SageTarot Journal
The Devil from the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck
ArcanaMajor · XV
Suit—
ElementEarth
AttributionCapricorn
Major Arcana · XV

The Devil

In shortYou are tied to something, and part of you likes it.

Upright

attachmentcompulsionshadowmaterialismthe golden cage

You are attached to something that is working for you in some way. That is the habit that soothes you, the relationship that flatters you, the job that pays too well to leave, the story about yourself that excuses everything. The Devil is not moralising about this. It just points at the chain and notes that you put it on yourself. Nothing changes until you admit what you are getting out of it.

Reversed

breaking freeconfronting the shadowloosening chainsreclaimed power

The chain is loosening. This is the start of getting free: seeing the pattern clearly, naming the habit, walking out. It is good news, though the card is honest that the first stretch afterwards is uncomfortable and the pull backwards is strong. Occasionally it warns that you are suppressing something rather than dealing with it, which tends to bring it back worse.

In the pictureThe two figures are chained — but the chains are loose enough to lift off over their heads. They have grown horns and tails, becoming what binds them. He is an inversion of the angel in The Lovers, on the same two figures: the same union, seen through compulsion instead of choice.

The turn

Name what the habit is giving you. You cannot put down something whose benefit you refuse to see.