The Devil

The Devil is regarded as the fifteenth card in the Major Arcana of Tarot Cards, which comprises of twenty-two cards in total.

The Story behind The Devil

Continuing on his journey, The Fool sees a huge mountain that is black in colour. At the bottom is a creature, half of which is a god and half of which is a goat. He sees that people are chained to the throne of the creature, and indulging in food, sex, drugs and other earthly desires. The Fool is angered and thinks that this is a test. The half-god, half goat says that he is just bringing people’s internal desires to the fore.

The creature argues that this is part of one’s spiritual journey. The Fool is still disbelieving, as the people appear chained. However, upon closer inspection he realises that the chains are big enough to take off. The people are letting their desires keep them there. The Fool realises that the creature is dangerous but also represents free will. The creature says that people would not be able to achieve much without these strong desires.

Meaning of The Devil Tarot Card

Like the Death card, many people completely misinterpret The devil Tarot Card. If you read the story above you have probably realised that it is not necessarily that bad. This card presents the idea that we are in full control of ourselves and that are personalities have both positive and negative traits. Supressing these feelings can be very detrimental, one must instead learn to control them.

Most people don’t want to believe that their own Devil comes from within. The association of The Devil with bad things still remains. Like in the story, completely submitting your inner desires to the outside world will do you much more harm than good. An interesting example of this is love. Love is a wonderful thing but it can become so strong that it overpowers everything else and blinds the people involved from everything else.

As the people in the story above can take of their chains, so you can take off yours. The Devil demonstrates that people hold themselves back. No one else can decide what you embrace. If you see The Devil card, it might be because you are trying to supress something that needs to come out.