From: bgrady@fraser.sfu.ca (Brian Grady)
Newsgroups: alt.divination
Subject: Re: The Devil
Date: 8 Aug 94 22:34:10 GMT

Snips from various posts:
> ...the devil represents a debasing of moral instinct, a failure to
> maintain moderation, or the loss of moral perspective.
> --
> ...it represents earth temptations and trials and tribulations...
> that may be negative at first, but you can always get something
> positive from them.
> --
> ...it speaks of "the dark side" of our nature, that which we do not
> wish to acknowledge, which we see as monstrous within us....  the
> attempt to subject everything and everyone to our will.
> --
> ...things that hinder a person.  this hinderance can be spiritual,
> moral, immoral, noble, material, or what ever.  usually something
> one is unwilling to face.
> --

There's a unity behind these posts.  For Jung, the shadow was the
disowned aspect of self, and this could differ for each of us.  Using
this perspective, we might say that each of us have different
unwelcome and often unacknowledged devils, some of which are reflected
above.  For some, sexuality and other temptations may be what is
personally threatening; for others, it might be the wish to dominate,
and so on.  I've seen anger mentioned as the Devil.  If we fear these
in ourselves, we may run in the opposite direction and this limits us.
We might not get angry when wronged, or get sexy when appropriate, for
example.  We might become goody-two-shoes and become really bored if
we disown these powers in ourselves.
 
Putting a positive face on this, owning up to the stuff that we disown
or despise frees us from their undue influence, lets us use its good
aspects.  Perhaps the Devil in a spread invites us to look at parts of
ourselves that we aren't proud of, and learn to integrate and use them
rather than pretend they aren't there, or run the other way.
 
Brian
bgrady@sfu.ca