Tarot · The Major Arcana
The Devil
- Attachment
- habit
- temptation
The picture
A horned figure with bat wings crouches on a pedestal, and a naked man and woman are tied to it with loose chains.
The meaning
The chains around the two figures' necks are loose; they could take them off. The tradition reads the Devil as attachment to habits, cravings or dependencies, not as a threat from outside. He stands for what holds you, although you could undo it yourself. The card asks, kindly, what you are hanging on to.
Reversed
Reversed, he is read as loosening a tie, and the moment you notice you are free.
In love
In love he is read as strong attraction, sometimes as a dependency worth looking at honestly.
At work
At work he stands for pressures, routines or ties that can be questioned.
As your card of the day
It may be worth looking today at a habit that holds you more than you would like. The chain is often looser than it looks.
The Devil stands for temptation. Enjoy something today with pleasure, and decide for yourself how much.
The Major Arcana are the 22 trump cards, from the Fool at zero to the World at twenty-one. The tradition reads them as stations on a life's journey: large themes that touch everyone at some point.
Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909, public domain (Wikimedia Commons).