The Devil

Major Arcana XV, The Devil sits enthroned above two chained figures — a naked man and woman with small horns and tails, their chains loose enough to remove. Waite's Pictorial Key identifies this card with Capricorn and the bondage of materialism, the illusion of helplessness before appetite and compulsion. The Devil holds an inverted torch, a parody of the Hermit's lantern, illumination perverted into obsession. Within the trump sequence he represents the shadow side of The Lovers (card VI), the sacred union distorted into codependency. Crowley names this card 'The Devil' but sees in it creative energy unbound by convention, the ambiguity of Dionysian force.

Cross-Tradition Resonances