The Devil

UPRIGHT

The Devil squats on his half-cube, the inverted pentagram glowing above his horns, two figures chained at his feet — though the chains, on close looking, are loose enough to slip off. The card is bondage entered into, the self-deception that masquerades as appetite, the pact one made with oneself and forgot was a pact. The chains are loose; the captives have not tried the links.

REVERSED

Reversed, the Devil is the chain noticed at last — the recognition that the bondage was never as tight as it felt, the first honest attempt to step back from the cube. The card can mark the beginning of liberation from an addiction, a relationship, or a pattern. It is rarely a finished freedom; more often it is the moment the captive looks down and sees the chain is loose.

Return to the full deck, or draw the cards and see The Devil in context.