Better Living Through Cartoons
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Meet the Devil - not necessarily such a bad person
This is one sample of my circular Tarot cards series. From a very nice website, Aeclectic Tarot, we learn the story of the Devil card:
The Fool comes to the foot of an enormous black mountain where reigns a creature half goat, half god. At his hooves, naked people linked to the god's throne by chains, engage in every indulgence imaginable: sex, drugs, food, gold, drink. The closer the Fool gets, the more he feels his own earthly desires rising in him. Lust, passion, obsession, greed. "I refuse to give into you!" he roars at the Goat god, resisting with all his might. The creature returns a curious look. "All I am doing is bringing out what is already in you," the beast responds. "Such feelings are nothing to fear, nothing to be ashamed of, or even to avoid." The Fool gestures angrily at the chained men and women, "You say that even though they enslaved?" The Goat-god mimics the Fool's gesture. "Take another look."
The Fool does so, and realizes that the chained collars the men and women wear are wide enough for them to easily slip off over their heads. "They can be free if they wish to be," the Goat-god says, "Though you are right. I am the god of your strongest desires. But you see here only those who have allowed their base, bestial desires to control them." At this the Goat-god gestures upward, toward the peak of the mountain. "You do not see those who have allowed their impulses and aspirations to take them up to the top of that mountain. Inhibitions can enslave as easily as excesses. They can keep you from following your passion to the highest heights." The Fool realizes the truth in this, and that he has mistaken the Goat-god. Here he understands now, it is not a creature of evil, but of great power, the lowest and the highest, both of beast and god. Like all power it is frightening, and dangerous...but it is also the key to freedom and transcendence if understood and well used.
For more on the story, visit the original site, my source of this information. Thanks AT!
This is one sample of my circular Tarot cards series. From a very nice website, Aeclectic Tarot, we learn the story of the Devil card:
The Fool comes to the foot of an enormous black mountain where reigns a creature half goat, half god. At his hooves, naked people linked to the god's throne by chains, engage in every indulgence imaginable: sex, drugs, food, gold, drink. The closer the Fool gets, the more he feels his own earthly desires rising in him. Lust, passion, obsession, greed. "I refuse to give into you!" he roars at the Goat god, resisting with all his might. The creature returns a curious look. "All I am doing is bringing out what is already in you," the beast responds. "Such feelings are nothing to fear, nothing to be ashamed of, or even to avoid." The Fool gestures angrily at the chained men and women, "You say that even though they enslaved?" The Goat-god mimics the Fool's gesture. "Take another look."
The Fool does so, and realizes that the chained collars the men and women wear are wide enough for them to easily slip off over their heads. "They can be free if they wish to be," the Goat-god says, "Though you are right. I am the god of your strongest desires. But you see here only those who have allowed their base, bestial desires to control them." At this the Goat-god gestures upward, toward the peak of the mountain. "You do not see those who have allowed their impulses and aspirations to take them up to the top of that mountain. Inhibitions can enslave as easily as excesses. They can keep you from following your passion to the highest heights." The Fool realizes the truth in this, and that he has mistaken the Goat-god. Here he understands now, it is not a creature of evil, but of great power, the lowest and the highest, both of beast and god. Like all power it is frightening, and dangerous...but it is also the key to freedom and transcendence if understood and well used.
For more on the story, visit the original site, my source of this information. Thanks AT!
Death to all Russian Gambling websites!
I used to have a blog on my own website but it was invaded by hundreds of Texas Holdem posts from somewhere in the Urals. I decided to go with a commercial blog that would know how to keep those rascals away from my innocent toons.
I created this blog to post to PenelopeDullaghan's Illustration Friday. You can see my contributions to Illustration Friday here or on my own website, where you can also read from my three cartoons City, The Green Dog Cafe, and Toons.
Enjoy Life
I used to have a blog on my own website but it was invaded by hundreds of Texas Holdem posts from somewhere in the Urals. I decided to go with a commercial blog that would know how to keep those rascals away from my innocent toons.
I created this blog to post to PenelopeDullaghan's Illustration Friday. You can see my contributions to Illustration Friday here or on my own website, where you can also read from my three cartoons City, The Green Dog Cafe, and Toons.
Enjoy Life
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