On Telling the Devil to Shut Up.

"You come back another day and do no wrong"

Arcanum 15: The Devil from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot

“They say the Devil is paranoid

Always tryin’ to cover”

-Queens of the Stone Age, “God is in the Radio.”

“We are good at camouflaging our bondage and calling it freedom.”

-Jacque Ellul “The Subversion of Christianity”

In most popular depictions of the 15th Trump of the Tarot, the figures chained to the monstrous figure of the Devil are not bound tightly. One has to think they might be able to escape easily enough if they just wanted to. Maybe they haven’t noticed. Maybe they don’t want to.

The word “devil” comes from the Greek “diabolos” διαβόλου , which means “accuser, backbiter or slanderer. This word comes to be identified with “the Satan,” שָׂטָן a figure in the Hebrew Bible who functions as a sort of “prosecuting attorney” who accuses the righteous and godly man Job in the heavenly court of Yahweh.

French anthropologist René Girard came to identify the action of “satan” with the “mimetic contagion of violence.” When the tension in our communities reaches a certain boiling point, we find someone or a group of someones to blame for it.

Almost as spontaneously as a murmuration of starlings in flight change direction, a group of humans can decide, mimetically, on a suitable target. The accused is surrounded. The scapegoat is sacrificed and with the offending agent of discord gone, life returns to “normal”…. for a little while anyway…

Most of us don’t notice how much of the stability we long for in society is predicated on the function of this mechanism throughout human history. Most people after all, didn’t walk away from Omelas.

Most of us don’t even notice this mechanism exists at all, until it starts to look like the mob is turning on us.

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

-Verbal Kint, “The Usual Suspects”

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus exclaims that he “sees Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18) In his book The Subversion of Christianity, Jacque Ellul explains the significance of the great “accuser” no longer having a place in the heavenly Court. God is no longer hearing arguments for the prosecution. The verdict has been issued and “the accused”(that’s you and I) have been pardoned once and for all.

“God does not hear, does not want to hear, will not listen to the accusations that assail him from every side… But if accusations are no longer in heaven, then not only is accusation still on earth but it is flourishing here.”

- Jacque Ellul “The Subversion of Christianity.”

“Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” Revelation 12:12

So what is “devil” up to these days now that he’s hanging around our neighborhood? The “accuser” is hard at work encouraging us to find scapegoats for the tension, injustice and unrest we face. A quick skimming of any of your social media feeds will confirm that easily enough. We participate in this mechanism largely because we believe somewhere deep down that when we identify and punish the guilty parties, the tension that plagues us societally will dissipate and we will be free of its constraints.

“We camouflage our bondage and call it freedom” in Ellul’s words.

The accuser isn’t satisfied with that though. If he can’t get you to turn on your neighbor, he’s more than happy if you turn on yourself.

Have you ever heard an internal voice running down a list of your inadequacies, inequities, foibles, sins, flaws and mistakes? Has it ever made a compelling case that you were worthless and beyond all hope? Did you think that voice was just “yours?” What is the ultimate aim of this line of accusation?

The Prosecutor wants you to plead guilty to the charge of being worthless because he knows the case will never go before the Judge. It’s already been thrown out.

Taking responsibility and ownership for our lives is important. The freedom we long to experience isn’t possible unless we accept the responsibility for the role our actions, choices and behaviors play in creating the reality we experience.

“Discipline equals freedom,” as Jocko Willink’s catchphrase succinctly puts it.

It’s all too easy, however, to confuse the acceptance of responsibility with the taking of blame. It’s all too easy to let the list of our mistakes and missteps take us even further from a place of agency, sovereignty and personal power. Rather than serving as useful information to be accepted and learned from, this list of private sins becomes evidence in the case we build against ourselves that we “deserve” to suffer and to never achieve our aims and purposes in life.

How do we keep this from happening? In Meditations on the Tarot, Valentin Tomberg has this to say in his letter on the Arcanum of the Devil.

“Once artificial demons are generated, how does one combat them, and how does one protect oneself from them and rid oneself of them?

Firstly, how does one combat them? Good does not combat evil in the sense of destructive action. It “combats” it by the sole fact of its presence. Just as darkness gives way in the presence of light, so does evil give way before the presence of good.

Modern depth psychology has discovered and put into practice the therapeutic principle of bringing unconscious complexes to the light of consciousness. Because-so it affirms- the light of consciousness renders the obsessional complex not only visible but impotent. This important discovery of modern psychology is in complete accord with the spiritual reality of the “struggle” of the celestial hierarchies against evil. Because this “struggle,” also amounts to their presence alone, i.e. to bringing evil to the light of day.

Light drives out darkness. This simple truth is the practical key to the problem of how to combat demons. A demon perceived, i.e. one on whom the light of consciousness is thrown, is already a demon rendered impotent.”

-Valentin Tomberg “Meditations on the Tarot Letter XV: The Devil”

If it’s easier to remember, Bob Marley put it this way:

“Don't let them fool ya

Or even try to school ya, oh no”

….

“Love would never leave us alone

In the darkness, there must come out to light

Could you be loved?

Then be loved!

Now could you be loved?

Then be loved!”

-Bob Marley and the Wailers “Could You Be Loved”

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The devil has been yammering in my ear pretty incessantly for the last couple weeks…if you couldn’t tell… so I’ve been taking things a little easy where possible. I put aside the books I was reading (because they felt a little too much like work) and have mostly been skimming stuff in my Kindle library and blogs for the last few days.

One of my favorite Tarot teachers, Marcus Katz, put out a book a few years back called After the Angel where he details his experience going through the Abramelin ritual. For those who don’t know, this is an arduous, months long magical working designed to bring the adept into the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
It’s an interesting document, mostly consisting of journal entries. These condense hours a day of fervent prayer, meditation, ritual, study of the sacred texts and esoteric grimoires from varied magical and spiritual traditions around the world- as well his own numinous experiences- into a few sentences a day. This is all interspersed with observations of how this all interacts with his day-to-day life as a husband and father (scaled back as much as possible in order to allow for the demands of this operation.)

This is a very smart- and by all external appearances- sane man, consciously aware at every turn that he may be going stark raving bonkers and yet the reader gets the sense that what he really fears (and increasingly comes to suspect) is exactly the opposite.

Yeah…that’s a vibe I can definitely get down with right now.

From the other end of the spectrum from the exacting intricacies of the Abramelin with its precise formulae for incenses, materia, time and effort, the incomparable Aidan Wachter wrote a great piece on his blog this week called “Magic Defends Itself”

“Magic defends itself by not working. If what you do works, it works.”

As is often the case with Aidan’s insights, this is applicable to many things outside of what we typically think of as “magic.”

On the slightly more mundane and less woo woo end of things, I’ve been devouring Ran Prieur’s posts whenever I can. He’s been around for years, but I’ve only recently discovered his writing. It’s interesting to see how his thinking has evolved over the years. I like this summary of his current political beliefs.

Can you condense your political ideas to under 100 words?

In a perfect society, no self-discipline is necessary, because what needs to be done, and what people feel like doing, are one and the same. In a good society, they're close enough that nobody cares if you don't do anything useful.

Telling stories to make people want to do things is unsustainable. Utopia must be constantly reinvented at the level of basic actions that people enjoy in no-mind. We have a long way to go, but right now I support an unconditional basic income paid for by a financial transaction tax.

You may agree or disagree with those conclusions. For me it’s a little of both. Regardless it strikes a few nerves with me. A lot of what I’ve realized over the last little while is that many- if not most- of the things I do, I do because of “stories” that don’t really make much sense to me anymore. Looking around, the glamour seems to be fading from more and more eyes. Maybe this will end up being a good thing in the long run, but it’s more than a little frightening too.

I had a beer with my good friend Jane the other day. It was one of the best and realest conversations I’d had in a while. When I returned from our visit, synchronistically Luke Burgis’ newsletter on “Thick and Thin Culture” appeared in my inbox. I realized that what I’d just experienced was a “thick conversation” when so often “thin conversations” are the only ones available or safe.

“The conversation quickly pivots to the latest Netflix show before I’ve had a chance to formulate a coherent thought, or even open my mouth.

The good old spiral of silence kicks in.

Then you realize: We’re all just skating across the surface of the water here.

Everyone is afraid, and more likely not equipped, to drop down and explore the issue at a deeper level. We’re not able to walk on that grass.”

There’s not a lot I get super excited in the world of mass media these days, but I’m stoked that a new season of Cobra Kai is coming out in a few months. Not only is it incredibly entertaining and fun, it’s also the best contemporary example of Girard’s Memetic Theory in action I’ve seen…I’ll have to go into more on that sometime down the road.

Until next time, thanks as always for reading, commenting, sharing and responding. It is truly appreciated.