Difference between revisions of "The Devil (Tarot)"

In the eighteenth century this card seems to have been a symbol of animal impudicity, and not directly implying the deity [[Satan]] or [[the Devil]]. Except for a fantastic headdress, the devil is entirely naked; it has bat-like wings, and the hands and feet are represented by the claws of a bird. In the right hand there is a scepter terminating in a sign which has been thought to represent fire.

In the [[Rider-Waite Tarot]] deck, artist [[Pamela Colman Smith]] depicted The Devil card as the Horned Goat of Mendes, with wings like those of a bat, is standing on an altar. At the pit of the stomach is the sign of [[Mercury]]. His right hand is upraised and extended, being the reverse of that benediction which is given by [[The Hierophant]] in the fifth card. In the left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted towards the earth. A reversed pentagram is on the forehead. There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are carried to the necks of two figures, male and female. These are analogous with those of [[The Lovers]], as if Adam and Eve after the Fall. Here, the chain is of fatality and of the material life. The figures are tailed, to signify the animal nature, but there is human intelligence in the faces, and he who is exalted above them is not to be their master for ever. Even now, he is also a bondsman, sustained by the evil that is in him and blind to the liberty of service.

Some modern [[Tarot]] decks give the 15th [[Major Arcana]] card a different name. The [[Hieronymus Bosch Tarot]], by [[Travis McHenry]], for example, calls this card Temptation, and depicts it as the serpent in the Garden of Eden handing Eve a piece of fruit.