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3. The 22 Major Arcana
4. The Devil

By ModUpdated 1 Nov 2026

Upright meaning

Reversed meaning

Imagery and symbols

• The goat-headed, bat-winged figureThe animal side and raw, unrefined instinct; bat wings belong to the dark, the goat to Capricorn.
• The inverted pentagram on his foreheadMatter above spirit: the right order turned over.
• The raised right hand with Saturn's sign on the palmA mockery of the Hierophant's blessing; Saturn's sign is limitation and time.
• The downturned torch in his left handThe fire of desire pointed down into matter, lighting the man's tail.
• The man and woman in loose chainsBondage by consent: the chains are loose enough to lift off their necks, yet neither tries.
• Horns and tails on the coupleThey are becoming what binds them. Her tail bears grapes, his a flame — two forms of craving.
• The half-cube pedestalIncomplete knowledge, seeing only half the truth: the material world alone.

Details most readers miss

• The Devil deliberately parodies the Lovers: the couple stands in the same places, but the angel is replaced by the Devil and the trees by tails — love decayed into possession.
• Capricorn is an Earth sign ruled by Saturn, so the card speaks of attachment to money, work, status and material security, not only sex.
• 15 reduces to 6, the Lovers; the two share a constellation, and the Lovers' lesson of choice returns as bondage.

History and origins

The Devil does not survive in the Visconti–Sforza decks (it may have been lost). The Marseille deck shows a bat-winged devil on a pedestal with two small chained imps.

Smith based her figure on Éliphas Lévi's Baphomet — half goat, with bat wings — and chained the man and woman from the Lovers at his feet. The Golden Dawn gave the card Capricorn and Ayin (eye), so the Devil concerns seeing: being seduced by what the eye sees, and opening the eyes to the truth of one's chains.

The story of the card

Having found balance in Temperance, the Fool must face his darkest side: craving, fear and the things he leaned on until they became chains. The Devil doesn't come from outside; he is the Fool's own shadow.

Seeing the chain is the first step to freedom, and in the next card, the Tower, the false structure imprisoning him collapses.

Element and elemental dignities

This card belongs to Earth, the energy of money, work, the body and tangible security.

Under the Golden Dawn rules of elemental dignities, Earth is friendly with Water and opposed to Air. Beside cards of the same or a friendly element this card grows stronger; beside an opposing element it weakens or shows its harder side.

When Earth dominates a spread: clinging to security and possessions; slow to move or change. When it is missing: Add Earth with a step-by-step plan, a budget and timeline, and care for your body.

Sign, planet and timing

This card rules Capricorn ♑︎, a cardinal Earth sign ruled by Saturn. The Sun passes through Capricorn (tropical zodiac) from 22 Dec – 19 Jan each year, and people born then often recognise this card's energy in themselves.

the energy of initiating — this matter wants you to make the first move The ruling planet adds themes of limits, time, discipline, responsibility, lessons.

Key of Life: number, birth cards and quintessence

The card's number 15 reduces to 6, so it belongs to constellation 6 together with The Lovers. This group is the chooser who learns about love, desire and what binds the heart. If your birth-date total is 15, this is your Personality card and card 6 is your Soul card.

To find your birth cards with Mary K. Greer's method, add your birth day, month and year, then add the digits until the result is 22 or less. Born 14 June 1990: 14 + 6 + 1990 = 2010 → 2 + 0 + 1 + 0 = 3, the Empress.

The same card can also be a "year card" when you use the current year instead of your birth year, and the "quintessence" of a reading when the numbers of all cards in the spread reduce to 15.

Path on the Tree of Life

The 22 Major Arcana are the 22 paths (numbered 11–32) linking the ten sephiroth of the Tree of Life. This card is path 26, joining Tiphareth · Beauty (harmony, the centre of the self) with Hod · Splendour (intellect, logic, communication), and the Hebrew letter ע Ayin, meaning "eye".

Read as a journey of the mind, the path teaches how to bring the power of Tiphareth down into Hod, or how to climb from below to above. It crosses between the pillars, so it works to reconcile two forces.

Uranian astrology connection

Uranian astrology (the Hamburg School) uses eight hypothetical points beyond Neptune alongside the real planets. This card resonates with Vulkanus and Admetos.

• Vulkanus (Vul)Vulkanus is power beyond what one person can resist: great inspiration or crushing pressure. Whatever it touches in a chart happens with intensity. Keywords: immense power, overwhelming drive, force hard to control, intensity
• Admetos (Adm)Admetos is compression and stillness, like a seed buried before it sprouts. It reads as delay, limitation, land, resources and beginning again from a full stop. Keywords: standstill, delay, depth, land, raw material, endings that are beginnings

The Devil is compulsion that is hard to resist — Vulkanus — and the chains are Admetos binding you to matter.

This correspondence is TarotMod's own synthesis from the meanings of the Hamburg School factors; it is not part of traditional tarot. Cast your Uranian chart

Related cards

• The LoversSame constellation
• Two of PentaclesDecan of Capricorn
• Three of PentaclesDecan of Capricorn
• Four of PentaclesDecan of Capricorn

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