Escaping from Surasa's Mouth
MAJOR ARCANA - Sursa The DEvil
ZODIAC- CAPRICORN
MEANING: lust, Attachment, Control,Bondage, FEAR, co-dependence, ADDICTION, violence, Shadow, Manipulation, Cornucopia, ILL-Speak, INDULGENCE
Planet: Saturn
Have you ever met the Devil?
Surely your answer will be ‘No’ and thank God you didn’t. Alas! Mine would be quite the opposite and how unlikely this might sound, it is entirely true and what would be even more surprising is that devil is capable of feeling love, but certainly egoistically consuming and devouring one, derived from its demonic beginning.
Cogently attracted to white magic in order to suck out and replenish its energy recourses. Human acting under the guidance of black forces and guise of love might never fully comprehend how rotten one’s nature really is, although the one that I had misfortune to meet, knew all about it and even shared it if not bragged about it.
I heard him anew a year and a half after our first acquaintance on the same day I moved into my newly found country like oasis in the middle of this enormous and always ill from cold metropolis. He called on the first day of my stay saying: "I love you. I loved you all this time."
Perhaps there would be a woman who could withstand such effusions, but this wasn't me. Yet he never evoked desire in me, although most found him handsome. There was something decadent in him. He wore a dark suit that sat under a just as dark coat that so perfectly fitted his stature and profession.
Once he caught me unawares asking: Have you never really wanted to find what lies underneath my shirt? Answering no, I thought to myself that it is quite strange indeed, that this thought never visited my mind.
Later I had several chances to see his carved-like out of wax body that still did not interest me. He didn't walk he carried himself. Peacock, I thought.
On that sinistrous evening he was darker than dark and not without purpose. He began dyeing his hair in a crow's black that gave his face a white marble pallor and coldness. This sort of beauty is what you call unhealthy. God forbid you from witnessing this drear and dismal transformation.
Those days I was as good as a child, whose soul and heart were full of irrepressible desire to create and infinite love towards the world, but I wasn’t ready to hold onto my own those days. This was the first time I reached personal state of apogee, which I could characterize as consonance. Undoubtedly, this was not the limit. There are no limits on a condition that we don't set ourselves. A state so often described, so strongly desired, so hardly achievable, so wishfully eternal and immovable.
Shortly thereafter I found myself with trauma in mind, pain my spine & numbness in my leg."
Extract from ‘The tale’ part of my MA Image and Communication, Practice Theory Essay
It is no coincidence that I chose to share this personal piece with you. The Devil in the original Rider Waite tarot is connected to the Lovers card were we see 2 beings chained to Baphomet, the Horned God .
We have to remember that the Devil is not an entity, but in fact an archetype and as an archetype it represents the id part of us that is primal, instinctual, unconscious that is often associated with fulfilling a person's most basic needs. It is a part of us that we don’t know, that is often called the shadow, the addictive, craving, avoidant and in need of attachment. One that plays a victim or a victor, possessed by our desires.
The dark magic is only called that when the use and intention of mysticism is for the personal gain or benefit of one party not for the betterment and benevolence of whole.
In ‘Hindu Gods’ deck Hanuman, Shiva’s 11th Avatar, a diety inhabiting a monkey is faced with an impossible task! The story of Hanuman escaping from the Mouth of Goddess Surasa, who is in fact one of many Daksha’s daughters, which would make her a sister of Sati, who married Shiva and later reincarnated into Parvati, is a brilliant tale of courage, wisdom, strength, devotion, faithful selfless service and self-discipline for which Hanuman is revered across Asia and is one of the ‘immortals’. He is mentioned in Ramayana, Mahabharata and various Puranas.
The Beloved Surasa is a mother of Nagas, a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpents, cannibals and demons decent from her. Being born from the ill-tempered wrath of Kashyapa’s wife she turns out to be one of 13 herself.
Hanuman whislt in search of Sita, Rama’s kidnapped wife, is met with a test called upon by gods and celestials themselves, where Surasa obstructs his mission by wanting to devour him. Hanuman shares his intention of finding Rama's wife and promises that he will return to become Surasa’s meal. However, Surasa’s mouth is the gateway so it is the only way Hanuman can pass to pursue his path of rescue. Inviting her to open as wide as she can, monkey god enlarges his form too, when all of a sudden turns tiny enters her mouth and leaves before she can close it.
Revealing her divine purpose Surasa blesses Hanuman. In fact Surasa is just one out of the 3 women who challenge Hanuman on his journey. Escape was gained by God’s ingenuity and in a poised manner. There is a reference to testing his celibacy and eroticism as him dispassionately visually consuming women as sexual objects is one of recurring themes in the Ramayana epic.
Here you can see that once again even when we least expected Maya, the illusion seduces and temps us. Will we have Hanuman’s valour and sharpness to withstand the temptress in whatever form it presents itself, especially if it was destined by Source itself?
