Tarot card meanings › Major Arcana
The Devil Tarot Card Meaning
The Devil tarot card means attachment, temptation and feeling trapped. A habit or tie that holds you.
Upright
- Attachment
- temptation
- feeling trapped
Reversed
- Breaking free
- seeing the chain
- taking power back
Yes or no
No
The Devil is card XV of the 22 major arcana.
What the card shows
A horned, bat-winged figure crouches on a black block under an upside-down pentagram, holding a torch pointed at the ground. A naked man and woman stand below, with small horns and tails, chained to the block by loose chains round their necks.
This is the card as drawn by Pamela Colman Smith for the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck, which is in the public domain.
Upright meaning
The Devil is read as the things that hold you: a habit, a debt, an obsession, a relationship you cannot seem to leave. The chains in the picture are loose enough to lift off, which is the usual lesson of the card.
The Devil reversed
Reversed, it is read as noticing the chain and starting to slip it: quitting, leaving, or taking back control.
Yes or no?
In a yes or no question, The Devil is usually read as a no, often in the sense of not now or not this way. Readers differ on some cards, so treat this as one common reading. You can ask a yes or no question and draw a card for it.
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More Major Arcana cards
The FoolThe MagicianThe High PriestessThe EmpressThe EmperorThe HierophantThe LoversThe ChariotStrengthThe HermitWheel of FortuneJusticeThe Hanged ManDeathTemperanceThe TowerThe StarThe MoonThe SunJudgementThe World
‹ TemperanceAll 78 cardsThe Tower ›
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