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The Devil

MAJOR ARCANA · XV

The Devil is card XV of the major arcana. A devil with goat's horns and bat's wings sits on a pedestal, and before it stand a man and a woman in chains. Upright, it stands for temptation, attachment and bondage; reversed, for release and breaking free.

Name and number

Upright meaning

Keywords: temptation, attachment, dependence, desire, bondage

If Temperance is the card of moderation, the Devil is its opposite: the card of what goes too far.

The upright Devil stands for being bound to something you cannot leave: desire for money or pleasure, habits you want to quit but cannot, relationships of dependence, commitments you know are bad for you yet cannot escape. The chains around the couple's necks are drawn loose, as if they could take them off if they wished. What binds you, it is read, is not the devil but your own desires and fears. It can also stand for powerful attraction and instinctive energy.

Reversed meaning

Keywords: release, breaking free, awakening, recovery

The reversed Devil is usually read in a hopeful direction.

Noticing what has bound you and beginning to take the chains off. Getting out of bad habits or painful relationships. Recovering from dependence. Seeing things as they are, as if waking up. It can also mean you are still struggling, not yet fully free.

What the picture shows

• The devil with goat's horns and bat's wings: based on the figure of "Baphomet" drawn by Éliphas Lévi in the nineteenth century.
• The inverted pentagram: on the devil's brow in the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, said to show matter placed above spirit.
• The chained man and woman: the couple from the Lovers card, here with horns and tails, in chains. They are read as the same pair, fallen.
• The loose chains: the chains around their necks are drawn large and loose enough to remove themselves.
• The lowered torch: in the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, the devil's torch sets fire to the man's tail, inflaming desire.

History

The Devil is a card whose earliest form is unclear.

Among the surviving cards of the fifteenth-century Italian Visconti–Sforza deck, two are missing: the Devil and the Tower. Whether they never existed or were lost is still debated by scholars. However, a list of the cards preserved in a sermon from the late fifteenth century includes the Devil, so it is thought to have been one of the cards from early on.

In the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Tarot of Marseille, a horned and winged devil stands on a pedestal, with two small horned devils tied to it by ropes around their necks.

In the nineteenth century, Éliphas Lévi drew "Baphomet," a figure with a goat's head. The Rider–Waite–Smith Devil is based on this figure, and the chained pair are drawn as the fallen Adam and Eve of the Lovers. Put card 6, the Lovers, beside card 15, the Devil, and you can see how alike their compositions are.

Correspondences

Previous and next cards

• Previous: 14 Temperance
• Next: 16 The Tower
• The major arcana

Lucky colors for The Devil