the devil usually brings with it a warning (watch out for that which is too good to be true, or, free yourself from that which seeks to shackle you), but interestingly, the botanica guidebook has a much more light-hearted approach to the card, focusing on pleasure, and frivolity, and playfulness. the warning is still there, it talks about how the belladonna displayed on the card was used to dilate women’s eyes in the renaissance to make them look sexually aroused but a wrong dosage could be fatal, but it’s more about balance than anything else.
so this week, my darlings, as ever: try to remember that we need pleasure in our lives, but life is never only pleasure.
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this week’s deck: botanica
this week’s gems: milky quartz, carnelian
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previously, in the devil: 9/23/18; 10/28/18; 2/14/21; 2/21/21; 6/4/23