Tarot, The Devil
unconscious choice, liberation, action
Sign: Capricorn
Element: Earth
Numerology: 15
Numerologically speaking the number 15 represents the need for a shift in perspective, change of habits, re-invention, fear of being trapped, and the potentiality of working through the layers of fear into the layers of the light. The numbers 1 and 5 adding up to 6 brings in the energy of 3 which is a master number and connected with creativity, community, optimism, and joy. The number 6 can hold within it the keys to compassion, nurture, and revelation as it is one of the exalted expressions of the number 3. So you see, woven within the 15 are layers of support, connection, and guidance towards the ultimate freedom which is represented in the Devil card.
Message from Dilara:
For many people, the appearance of the Devil in a reading can instantly bring about a feeling of fear or foreboding. This reaction, generally speaking, comes down to our conditioning and what we have been told about good, evil, god, and ‘satan’ or the devil. However, what the Devil card brings forward for us is simply a revealing of our shadow. Our shadow side or unconscious is the place where all the information we need to grow into an illuminated version of ourselves lives. The shadow contains the light and the light holds within it the shadow, they are in some sense – one in the same, an inescapable experience of the wholeness of our spectrum. That being said, the Devil card does highlight some specific human tendencies which are important to take note of: Cravings, destructive habits, short term gain, entrapment, freedom, merging the animalistic with the human, and lies. The Devil card really brings us an opportunity to face any hidden fear and potentially any shame related to that fear as well. Once we face these fears and let them burn through us, the liberation which comes as a part of that experience is what transcends us into an exalted version of the Devil which could be The lovers card as these two cards are often partnered with one another. The Lovers represents conscious choice, and the devil could be seen to represent unconscious habitual choice which is more destructive rather than regenerative when unchecked. I will remind you here that the Major Arcana is a journey of passing through and experiencing psychological archetypes, they all blend perfectly into one another and are all relevant. Many people try to cleverly avoid the Devil and I always feel that when that happens, the card will find you and bring potentially more freedom than you may have considered!
Other specific attributes which the Devil card invites us to explore are: sexuality or sexual habits (healthy and unhealthy), attachment styles, the need to bind to a person or aspect of life, egoic seriousness, manipulation of self or others, confusion or believing what you see rather than what you know / sense to be true. All of these aspects encourage us to dive into raw honesty about what we may be suppressing. The Devil card also allows us to observe our behaviour, our internal parts, from a clear cut perspective. Getting to the nitty gritty of where we are responsible for a hardship in our life and how we can re-kindle unity through diving deep into our shadow, all in all creating clearer boundaries from the darkness, defining the light and illuminating the world.
Choice which unifies or choice which separates. The Devil card is with us wherever we go because its about choice so it doesn’t go anywhere it just changes its expression so that we move from unconscious choice to conscious choice
Reversed:
The Devil card reversed can present us with an opportunity to realise that we are in a dark night of the soul, also to break contracts we may have made with those around us which do not serve us anymore. Choosing the unconscious over the conscious, allowing the destructive pattern to reign, witnessing the demise of a relationship, stagnation, wanting a step forward but feeling unable to take it. Whilst these attributes of the Devil reversed may seem similar to the upright position, what we see when the card is reversed it less opportunity for movement. There Is a recognition that the lack of recognition has been chosen, or been in place for a long time. The Devil card reversed can also represent your conscious journey into a dark night of the soul, or that you have been looking in the mirror and witnessing your shadow on a regular / current basis. Detachment is also a theme of the Devil reversed because it highlights the extreme and simultaneous collapse of our attachment tendencies.
Message from the Herd:
The Devil card does not take transition lightly.
Transition through the curt, stern, and more cutting dynamics of the expression of this consciousness (tarot cards). The Devil as a companion throughout the dream world or fantasy, illusion, and the dance between what you want and who you are is a very important participant on your journey into the heart.
Expression. This card holds expression at its core, woven within the timeframe, the ego of the human is how you express. Ask yourself: How do you express? Where may you be blocked or stagnant in your expression? What journey to do you get to go on to liberate your voice, your creativity? The Devil is a creative. How? Through its compass and its regularity. What do we mean by this? It regulates time, it plays a major role in the efficacy of how time is experienced as a human and because of this it is attached to ‘time and space’, to a place in time or to a ‘way of being through time’.
All of these constructs and ideas around the passing by of life are valid and important for you to register what is meant by being in the heart (through comparison). The heart is circular, it has no time, no space, no thing within it. It is, by measure of its design and intention, a vacuum of magnetism. We are speaking about the heart here as for many humans the journey from the head to the heart can take a lifetime. What we are proposing is that you work with the blessing of your fears and obscured aspects to discover, reveal, and re-write the positioning of your consciousness. Live in the heart because you have experienced the contrast of living in the mind.
The mind can be seen as the devil but this does not mean the mind is the devil, the devil is simply a symbol of revelation through acknowledging the perceived generation of experience, when in fact experience itself is created through spontaneity of the heart and the soul working as one through the body. Clear out your mind, journey into your heart, live there, then move out from your heart into the world you are creating (beyond time), witness time as a source of layered renewal. Work with the devil within you to trust yourself as implicitly as possible.
Watch where the passage of your life is going. Take moments to yourself to become observant of the movement of life within you. The devil is a companion, when you start to see the little ways that the devil is within you and by your side in each moment you start to become more self aware and thus more self-forgiving and compassionate.. thus the heart is entered. Become aware through reflection. By observing life – take everything you see into account as a reflection of an aspect of the devil within you. You are as liberated as you choose to be.
Meditation for The Devil card