The Devil

You are bound by desires, by illusions, by the chains you refuse to see. But the truth? The shackles are unlocked—you only have to let go.

Standard: Appreciating the luxuries that life has to offer. Being comfortable in your own skin. Enjoying your sexuality. Splurging on an expensive personal item. Embracing the fact that everyone has a darker side. Dealing with unhealthy impulses in healthy ways.

Reversed: Putting excessive emphasis on appearances. Always wanting more. Valuing possessions more than people or relationships. Allowing base instincts to govern your life. Being selfish. Attributing your own dark impulses to outside forces or other people.

Keywords

Shadow Materialism Bondage Delusion

Questions to Ask

What enslaves me? How can I set myself free?
How can I re-evaluate the importance I assign to material things?
To what extent do my cravings define me?

A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot

The Devil. In the eighteenth century this card seems to have been rather a symbol of merely animal impudicity. Except for a fantastic head-dress, the chief figure is entirely naked; it has batlike wings, and the hands and feet are represented by the claws of a bird. In the right hand there is a sceptre terminating in a sign which has been thought to represent fire. The figure as a whole is not particularly evil; it has no tail, and the commentators who have said that the claws are those of a harpy have spoken at random. There is no better ground for the alternative suggestion that they are eagle's claws. Attached, by a cord depending from their collars, to the pedestal on which the figure is mounted, are two small demons, presumably male and female. These are tailed, but not winged. Since 1856 the influence of Eliphas Levi and his doctrine of occultism has changed the face of this card, and it now appears as a pseudo-Baphometic figure with the head of a goat and a great torch between the horns; it is seated instead of erect, and in place of the generative organs there is the Hermetic caduceus. In Le Tarot Divinatoire of Papus the small demons are replaced by naked human beings, male and female ' who are yoked only to each other. The author may be felicitated on this improved symbolism.