Enchained By Fear

The Devil raises his head

Earlier this week I was reading an article in an alternative news outlet that had to do with Covid. It wasn’t published back when Covid was still a thing people worried about, it was published just now.

In it the author explained that he and his partner had continued to remain at home, alone, until just recently, when they finally worked up the courage to start going out to grocery shop and some similar things. But, that they were continuing to limit in person contact with other people.

That as a part of their opening up, they decided to attend a small conference a week or so ago.

And he got Covid.

And as a result of that, he wrote the article, in which he pushed for conference organizers to start enforcing things like the old Covid restrictions. Masking, distancing, and all the rest.

Reading it made me think about fear. Specifically, unreasonable fear.

The Devil can symbolize unreasonable fears.

The Devil RWS Tarot Card

If we look closely at the card we can see that the chains by which the captives are bound to The Devil are loose. All the captives have to do to free themselves is reach up and lift the chains off of their necks. But they don’t. Perhaps because they somehow find comfort in their fear.

We’ve known for a long time now that while Covid is dangerous for some segments of the population, for the average healthy adult without comorbidities it is much like the flu in impact. But here is a fellow, severely restricting his own life, for years now, for no rational reason. And worse, advocating that everyone else should embrace his fear and in so doing restrict their own lives.

That is The Devil. That is enchanting yourself because you are afraid.

For a great many years now, I’ve known a woman, now entering her middle age who has always been afraid to fly. But, she would force herself to do it from time to time. She’d make a big fuss about it, and have to be talked into it, but she would get on the airplane.

Then she stopped. She stopped flying because she could no longer overcome her irrational fear of it. Since then she’s missed out on vacations and other fun and fulfilling things that those around her have enjoyed.

Now that fear has grown, and she is becoming afraid to drive on the freeway. That is causing her to be afraid to leave her home at all. Causing her to miss a lot of work. Miss enough work that she will likely lose her job sooner or later.

Because she has allowed a vague fear that many of us feel to grow into a debilitating fear that is negatively impacting her life in really big ways.

She has taken that fear, symbolized by The Devil, and slipped The Devil’s chains around her own neck.

Usually I see The Devil as symbolizing our vices, our bad habits, our overindulged passions.

Indeed, one of the very first lessons my Craft teaches is that we must learn to subdue our passions if we are to improve ourselves.

We must ask ourselves if our vices, whatever they might be, add or detract meaning and value to our lives, and if they detract we must work to overcome them. We must ask ourselves if our bad habits somehow add anything good to our lives, and if they do not we must fight against them. We must ask ourselves if our overindulged passions enhance or harm our character, and once we know, we must act.

And that, to me, is what The Devil symbolizes. Ourselves enchained by our own vices, our bad habits, our addictions, and our overindulged passions.

And fear.

Because while rational fear is important to our self protection and self preservation, irrational fear is not.

Irrational fears are a vice. They are habit forming. They become addictions. And if indulged for too long, we start to find comfort within them. Thus enslaving ourselves to them.

And in so doing, we can destroy our lives.

Life is meant to be lived.

My dog is slowly dying. His body is failing in multiple ways.

But, through excellent veterinary care, he is comfortable. Actually, it’s more than that. He’s still happy. He still gets excited for those things that he has always loved.

And I take comfort in that. That he remains happy.

I also take comfort in the knowledge that he has had the very best possible dog life. He’s lived like a king and never wanted for anything.

So when he does pass beyond the veil, I will take comfort in knowing that he really lived. That his life was the best possible life that any dog could live.

The Devil sure as hell didn’t enchain him, although the dog may well have enchained his humans!

And I’ve tried to live my own life in the same way. Keeping fear at bay, banishing worry, and truly living life each and every day.

I don’t find myself fearing death, and I think that is because I’ve lived my life. I’ve not missed out on things, I’ve been able to do as I want, and I hope that I’ve made a positive contribution during my time here.

That is, I think, an important lesson The Devil can teach us. To truly live free, to never allow ourselves to enchain ourselves.

We do well to heed that lesson.