Brotherhood of Light Tarot: Arcanum XV. The Black Magician
The Devil awakens when we summon black magic into play. Temperance warns of the need for stasis, as the deeds of our doing no matter the weight always make their return. Thus the Devil or Black Magician is the result of excess, when the temple of our perfect mind and the resulting work are left to burn by way of one’s own selfish greed. To invoke the malefic work is to cast chaos in destruction that bounds and reflects back the result in one’s ruin by way of avarice—a slow acting poison. The greatest threat to the journey ahead lies within the ego of self. To allow the needs of the one to drain the sustenance of another in an echo to affect any amount of the whole is to fail and be consumed by the purpose of the task at hand. By working above or below evil forces in any form or system they take, one ultimately enslaves the very nature of the work and will to that which returns with rot and decay. Any effect of an act that results in harm still amounts to injury—despite our faulty estimate of the direction of initial intent. Evil often comes of ignorance.
If this is your card, the drama of life has just cast you to play the villain. You may be just as shocked as everyone else around you, as your deeds undermined those you blinded by fear. To perform magic on the stage is to welcome dark forces to prey—just as the vampire shall enter by way of invitation. Let not the sensual, the material, or the promise of security lower one’s spirits to the enslavement of earthly desire. Damned are we by the limits of our ego that which works to secure stasis and conquer. Yet most are negligent with forces of black magic in which they side or unknowingly conjure. Thus whenever you climb, be not pressed by the dog called “Ego”.
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cc: Steve Corey