The Devil - Did The Devil Make Me Do It?

No the devil didn't make me do it, sometimes that's the way I felt, but that would simply be another excuse, and after a while I didn't need one.


What am speaking of? It's what this card can indicate in it's interpretation, and if it does come up in a reading diplomacy, empathy, and sensitivity need to be used. Addiction or being in some kind of bondage, can and often does include a wide scope of things outside of ourselves. It's a topic many of us avoid or deny, and denial is often the hallmark of addiction. Usually everyone else knows before we do.

As in life and with each Tarot card there is both dark and light to be found in it's interpretation. I'm always on the look out when The Devil card appears for the questioner, because they might be dealing with some kind of addiction.

In my case, drawing this card today, is synchronicity at work, as it is my 22nd AA anniversary of being clean and sober, which I am so grateful for each and every sober day. I don't look for congratulatory comments. I once heard it said by a fellow long time recovering friend say, that giving an alcoholic a congratulatory medal is like giving a cowboy who has hemorrhoids, a medal for not getting back on his horse. I thought that was pretty funny, but I think he was right. Of course, I do acknowledge my sobriety, and have many medallions. I share my struggle with addiction, because  it may give someone else hope.

Addiction involves all kinds of "isms" and I still have a few. There is always lots of talk and controversy about when addiction begins, or if it is curable etc. To me that all just doesn't matter to me, because I understand my addiction, I know I'm an addict, and I know what I needed to do to get better, and what I need to continue to do to maintain contented sobriety.

 The best explanation of addiction I have ever heard came from Dr. Carl Jung. He called it "Spiritus contra spiritum" which is Latin  meaning,  "Spiritus" in Latin means both "alcohol" and "religious experience," while "contra" means "against." Carl Jung wrote this phrase to one of the founders, Bill W. of Alcoholics Anonymous and Jung described it as being,  "Attempting to fill a spiritual void with a material reality", is Jung's definition of addiction. Bill W. and Dr Bob felt that is was Dr. Carl Jung who enabled them to lay the foundation for the 12 Steps.

My desire for the drink or substances has gone, thank God, and I thank God for the 12 Step fellowship, that is second to none.

Queen of Cups - ' Drinking Deeply From The Cup of Life '

Relying on her intuition before her intellect, The Queen of Cups ' drinks deeply from the cup of life. '
I identify strongly with this Queen, because of her capacity for deep feeling emotion. She embodies an open heart, intense passion, and heralds the deepening and the development of the inner life.

I have never been much interested in intelligence quotient, as I have come to believe that an emotional quotient is far more important in life. I say this because I had a living problem, living life on life's terms. From the early age of five I learned to suppress, and then repress my emotion. In doing so, resulted in developing what I'll call, a disease of the emotion, and my heart was closed up tight.

Being hurt was the very thing I feared, which inevitably, happened over and over again, and it became a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

After twenty years of hard learned lessons, I now have an open heart and I've  learned balance it with wisdom, which has enabled me, like the Queen of Cups, to drink deeply from cup of life, and for that, I am deeply grateful.