The card above is The Devil, from the Jewish Tarot by Betzalel Arieli, and it shows Jacob wrestling with...? Who do you think it is? In Genesis it reads:
(25) Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. (26) When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him. (27) Then he said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking,” But he answered, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” (28) Said the other, “What is your name?” He replied, Jacob.” (29) Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.” (30) Jacob asked, “Pray tell me your name.” But he said, “You must not ask my name!” And he took leave of him there.
This is the week we read the verses above in synagogues around the world. Much ink has been spread on the subject of just who it is that Jacob was wrestling. Rabbis have debated, is it an angel or a specific angel, the guardian angel of Esau, Jacob’s brother who he is going to meet years after stealing his brother’s birthright? They also identify Esau’s guardian angel with Samael, whose name means Venom of God. In Jewish teaching, this angel is the Satan — not “a” or “the” Devil, but an angel, God’s servant whose role is to challenge and test people as the Divine wills. This angel is also considered to be the angel of Rome.
Today, many people look at the story from an intrapsychic point of view, with a more Jungian approach that sees this man or angel as Jacob’s shadow. After stealing his brother’s birthright, and spending years on the run, he returns to face his brother. And before he can do that, he must face himself and what he has done.
This story is a narrative example of the famous Jung quote “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
When you see your shadow as a force outside of yourself, rather than a part of yourself that you have demonized, it will enslave you. This is what we see in the Smith-Waite Major Arcana card of The Devil. The human figures are unconsciously enslaved as we can see from the chains they wear—chains so loose that if they were truly conscious the people could simply lift them off and walk away.
Of course, lifting off these chains is not as simple as that. It is truly more of a wrestling match, and in this way, the Devil card as depicted in Arieli’s deck feels more hopeful to me—Jacob may have been enslaved by his shadow, but he is struggling to make it conscious and free himself from it directing his life.
The translation of the name Israel — one who wrestles with the Divine — is a description of anyone who struggles to come to full conscious awareness. May we all be worthy of this name and achieve this goal.
