Up: [[Tarot]] Created: 2022-11-03 Updated: 2025-01-25 > [!leaf] In Brief Chained to addictions, self-defeating behaviours, destructive patterns, rigid beliefs The prime shadow card in Tarot > [!Leaf] Actions to Take 1. When you draw the Devil card, immediately recognize that there’s something you are not seeing, some way in which your consciousness is being limited… and accept that it’s in you. Even if someone or something plays a part in making you feel imprisoned, how are you chaining yourself to the situation? 2. Use humour. Don’t take other people’s manipulations so seriously. Nietzsche said, *Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter.* Use it. 3. Accept and work with the gift. The Devil isn’t all bad. Without him we’d have no awareness of the problems of good and evil, so we’d have no ego consciousness, and therefore no freedom to choose. When we allow ourselves to accept the reality of the ‘devilish’ parts of ourselves, we drop the chains. Sometimes that might be through making a change so that we release the addiction, obsessive thought, or bad habit. Sometimes the freedom comes through simply acknowledging that the feeling is part of us, that we are not all ‘light and love’. Jung taught that acknowledging our shadows frees up creative energy. Beyond that, we have a moral obligation to do this work because when we don’t recognize the negative aspects of ourselves internally, we project them externally. Much of the misogyny, racism, vindictiveness and violence in our world can be attributed to this. 4. Journal or freewrite responses to any of these questions: - What would I rather not know about myself? - What really bugs me about other people? Where are those qualities in me? - What in my life doesn’t provide real fulfillment? What can I do about that? 5. Take a look at the entire sections on [[Compulsion]] and [[Shadow]]. There are lots of specific ideas for dealing with the many, many forms of the Devil! ![[Devil RWS.webp|300]] In Rider Waite Smith (RWS), as in many other decks, the Devil is an abomination, a combination of so many unrelated parts that he feels chaotic, irrational and scary, much like the [[Chimera, a Greek Monster]]. #### Bat The Devil has bat wings and taloned feet. Like a bat, he can navigate in the dark when we are asleep and rational thought is unavailable to us. Between that, our instinctive fear of bats, and the black background to the card, we’re left with an uneasy sense of black magic and of being unable to see the truth of a situation. #### Goat There’s good reason for the Devil in RWS to have the head and lower body of a goat. The astrological sign for the Devil is Capricorn, the goat, connecting the Devil to the [[Earth Element]], which we’re supposed to see here as being all about materialism and superficiality, even sexuality (an old man chasing women is called “an old goat”), certainly nothing spiritual. But the connection traces back even more deeply and richly than that. Rachel Pollack, in *Haindl Tarot*, explained that when the Church gained power in Europe, it condemned the old religions as evil, reinforcing this by distorting old gods into demons and monsters. One of those old gods was Pan, a god of nature that was depicted as a goat dancing upright while playing music on pipes. The music *supposedly inspired his followers to abandon all social restraints and let loose their secret desires* The Church linked Pan to Shatan, a figure who argued against human goodness in the Book of Job. Shatan became Satan, the Devil became half-man, half-goat. #### Inverted Pentagram If you stand with your feet apart and your arms out, the pentagram represents your body with your head at the top showing your aspiration to higher ways. Pointed down, as it is on the Devil card, your genitals are above your head, reinforcing the black magic, sensual gratification and materialism of the previous paragraphs. #### Partly Human In antiquity, the god of evil didn’t have human features. In Egypt, he was Set, a crocodile or snake. In Babylon the goddess of chaos was Tiamat, a horned and clawed fowl. It wasn’t until Christianity gave us Satan that the Devil assumed more human characteristics. In RWS, these human characteristics are unappealing, but in other decks the Devil can be quite attractive. The Devil in Light Seer’s Tarot is [gorgeous!](https://lightseerstarot.com/light-seers-tarot-meanings-the-devil/) Humanizing the Devil is significant. It means, symbolically, that we are ready to see the Devil as the shadow aspect of ourselves, not as an external god or demon. #### Two People The chained woman and man symbolize each of us when we succumb to temptation and work against our own best interests in any manner of addiction, obsessive thought, rigid belief, negative mindset, or self-defeating behaviour. Our chains are loose enough that we could slip out of them any time we choose, but we don’t see that, allowing the inner demons of guilt, shame, envy, and fear to keep us in place. The Devil’s power is in the illusion that we have no choice. The Devil’s seating on that tiny one-dimensional cube echoes this, telling us that we are making decisions on the basis of illusion and limited knowledge. But all is NOT lost. There is so much we can do when confronted by the Devil. > [!Leaf] Connections to Other Cards The Devil, as card 15, is related to cards 1 + 5 = [[6 - Lovers]] #### [[1 - Magician]] One hand up, one down is similar to the Magician. But the magician raises a wand to heaven to bring down spiritual power, whereas the Devil points a torch to earth to say that nothing exists beyond the material. Further, notice that the torch lights the tail of the male. Tarot scholars say this suggests both overpowering destructive sexual needs and dormant kundalini energy that could raise sex to the sacred. #### [[5 - Hierophant]] Both the Devil and the Hierophant have their right hand raised. Some of the Hierophant’s fingers are closed to show the sign of a blessing. The Devil’s hand is open which could make us think that he has nothing to hide, but that’s where he’s being deceptive. He’s telling us that nothing exists beyond what’s obvious in the world and the glyph of Saturn on his palm speaks to limitations, weaknesses, or restrictions that “devour emerging creativity”. #### [[6 - Lovers]] Some traditional understandings of the Devil are completely about sexuality, connecting the card very closely to Lovers. The people in Lovers are connected to each other and to spirituality, whereas the people in the Devil card are unconsciously subservient to the Devil. #### Position in Tarot The Devil is in the third line of the Tarot (cards 15-21). It is the first of the cards that require a *complete release of unconscious energy* (Rachel Pollack), which can only come through engaging with our illusions, desires and fears.