Major Arcana
The Devil
Upright
- ·attachment
- ·shadow self
- ·addiction
- ·bondage
Reversed
- ·release
- ·breaking chains
- ·reclaiming power
- ·awareness
Upright
A horned shape squats on the dark shelf above two figures chained at the throat, and look, the chains are loose, loose enough to lift off over the head. The Devil is the thing you keep saying you can't leave, the cup you keep refilling, the version of you you've outgrown and keep wearing anyway. The card doesn't shame you for sitting in the loop. It only holds up the candle so you can see it. The iron is light. The question is whether you take it off.
Reversed
Reversed, the collar slips and you walk out the door, the bondage finally seen for the homemade thing it always was. Release, the slow unhooking, recovery. Or the long breath right before you choose, eyes open now, to keep the chain on a little longer.
In the imagery
Above the dark wood, lit from below by guttering candle, a great horned figure crouches on a black altar; below it a man and a woman stand with loose chains at their necks, the links wide enough to slip. One holds a flame at the tip of a tail, the other a clutch of grapes gone to wine. They have grown small horns of their own, taking on the shape of what they keep choosing to be held by.
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