Jenny Valentish – Waltzing With Matilda's

The Devil holds number 15, and it is the sixteenth tarot card of the Major Arcana cards. At its core, it usually represents being tied up to something or someone, to the point of unhealthy addiction.

Jenny Valentish, a British journalist who now calls Australia home published ‘Woman of Substances’.

In Woman of Substances Valentish investigates the female experience of drugs and alcohol, using her own story to light the way. Her travels around Australia take her to treatment facilities and AA groups. Mining the expertise of leading researchers, she explores the early predictors of addiction, such as childhood trauma and temperament, and teenage impulsivity.

Drawing on neuroscience, she explains why other self-destructive behaviours – such as eating disorders, compulsive buying and high-risk sex – are interchangeable with problematic substance use. Her work helps us understand how the Devil chains us.

On an inner level the Devil is an image of bondage to the crudest, most instinctual aspect of human nature. His image arouses fear within us, fear that he is holding a mirror and exposing our most base self. The Devil is associated with uncivilised sexual impulses and Dionysian behaviours. Unfortunately, while society may compel us to relegate him to the shadows, his presence is very real, manifesting itself in all sorts of nefarious ways. The challenge is to free oneself by gaining knowledge and establishing an honest relationship with this aspect of self. In doing so one releases the chains and lessens the Devil’s control.

Releasing the Devil’s Hold

Forced to accept an unwanted situation	Being under someone’s control
Dealing with addiction and obsession	Being codependent
Being tied down against your own will	Being materialistic
Over-indulging	Being caught up in physical appearances
Being ignorant of the truth	Facing limitations
Fearing the unknown	Lack of faith
Giving to despair

Tarot as a Tool to Confront the Devil

I use tarot through a lens of self-care, choosing to find usefulness in the cards, and ultimately supporting myself by engaging with the challenges in my life rather than hiding from them.

Working with tarot can help to shift the understanding of our life experiences from an entirely subjective inner mind monologue to something with a shade more objectivity, simply by grounding our ideas in a physical object that we can actually hold and examine.

It is well worth watching these videos by Katey Flowers and seeing how she reads the cards in the spreads she presents. Katey no longer presents in this forum but her vault of videos is well worth checking out.