Okay, so hear me out: I genuinely think The Devil might be the most subjective tarot card in the entire deck. And that’s exactly why I love it so much — it never means just one thing, and it almost always hits differently depending on your mood, beliefs, or even what phase of life you’re in.
Sometimes, yeah, it screams "toxic attachments," "temptation," or "ego traps" — very textbook, very influenced by Christian symbolism. But other times I can’t help but see it as something wilder and weirder. Like... what if we go back to pre-Christian roots — think Pan or the Horned God — and the whole card flips on its head? Instead of a warning, it feels more like an invitation: Be free, be earthy, be wild. Reclaim what you’ve been told to suppress.
And then that opens up a whole other question for me: is the Devil the villain in the story, or is it the scapegoat? Maybe both? It gets even more interesting when you think about how "bad" deities were often demonized because they represented autonomy, sensuality, or anything threatening to religious authority.
Honestly, interpreting The Devil always feels like walking a tightrope. I’ve pulled it and thought, “Yes, break free, express yourself, do the thing!” And I’ve also pulled it and been like, “Whoa, okay, this is a red flag for spiraling anxiety or a self-sabotage loop.” It’s chaotic in the best way.
Lately, I’ve been thinking of it as the threshold card — like that blurry space between life and death, shadow and light. The Devil is the place where opposites blur, and nothing is black and white anymore. It forces you to face contradictions without trying to resolve them too neatly.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at with it.
Curious how other folks see this one —
Does The Devil mean something totally different in your readings? Or do you also feel like it's a bit of a mirror?
