my mentor and thesis advisor once asked me if i felt like i was defending snakes, or on their side, or something like that. he had done his own thesis on ravens, notorious tricksters, and had felt no such urge. yes, i said, without hesitation. part of the reason i had linked snakes with women in the first place is that i felt they had both been maligned. a snake is a woman is a devil. or, a woman is a snake is a devil. or, a devil is a snake is a woman.
i’ve always been sympathetic to villains and victims, having felt myself to be both. (the line between them is surprisingly thin, or at least it has seemed that way to me.) it was easy for me to look at the story of the garden of eden and relate to eve, a sucker for the line ye shall be as gods. it was easy for me, later, to relate to the satan of paradise lost, declaring that it is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. there are other examples (lilth, kassandra of troy, etc.) and snakes connecting them all.
but the sasuraibito tarot knows how to get me opposed to the devil: make him a man. there’s nothing extraordinary about him; he’s just…a man. he looks like any number of men who have done me harm.
when the devil shows up, it is to warn us - there is something that we need to get under control, or something that we need to free ourselves from. the result can sometimes be cataclysmic (after all, the next card in the fool’s journey is the tower) but necessary, if we are to grow.
this week, darlings, i leave you with advice from the wild unknown guidebook: free yourself.
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this week’s deck: sasuraibito tarot
this week’s crystals: obsidian
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