Major Arcana

The Devil

A cross-legged figure with a goat's head and great black wings spread wide dominates the card. A torch burns between its horns; a five-pointed star, point upwards, adorns its forehead. A caduceus rests on its belly. In one hand raised towards the sky, it holds a Book marked with a waxing white moon, shaped like an open parenthesis. In the other hand, lowered towards the earth, it holds a second Book marked with a waning black moon, shaped like a closed parenthesis. Two figures, a woman on the left and a man on the right, stand at the foot of the pedestal, linked by a rope and an engraved medallion — the bond that holds them is visibly loose.

Symbolic reading

The Devil is not primarily a figure to fight: it is a fire to steal. The force it embodies is neither good nor bad in itself. What distinguishes the two bound figures from the great figure that dominates them is not the nature of that force, but the relationship one has with it. Endured passively, it imprisons. Understood and passed through, it becomes the very instrument of transformation. The two Books held at arm's length, one opening and the other closing, remind us that no hold over us is a permanent state.

Reversed reading

A first gesture of liberation — becoming aware of the bond even before it is undone — or, conversely, a temporary return to a hold one thought had been overcome.

• hold
• instinct
• transmutation
• illusion
• desire
• liberation