The Devil

What the card means

Upright

A dependency that keeps being called a choice. The card is about a chain that is on but not locked: the figures could lift the loops over their heads and do not, because they are used to it and because it is cheap today. Not evil - a bargain whose terms stopped being read.

Reversed

The first step out of a dependency is seeing it, and the reversed card is more often about that than about anything worsening. The chain loosens, or is at least named. Sometimes a release that will still cost, but has begun.

Love and relationships

Upright

Attraction stronger than agreement: pulled rather than chosen. Passion with a lot of body in it and little conversation. Sometimes codependency that both sides call love.

Reversed

Beginning to see what is happening. Breaking a hard cycle, or talking honestly about what holds it.

Work and business

Upright

A job kept for the money and nothing else. A contract with terms that bind. Or ambition that has become the only motive.

Reversed

Leaving somewhere that was endured. Or renegotiating terms that had seemed to have no alternative.

Money

Upright

Money as a tether: credit, instalments, dependence on a single source. The income is there, the freedom is not.

Reversed

Paying the debt down, giving up the surplus, getting out of the arrangement. Hard, and right.

The card's advice

Call the thing by its name - that alone usually slackens the chain. Ask what you get out of complaining about it: the answer is there. And check whether the lock is shut before counting yourself bound.

As the card of the day

A day of temptations and easy bargains with yourself. Good for an honest look at a habit. Poor for promises you have already made yourself three times.

What is depicted

A horned figure sits on a cube, two others chained by the neck beneath it. The chains are loose enough to lift over their heads. The torch points down - it gives no light, only heat.

Zodiac sign and correspondences

Capricorn - what holds, and what was built to last.

With other cards

• The Devil + The Lovers — an attraction that is not a choice at all.
• The Devil + Temperance — measure against excess; here measure wins.
• The Devil + The Tower — what was holding it comes down; painful, and freeing.