Unlike some of the other so-called scariest cards in the tarot (and in this blog series), the Devil card is or can be somewhat scary! Not in the way that superstitious folk might assume nor because it is associated with anything satanic or evil (the Devil card in the tarot does NOT refer to Satan or Lucifer). It is scary because it can confront us with uncomfortable truths about ourselves and it can even, if we’re very lucky, shatter our cosy prisons! What might that mean you may ask? Read on to discover more.
Firstly, using the Rider Waite Smith tarot, if we take a close look at the card we can get some clues to its meaning. Two naked figures are loosely chained around their necks to a ring in the centre. They look human but for horns coming out their heads and strange tails. Sitting above them is a huge hairy creature with wings like a bat and horns like a ram, its right hand held up high, whilst the left holds a club that is on fire. It looks like the flames have set the male figure’s tail on fire. In turn, he is holding his hand in what looks like a gesture towards the female (reminiscent of other cards in the deck like 2 Cups and the Lovers) yet she seems to be staring off into the middle distance.
The clues are in the way that the two figures appear to be chained. For the Devil card is about our attachment to things, to people, to ways of being, to our identity and who we think we are.
"The Devil is about attachment. It invites us to confront the ways in which our attachments may be running the show…"
Why is this scary? Because it invites us to confront the ways in which our attachments may be running the show, having a bearing over our lives in unconscious ways just like the Devil looms over the two figures in the card. (The burning club that the Devil is holding signifies the unconscious because it’s in the left hand).
In Buddhism, attachment is the primary source of suffering because it binds us, often very strongly, to things that are in reality, impermanent. When these things or people inevitably leave us, we suffer. Look around you at your life and consider this for a moment; that everyone in it, your friends, family, colleagues, pets will one day not be here, that everything you own will one day no longer belong to you, that you yourself will also, one day, no longer be here. This is our reality of life on earth, it has its limits and we must live within them (a very Saturnian lesson - the Devil card is ruled by Saturn).
Now clearly we can’t all become Buddhist monks, renouncing our family ties and all our possessions to live in a monastery so what can we do to live within these limits more peaceably? For our attachments often become so strong, we not only fear losing them, we want to keep them fixed just as they are so we fear change itself (the Tower card is next in the Major Arcana). When this happens, we start to put our energy into controlling what’s around us, to keep it “just so” but we don’t realise that we’re breaking all sorts of universal laws when we do this and we can compromise ourselves in significant ways.
Here are some searching questions that can be helpful to ask yourself when the Devil card comes up in a reading.
Do I own my possessions or are they owning me?
Am I putting my life on hold for fear of losing what I have?
What would I choose to do with my life if money (or any other ties) were no object?
How are my fears about losing my home/possessions/marriage/job/partner etc affecting how I show up in the world?
Am I being honest and truthful with myself and those around me?
Am I compromising in ways that are not serving me or others?
What deep desire do I have that I dare not express, follow or own?
Can I say it out loud, even if only to myself? Or write it down?
Can I give myself permission to dare to dream?
Like all the Major Arcana, the Devil card is a multi-layered card that reveals its secrets that we are ready for. For me, it is one of the most powerful gateways to healing because it is through our attachments that we experience our humanity; how love makes us vulnerable one and all, something we all share and from which our compassion for each other can pour forth. It is how we respond and react to feeling vulnerable that can tell us so much about ourselves and what we truly need. Ultimately, we are bound to the Devil when we deny our needs for connection and communion, replacing these things with substitutes that make us feel good in the moment but leave us forever hungry for more.
That kind of hunger is insatiable and highly addictive. It makes little devils of us (like the horned man and woman in the card). When I started writing this post, an old Bon Jovi song popped in my head. “Your love is like bad medicine, bad medicine is what I need”.
Weird as it seems, the song actually hints at a great truth; the remedy is in the poison itself. The Devil is an invitation to take the poison in order to find the cure. It’s a shamanic card in that sense, a threshold between worlds, between light and the dark, for those courageous enough to step into it.
"To truly become an alchemist and transform all poisons into their cure, do something radical: exchange yourself for others and begin to suffer with. You will see that this is how compassion can finally be born."
Brandon Thompson in Poems from the Path of Lojong
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