Tarot Devil Card

What is it with this tarot devil card that brings out so much fear and discomfort? Whatever your feelings and beliefs about tarot card XV, by the time you get to the end of this article my hope is that your understanding and appreciation of this tarot card will be challenged and expanded.

This post is part of the card of the week series of Confessions of a curious tarot card reader.

Now let’s see if we can find any Sympathy for the Devil.

First Impressions

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly. I don’t know why she swallowed that fly, Perhaps she’ll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a spider, That wiggled and wiggled and tickled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. But I don’t know why she swallowed that fly – Perhaps she’ll die.

In understanding a tarot card, it helps to start by just looking. One recommended deck for this type of study is the Noblet which dates from the year 1650 and is among the oldest complete tarot decks known.

The tarot devil card, number XV, depicts a complete scene.

There are three main characters with mask-like faces. The character at center is positioned above the other two, and appears to be the leader. His expression seems confused. His hands are pure white.

The two other figures have expressions of disillusionment. They wear loose bindings at their necks.  Their left and right legs are colored differently, suggesting splits or imbalance. Instead of feet they have hooves. Their ears are not human, but rather donkey-like. Together these suggest an identification with the animal nature.

Taken as a whole, the appearance is less of evil than of a game that has gotten out of hand. All seem to be playing roles, but without a way out.

This card has a strong sexual element.  Playing with sex is a direct path to unleashing the raw energy that remains untapped in most of us most of the time.  Tapping it is a vehicle to enlightenment known to both the Eastern¹ and Western spiritual and mystery traditions.

Most societies have strict controls around sexuality.  There are good reasons for this.  The Open Marriage movement of the 1970s is no longer with us.  Anyone who has been involved in a sexual triangle knows the unforeseen side effects and misunderstandings that almost inevitably arise from these types of affairs.

This tarot devil card looks like it came out of the BDSM² movement.  The horns and tails, costumes and forked rod all could be modern day props. In this context, the devil looks most of all like a “Top” who, despite his best intentions, has failed to hold a safe environment for his disciples. Rather than deliver them over to power, enlightenment and freedom, he has led them to the slavery of addiction. Addiction is derailment from the way.

Tarot on the Devil – a 5 card spread

Let’s see what the cards themselves tell us about the tarot devil card.

Amazingly, all cards in this spread are reversed.  This is the first time in all my time reading cards that this has happened in a spread.  The message seems clear.  With the devil card all is reversed.

The center card is surrounded on both sides by cups. The true affections and longings, manifested for most of us as love, are frustrated and misdirected. This can result in a closing of the heart which means hardness, emotional deadness and stupefaction. It is longing for something that seems as if it will never be found. This is a perfect recipe for all kinds of addictions. Alcohol and depressants or downers mask the pain. Sex and stimulants or uppers make it feel as if you are alive – at least for a time. One big problem with these sorts of temporary remedies is the crash when the effects wear off. Another, more stronger dose will be required.

On the left (position 3) the Knight of Cups promises gifts of the heart such as poetry, beauty and transcendence of the limits of the mortal coil. Yet, this spread shows the cup as “side-up-down”, needing to be filled rather than filling. This station of the path and it’s main captain shown in the middle needs the life and soul energy of followers. The devil as the Knight of Cups truly desires to give and to help. Yet, the result for all who pass this way must ultimately be malnourishment and hunger.

In the center of the story (position 2) we see the devil as death reversed. A living skeleton, the devil seeks to plant the same followers we saw on card XV in the rich nourishing earth. The devil would see them grow. Yet the method seen in the picture takes away from them all ability and control over their own lives. Like people buried to the neck in sand, they live without living, at the mercy of man, beast, sea, wind and every natural element. This can only end in pain.

These buried disciples need outside intervention to be freed from their predicament. Even if the devil tried to free them, the tool used, a scythe, can at best compact the soil. If used directly the sharp edge would wound and possibly destroy them.

Card 4, the Popess³ shows the highest possible from this devil card. It is enlightenment and the realization of the true nature of these secrets and mysteries.

Yet, more likely is the outcome of card 5, Justice reversed. This is the loss of conscience and a blunting of the difference between right and wrong, light and darkness.

There is a story told by the late Robert Monroe⁴ of some places that souls go after death. In certain of these focus levels, the people will not believe those who come to tell them of their true circumstance of entrapment to their own misbeliefs. To these souls such messengers are workers of evil and tellers of lies.

Card 5 shows that at the worst a person in the throes of the tarot devil card may become so identified with their own incomplete learnings that they will never trust or believe anyone who seeks to help them find a better way. Movement forward then, how can it possibly occur?

Originally posted 2010-04-17 08:00:50.

1. See for example Mantak Chia. [↩]
2. Bondage Domination Sado-Masochism, see wikipedia for more info. [↩]
3. Or High Priestess. [↩]
4. See Journeys out of the Body [↩]

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Tagged as: Cups, Devil, First Impressions, Major Arcana, Tarot