach the Moon on July 20, 1969 (not coincidentally, Woodstock would occur less than a month later), and how? Through the use of technology, of rationality driven to its utmost. The Devil, then, teaches us to shine a light on our unconscious. We must, however, be careful not to fall into temptation.

Notice how Neil Armstrong's face is clearly divided in two: one half dark and the other golden.

The Devil's power has forever been tempting us. From the Temptation of Christ in the Bible to Goethe's seminal Faust, there are countless examples and cautionary tales on the Devil's influence. The Devil is charming and seductive, as represented by his Succubus/Incubus manifestations. One very simple manifestation can be seen in the corporate globalist elite, who have almost literally sold their souls to the Devil for material gains. Taking rationality to the extreme takes one to hedonism and survival of the fittest (that is, back to the jungle - if you go all the way to the edge of a coin you'll end up right on the other side), and that is clearly what we are seeing: corporations and career politicians destroying the life of the average citizen for a purely financial gain - but all of this is bound to blow up in their faces, sooner or later, as it has a great deal of times before (the Roman Empire, the French Revolution...). Inevitably, though, this will all lead us, though at great cost, to further advancement in the spiritual realm. Remember how one of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution was a boom in spiritual studies and an interest in the paranormal. This is still going on, actually, which can be seen in the explosion in fantasy and paranormal stories (The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Twilight, et al).

Speaking of Twilight, it can be shown that Man is starting to come to terms with his own Moon/shadow side, with the evolution of the Vampire archetype, an offshot of the Devil. The first incarnations of the Vampire were extremely dark. They were hideous and only came out at night, they killed people to satisfy their own needs, they transformed into bats. This figure, however, has been slowly evolving, and now the most prevalent Vampire is handsome, avoids killing humans and actually shines in the sunlight. I hope it's a good sign.

From this...

...to this.

The Devil is also associated with the bat, depicted for example in William Blake's Satan Exulting over Eve:

The bat was, and still is, though to a lesser extent, considered a frightening creature. It only comes out at night, and spreads disease and sometimes even sucks blood. It's a creature of darkness. Studying the bat, however, that is, applying the male Logos to it, it was discovered that they actually use a sonar to navigate through the air, using sound waves to make up for their blindness. Bats are also useful in combatting pests.

The Devil is also manifested in the figure of the Dark Magician, which I've explored before. The DM takes the Logos to the extreme, and a great representative is Saruman, from The Lord of the Rings. He succumbed to the Devil's seduction.

This does not mean, though, that the Devil should be ignored or shunned. The trick is to access your own dark side, to face your shadow, but in your own terms. While denying our own shadow can lead it to be manifested externally (wars, corruption, poverty - Hiroshima is an excellent example), doing only its bidding leads to terrible loss as well, as I've explained above.

The Matrix provides a good analogy. Neo, or Thomas Anderson (or Twin Son-of-Man) gains access to the "real" world through his technological explorations, his hacking. Without computers, he never would have been found by Morpheus. However, he must still confront the Devil, in the form of the Machine (ultimate rationality) to gain access to the REAL real world.

Neo is right to be cautious

This whole adventure, I think, started with a dream I had:

We were in some sort of virtual/artificial world, trapped by the devil. It’s not quite hell, but there isn’t much to do. We’re in a shabby house, very narrow with many floors, and I can’t figure out where I’m going to sleep. Later, we’re having dinner at a restaurant, and then I look at my father and realise that he was the devil in disguise, because he was the only one who was allowed to do fun stuff in that world. He then does reveal himself as the devil, and he’s furious.

Needless to say, there's a personal layer here, although I would say it's not quite what Freud would point out here. However, I believe there's also a deeper meaning at hand. This dream occurred while I was reading The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead, by Stephan A. Hoeller. In the Seven Sermons, Jung mentions the idea that, while we tend to associate the male with the sky and the female with the earth (Uranus and Gaia, for instance), the opposite is also true (everything is also it's opposite). The female can be seen as the sky, and the male as the earth - symbolised by the snake (we'll get to the Eden story soon). After all, the male Logos represents rational thinking, logic, mathematics, but as we've been discussing, there's a dark side to all of this, and this dark side lies underneath, not above.

Abraxas represents the energy of the union of opposites

If we think of the role of the parents in psychology, the mother is the one who nurtures and gives affection, while the father is the one who teaches the child operate in the outside world. In fact, whereas the mother is the womb, the home, the father is the one who compels the child out of the home (through sexual initiation, apprenticeship at the business, and so on). The male parental figure provides the child with rationality. The mother role is essential, though, to remind the future adult to balance his rationality with his emotional side (I wonder how many career politicians and CEOs haven't had mommy issues - or an absent father, for that matter, causing them to compensate with excessive Logos).

We must be careful then, as always, to balance things out. I have also just read Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, which also adds to this theme (the title itself is already very provocative). If you don't want spoilers, skip ahead. The gist of the plot is that a race of superadvanced aliens appears on Earth, and begins to take the reins of the planet, albeit beneficially. They get rid of war and disease, and although there is always a resistance movement, things go on well for 50 years. The catch was that the aliens didn't reveal themselves, and would only do so when humanity was ready for it. It becomes clear why when it happens: the aliens, the Overlords, are essentially demons, horns, wings and tail. It turns out that these Overlords, while possessing extremely advances intellects, are basically soulless, and only exist to serve the Overmind, which one could say is the collective for all the souls of the Universe. The task of the Overlords is to guide humanity to its next stage of evolution, wherein it will come together with the Overmind as one. The first manifestation of this next generation of Man is through psychic powers, such as telepathy and remote viewing. You can draw your own conclusions, but the connections to the theme I'm exploring are obvious.

Tarot also cautions us about approaching the Devil carefully, but adamantly. I will later expand on this, but you can already check out Aeclectic for a good basic idea, and Sallie Nichols' Jung and Tarot: an Archetypal Journey. It's always good, though, to make your own associations first:

More coming soon.

The Nine and the Tower

Ah, synchronicity never fails. This morning, after my post last night on the Rainbow Bridge, I stumble upon a new TV show called the Nine Lives of Chloe King. 9 lives of KK Chloe King, are you kidding me? The story is about a girl who, upon her 16th birthday (i.e. at the beginning of her 17th year) discovers that she has cat-like superpowers. It turns out that she is descended from a race of ancient gods who interacted with humans a long time ago (reference is made to Ancient Egypt, for instance). She is a Mai (My?), a cross between gods and humans. And here is where it gets interesting.

The poster itself is interesting enough, with the green eyes and three scratches, not to mention that the show starts at 9. I think, however, it's also interesting to take a look at some of the connections to tarot. Keeping in mind that Tuesday is the day of the god of war, that is, Mars' day, let's look at the description of the meaning of the 16th card of the major arcana, the Tower:

With Mars as its ruling planet, the Tower is a card about war, a war between the structures of lies and the lightning flash of truth. This is a card about anything we believe to be true, but later learn is false. This realization usually comes as a shock, hence, the violent image. It is, quite simply, that moment in any story where someone finds out a shocking truth, one that shatters their perceptions and makes them reassess their beliefs. (from Aeclectic Tarot) 

Why is this curious? Well, in the pilot for the series, Kloe King begins to realise that there is something different about her, around her 16th birthday. However, she also starts being followed by a mysterious scarred man, who it turns out is intent on killing her. Nine times. He actually succeeds in the first attempt, and how? By throwing her off a tower! This tower is Coit Tower, in San Francisco, where the show takes place (the same location where the old TV series Charmed took place). In addition to having some interesting murals, which remind me of the Denver airport murals, the tower always shows a 3-3 configuration:

And here's an interesting tidbit from Wikipedia: "On the season finale of the CBS reality television program The Amazing Race 16, airing on May 9, 2010, Coit Tower was the site of the first task of that episode of the program, whereby one member of each of the three final teams had to climb up and back down Coit tower, with the clue obtained from the top of the tower in hand, in order to proceed to the next task or clue."

Coit Tower was named after Lillie Coit, an androgynous socialite, and it was founded in, well, 1933! In addition, the murals are open to the public on Saturndays at 11 a.m. (11 = K). Etemenanki has some interesting thoughts on 11:11. To top it all off, there is a statue of none other than Columbus himself in front of the statue. Here's a link to a Google image search if you want to check out the Coit Tower murals.

So we have a cat-like warrior (who, in addition to the nine lives, has claws and feline agility) falling from the tower. The Ancient Egyptian word for cat is myw, which is probably why these Star Children are called the Mai. It's also interesting to note that cats were the personification of the Sun god Ra...

Returning to Kloe, she has just turned 16, ergo, has just started her 17th year of life. The 17th card in tarot is the Star. Once again from Aeclectic:

With Aquarius as its ruling sign, The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing, even unexpected help to offer us sustenance in bleak times. 

It is after this moment that Kloe receives help from some fellow Mai. The association to Aquarius is also interesting in that Aquarius represents the shadow leader, in this case opposed to the main bad guy. Kloe is the saviour, the One/Neo/Jesus who comes to our world to protect us. She cannot, however, do it alone, and this is in the true spirit of Aquarius. As you can see in the card, there is the central, brightest star, but it is flanked by 7 other stars. Remember, Jesus had his apostles, and Neo had his own gang as well. This is not a Leo hero, who does it alone, like the fairy-tale prince charmings.

This is indeed the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. Will we see a Star-Child hero rise to save us?

Edit: just in case it wasn't clear, the connection to my previous post lies in the number 9 - the 9 lives of KK, the 9 worlds of Yggdrasil, death and rebirth as a higher consciousness... 

Do you realise?

Do you realize
That you have the most beautiful face?
Do you realize
We're floating in space?
Do you realize
That happiness makes you cry?
Do you realize
That everyone you know someday will die?

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes
Let them know you realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Do you realize?
(Oh, oh, oh)
Do you realize
That everyone you know someday will die?

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes
Let them know you realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Do you realize
That you have the most beautiful face?
Do you realize?

Just as a point moving along a circle never reaches the end, neither do we. The sun going down is not an entry into a world of darkness, but part of the cycle. I find that the word "realize" here takes on multiple meanings. "Do you realise" can be understood as "do you perceive" or "do you notice," but it can also be seen, in my view, as "do you make happen," "do you turn real."

This is a song that has always had a special meaning to me, even if there is no particular association to a person or an event. It just speaks to me on a very deep level. It's hard to make the good things last: we cannot stop the sun from disappearing under the horizon, just as we cannot stop a loved one from dying. It is all just an illusion: an impression we get from the natural cycle of the Earth. When one dies, he does not disappear, but merely moves on to the other side of the coin that is this existence of ours, in terms of the life/death cycle.

Realising that everyone you know someday will die should be a cheerful thought. Obviously it is much harder to actually REALISE this concept, but therein lies the beauty of it. It is hard to let things die, but we must go on and see the beauty in it. This brings Japan to mind. The Japanese have a much healthier relationship with death than we Westerners. In Japan, a cemetery is a pleasant environment, full of beautiful cherry trees and charming brick paths under the shade. It is a place for picnics and romantic walks. It is not ghastly or creepy, for death is simply just a part of life, one that we must deal with sooner or later; and the more we see death for what it really is, the more we come to appreciate it.

This is all reflected in the Death card in tarot. Many mistakenly suppose it to be a terribly negative card, but it is not. It is the great unknown, the beautiful unknown. Granted, beauty is not what comes to mind when one contemplates the figure on the horse, but look rather at the flag it bears. Why else should a skeleton carry a banner depicting a blossoming flower? Out of death comes rebirth.

In the same way, one must not see the dead person underneath the horse as sad. This only shows us that once we die, our material possessions do not go with us. They are not a part of our life/death cycle. It is only our memories, our thoughts, our feelings that travel along with us. And continually do we travel. The boat in the background is merely in the beginning of its journey. Death has arrived, but it is simply a part of the cycle (notice the three people of different ages).

And what do we see in the horizon? The sun rising.

Dealing with death is always going to bring pain and suffering, that is inevitable. But it is also inevitable that a rebirth will follow. We must learn to deal with these pains and to accept them as part of the endless cycle.

Notice the Sun rising in the background here as well.

The sign most closely connected with the Death tarot card is obviously Scorpio. Scorpio is probably the most dualistic sign of the Zodiac, in my conception. Sure, we have Pisces and obviously Gemini, but Pisces is more about coming full circle, and Gemini is more about the realisation of other. There is also Libra, but Libra weighs, it does imply a dualism but rather a synthesis. Scorpio, however, is the extremes, the two opposing sides of the same coin.

Scorpio is constantly shifting between its two incarnations, the eagle and the snake. The snake crawls along the ground, seeing only what is directly in front of it, feeling only what is below. It is near-sighted, and comes from the earthy emanations of Virgo. The eagle, on the other hard, is far-sighted. It soars high, feels the wind under its belly, sees everything around it. However it does not distinguish detail. Here we are moving to the soaring heights of Sagittarius. In fact, Scorpio is characterised by this extreme dualism. It is not about achieving a synthesis, it is not about contemplating the other. It is about visiting the two extremes, being the snake, dying, and becoming the eagle, and on and on.

And this is the life and death cycle. This is transformation. We are forever shifting from one extreme to the other (at different speeds, different rates, of course), so it is only right to embrace this cycle of transformation and see the death of the snake as the birth of the eagle, and vice-versa.

Another way of seeing this is the mythical story of Perseus. Here we have Medusa, the scary gorgon with its emanations of death and head full of snakes. However, when Perseus slays it (that is, when death arrives), the Pegasus, with its eagle wings, bursts forth from Medusa, and Perseus flies high.

Death is not only normal, it is necessary. It is not easy to embrace this Scorpionic energy...but then, if it were easy, why would we be here?

p.s.: see how the song is 3:33 long - I will comment more on this number in the future.