The design is an accommodation, mean or harmony, between several motives mentioned in the first part. The Horned Goat of Mendes, with wings like those of a bat, is standing there on an altar. At the pit of the stomach there is the sign of Mercury. The right hand is upraised and extended, being the reverse of that benediction which is given by the Hierophant in the fifth card. In the left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted towards the earth. A reversed pentagram is on the forehead. There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are carried to the necks of two figures, male and female. These are analogous with those of the fifth card, as if Adam and Eve after the Fall. Hereof is the chain and fatality of the material life.
The figures are tailed, to signify the animal nature, but there is human intelligence in the faces, and he who is exalted above them is not to be their master for ever. Even now, he is also a bondsman, sustained by the evil that is in him and blind to the liberty of service. With more than his usual derision for the acts which he pretended to respect and interpret as a master therein, Eliphas Levi affirms that the Baphometic figure is occult science and magic. Another commentator says that in the Divine world it signifies predestination, but there is not correspondence in that world with the things which below are of the brute. What it does signify is the Dweller on the Threshold without the Mystical Garden when those are driven forth therefrom who have eaten the forbidden fruit. -- A.E. Waite
Hatred, anger, violence, ignorance, cruelty, lust--all these unbridled emotions can send one whirling in a downward spiral of chaos and confusion. The Devil is related to the Greek goat Pan who lured people to wild nature and untamed sexuality with the promise of eternal pleasure of the senses. . . . The Tarot's Devil reminds us that obsessive potential does exist in man, but the energy can be controlled and directed into something positive. . . . Banished Lucifer no longer wears angel wings. They are now batlike, symbolic of the rodent's night flights and visits to the sleeping or unaware mind. -- Susan Hansson
The sign of Capricornus is rough, harsh, dark, even blind; the impulse to create takes no account of reason, custom, or foresight. It is divinely unscrupulous, sublimely careless of result. -- Aleister Crowley
Key 15 presents an image of the underworld, or winter solstice, with the sovereign lord of the abyss, Saturn/Capricorn. ... Adam's tail is fiery, indicating the active masculine principle, whereas Eve's is formed from a natural cornucopia of fruit. They are chained to a cube of matter, which is similar to the foursquare throne of Key 4 ... Crowning the Devil's head is a five-pointed star, which is significantly inverted. Five is the number of man. The numerological significance of this is the submission of man to the diabolical, dark element.
As to the chained figures, these may be thought of as uninitiated souls, those not saved by the teachings every religion professes to impart to its followers -- Richard Roberts
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 The Vision
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