Chrisantem Macháček: Devil of the Magic Mushrooms, acrylic on canvas, original painting 150×200 CM, 2021

I present to you the second finished image for the “Shamanic Tarot” or “Plant Allies Tarot” project that I hope to publish at some point, it should be tarot cards inspired by plants and shamanic consciousness. This project will probably be in the making for many years to come. The first finished image is for the High Priestess card.

The painting is dedicated to “magical mushrooms”, i.e. especially toadstools.

For the archetype of card #XV. The Devil for the “Plant Allies Tarot” project I chose special creatures, “Magic mushrooms”.

Somewhere far away, at the very border of “Darkness”, the Devil has settled down. He sits on his throne and “rules”, perhaps we should rather say that he tries to rule. He pinned two figures together, male and female. The man has “divine nourishment” around him in the form of mushrooms, but as if he doesn’t see them, he prefers the beer he drinks… And the lady is paralyzed, she can’t do anything.

The devil has his pentagram altar next to him, on which he symbolically places the things with which he was able to bind the largest number of people: money, food, weapons, a computer and a male limb (hidden behind the devil’s right hand). He who submits to the Devil and allows himself to be ruled by him goes to hell with him, and there is no return, no help.

And so these “unfortunates” are there, and they would probably be there until today, if a completely new “Entity”, the powerful and strong “Mushroom”, had not appeared. The mushroom grew without permission right in the middle of the Devil’s Altar, as if it didn’t grow…

The painting was created from September to October 2021 and is available for sale.