The 6 of Rods- Conquering “the Devil within

But Not For Love: Conquering “the Devil within”

by Madeline Montalban

Behind the Six of Rods lies a whole wealth of hidden meaning that is not revealed by the mundane meanings of the card, for in divination the Six of Rods means "complete or partial failure of a project", or, when reversed, "vain and fruitless striving and desire". So you will see it covers many aspects of human activity, from failure of anything the Querent might be trying to do, to that "vain and fruitless striving" disappointed lovers feel when their love affairs go wrong.

You have all heard people say: "So-and-So is eating her heart out." But how many people know that Set, the ancient Egyptian devil, is often depicted as eating a heart? And those who may know Egyptology seldom realize that this symbolic "eating of a heart by the devil" reveals one of the greatest weaknesses of the human race.

When we have set our hearts on something, or somebody, we often refuse to face up to the fact that the thing we want is not for us. We just cannot believe that something we want so much cannot be ours. We refuse to credit that, loving somebody so much, that person cannot love us. This refusal to face facts results in "eating our hearts out" for the unattainable, with consequent physical and mental stress, and those outbursts of hysteria or queer behavior that succeed only in boring our friends and relatives. We are then suffering the Six of Rods reversed, within ourselves, wrecking our mental and physical health, and – let's face it – managing to become a dreadful nuisance to anybody who has the misfortune to be connected with us.

Well, there is an old saw that says: "Men have died, and worms have eaten them – but not for love", and excruciating as the suffering of rejected love can be, few of us die of that suffering. True, some people dramatize it, and retire into bitterness or live like recluses, cherishing that chip on their shoulder long after the real pain of it has gone! The difference between physical and mental pain is this: we know at once when physical pain ceases, but injured pride and memory often prevent us from knowing when mental pain has ceased!

I have known men and women complain bitterly of disappointment in love twenty-five years after it happened, despite the fact that they have, in the interim, contracted perfectly happy marriages with somebody else! I have also known brilliant men and women mar their own careers, and lose courage and initiative, because they were once "disappointed in love". Yet it wasn't the pain of the rejection that lasted all those years, but their own refusal to face the fact that the pain had gone. They had let an unhappy emotional experience knock them off mental balance for the rest of their lives, and so had become Set incarnate – a living devil, consuming their own heart. All because they refused to forget; because they had to fritter away their lives and abilities crying for the moon, because they watered the bitter aloes of memory with regular tears, and refused to tend, instead, the mental poppy of forgetfulness.

That is why the poppy is associated with the Six of Rods card. [There is a poppy on the card used as an illustration for this article. A.T.] The message of the poppy is: "when your life knows the reversal of the Six of Rods, then forget, and take as your future symbol the interlaced six-pointed triangle that means 'material success'". For the inner arcana of the Six of Rods is – that any of life's disappointments are sent to teach us something – to rely on ourselves for happiness rather than to seek it from others.

If we cannot become complete by union with the loved one (and save in the cases of affinities such a completion is seldom possible even when romance is successful), we can become complete in ourselves. We must put our personal disappointment aside, and resolve to build a new life of personal success on the ashes of dead love, and then the powers seem to work with us to help us to do it.

The six-pointed interlaced triangle, sometimes called the Seal of David, is one of the symbols of material success, or gain and accomplishment in life through work and effort. It is, of course, easier for creative people to sink their injured feelings in intensive work. The best songs and poems, the greatest books and finest paintings have emerged after some wounding emotional experience. For man "learns in suffering what he teaches in song", and few are the creative people of this world who haven't suffered a deeply scarring emotional experience at some time of their lives. But they didn't let it wreck them. They took fresh courage, let ambition act as a substitute for love, and the sun rose on their efforts, just as it rises on the card of the Six of Rods, over the corn ripe for harvest.

So, for those afflicted with a "vain and fruitless striving and desire", the inner arcana of the card says: "Look within yourselves, and discover within your own soul some field of endeavor in which you can forget, and build the future." Ask not: “What does the future hold for me now?" but rather: "What have I got to give to the future?" Perhaps those injured feelings hide a painter, author or other creative genius. Try to find out, and if you feel they might – then make an attempt to fulfill yourself in that chosen field, even if it means completely revising your life, taking a course of lessons, trying and failing time and again. For, in the doing, you will forget the hurt you have suffered. It will become no more than it was intended to be: an experience that was necessary to throw you in upon yourself in order that you might discover your unrealized abilities.

Then, some day, when you least expect it, love will come around again. For life is a series of ever-turning wheels, and the more developed "you" will have more power to hold the new love, because you have become complete in yourself, and so can add something to the "completeness" of the loved one. For that is what all people seek in love.

This advice applies not only to love disappointments, but also to any other frustrations that cause human suffering. If you don't succeed in getting on in the world, have you ever wondered if you are in the wrong sphere? Many would-be actors often ask me: "Why don't I succeed in my profession?" When I have to tell them, gently, that in such an overcrowded profession only the best can hope to reach the top, they are furious. Yet, in many cases, these folks who want to express themselves on the stage might succeed better in another career altogether.

If, over a long period of time, you have tried with all your might to succeed in some sphere, and failed, then isn't it time you faced the fact that perhaps you are in the wrong job or career? Success never really eludes those who are on the right lines. Sometime they must "break through". But here is a rule I have found safe and sure for both love affairs and ambitions. If your love affair doesn't culminate in marriage within four years, it is unlikely it will ever do so. If your ambitions don't show some signs of materializing within eight years, then they are not likely to do so. [We might adapt the first rule nowadays from ‘marriage’ to ‘living together’ or some other sign of commitment to the relationship. T.W.]

In both cases you should look elsewhere for fruition and fulfillment. You should face facts, take a firm hold on yourself, and try something else to bring you happiness and success. Then, and then only, will "the project cease to fail" and the "vain and fruitless striving or desire" end. Only fresh efforts and a new outlook will enable the sun of success to shine over your life, and enable you to reap the harvest of personal attainment and content.
[Prediction, August 1959]