HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAEHYUNG!
Happy solar return to our Capricorn king, Kim Taehyung!
We’re about a week into Capricorn season (which you can read more about here), and somehow just days away from 2023. I wanted to celebrate Tae’s birthday through the lens of The Devil tarot archetype, which is astrologically associated with the sign of Capricorn.
The Devil is a card that represents our worldly or material tethers. It can show up as obsession over reaching our ideals, causing us to self impose rigidity and compartmentalize our shadows. Daddy Saturn imposes responsibility and pressure. Often, The Devil invites us to liberate ourselves from this rigidity, to stop suppressing our instincts. I also feel there is motivation to integrate our material and spiritual selves, as it is a counterpart of The Lovers.
In Mary K. Greer’s “Archetypal Tarot,” I love her interpretation of The Devil in relation to the personality: “You appear distant and cold, presenting an air of formality to those who are unaware of the passionate commitments you hold. Your pride is beneficial in that you recognize your abilities, and it is harmful in that it promotes artificial distinctions between yourself and others.”
Surely we can all agree that Taehyung is truly that idol. An effortless idol who knows how successful he is in making us melt in 0.1 seconds. The devil, if you will. A gift that can’t really be taught imo! A bit of that “cold” RBF when posting a thirst trap on IG (and then deleting it 4 minutes later). Devilish winks and slapping his own butt on the closeup screen at PTD Las Vegas. His unmistakably cool dance solo during Run BTS... Like yes, take pride in the grip you have over ARMY!
And I think I’m fascinated by the clear duality of his idol persona and his private self. Maybe it’s because I feel like he has really reevaluated his boundaries as BTS V vs. Kim Taehyung. It’s probably been pressure cooking before that Festa video, but the restrictive K-Pop industrial system has surely been teaching Taehyung about his own needs. How being in BTS has shaped his values, and the way he tends to relationships.
He is the self-proclaimed “good boy” idol. And also, he’s spoken about how difficult it’s been to act on his desires. He’s talked about simply wanting to be happy. Doesn’t that come from liberating oneself from restrictive ideas of what happiness needs to look and feel like, apart from worldly obligations? I can only imagine how difficult it is to achieve true freedom in relationships, being a beloved international idol millionaire. Being a magnet, yet trying to find self-worth beyond the idol title.
From Mary K. Greer once more: “… the challenge is to maintain godly honesty and inner freedom in relationships, while being devilishly surefooted in the world.”
From Kim Taehyung, I think we can learn about how to be committed to and have pride in our Capricorn values of doing the good work when it comes to our material selves. But also about how to simultaneously not let those things define us or hold us back — to make sure we’re still in touch with our feral desires. I think about him dancing in Vegas with elderly couples who had no idea who he was. That party in Paris. How he’s actually keeping up his photos and stories these days. Doing things for himself, without feeling like he's failed as a BTS member.
Whether it's putting out a mixtape, painting, playing an instrument, traveling, or thirst trapping... I can’t wait to see what other kinds of freedom Taehyung will find for himself and in his relationships in 2023!
