Episode 163: The Source of All Abysses: On the Devil Card in the Tarot

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2024

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"The Devil's finest ruse," Baudelaire wrote, "is to persuade you that he doesn't exist." In this episode, JF and Phil peer through a buzzing haze of lies, illusions, and mirages, in hopes of catching a glimpse, however brief, of the figure standing at its center. With a focus on the fifteenth major arcanum of the tarot, they try to make sense of this archetype which feels, at once, remotely distant and uncomfortably close to us, all while heeding the warning from the anonymous author of Meditations on the Tarot that one ought not look too deeply into the nature of evil, which is "unknowable in its essence." Support us on Patreon. Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 and 2, on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia. Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! REFERENCES Our Known Friend, Meditations on the Tarot The Gnostic Tarot Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Faust, Part 1 Ramsey Dukes, SSOTBME Edgar Allan Poe, The Imp of the Perverse Aleister Crowley, Magic, Book 4 Leigh McCloskey, Tarot Re-Visioned Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth The Library of Esoterica, Tarot Federico Campagna, Technic and Magic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:02.0	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.0	For more episodes, or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdst. This is Phil.
0:53.5	This week, JF and I are resuming our series on the 22 trumps, or major arcana, of the taro.
1:00.3	This is the 10th episode where we have chosen one of these mysterious picture cards and built a conversation on it,
1:07.5	ranging across philosophy, religion, art, and the occult.
1:12.4	The tarot lends itself to this kind of treatment, as it is a book whose
1:16.6	specialism is omniscience, as Sherlock Holmes says of his brother, Mycroft.
1:22.8	Human society and culture, the natural world, and the worlds above and below, all find a place in the
1:30.6	deck. It is the Book of Thoth, as Alster Crowley has it, the mage's own guide and counsel.
1:38.5	And the mage is the one who can turn every page of the book without flinching and greet each
1:43.9	figure she meets with equanimity.
1:47.1	She might find her equanimity challenged when she meets the devil, though. The 15th archaum.
1:53.6	It is often missing from the oldest tarot decks, either because the decks didn't include the devil,
1:58.9	or because people in the middle ages would throw the
2:01.0	card out. In a more secular age, though, the devil isn't so scary. He might even be welcome,
2:07.9	a bit of campy fun. There's a scene in my all-time favorite film musical, The Bandwagon, where an
2:14.5	Orson-Wells-like theatrical impresario is pitching a Faust tale to his investors.
2:19.8	Yes, it is the devil come to claim the soul of the modern Faustman, with flabbing wings and grinning
2:25.9	evil eyes. Corruptor of children, purveyor of evil!
2:31.7	And then there is the suburban metalhead, Bobby, going up against Satan in a guitar duel
	...

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