Okay, let’s talk about the Devil card. When I first started messing around with Tarot decks, man, that card freaked me out. Seriously. Pulled it once during a late-night session just for myself, and I nearly threw the deck across the room. Felt like bad news, plain and simple.
For a long time, I kinda just… skipped over it? If it came up, I’d get this knot in my stomach, quickly look up the most negative meaning I could find, feel awful, and then try to forget about it. Didn’t really work with it, you know? Just reacted.
Getting Past the Spook Factor
Things started to shift when I decided I couldn’t just keep avoiding a whole card. That felt silly. So, I started pulling it intentionally sometimes. Just laying it out, looking at the imagery. Not even doing a reading, just observing. What did I really see? Chains, yeah, but they looked kinda loose. Figures standing there, but not exactly screaming in terror. More like… stuck?
Then it started showing up in readings for myself more often. This was during a time when I felt really trapped in a job I hated. It paid well, sure, but I felt chained to the desk, obsessed with the money and the security it supposedly offered, even though I was miserable. Day in, day out, same routine, feeling like I had no choice.
Seeing the Patterns
That’s when it clicked. The Devil wasn’t some external evil force waiting to get me. It was showing me my own patterns. It was pointing right at:
- Feeling stuck because I believed I was stuck.
- Focusing too much on material stuff (that paycheck) instead of what actually made me feel alive.
- Maybe some unhealthy habits I’d picked up to cope with the stress – too much junk food, endless scrolling online, that kind of thing.
It was about the chains I was putting on myself, or at least allowing to stay on. The card wasn’t the problem; it was the mirror showing me the problem.
Working With It, Not Against It
So, I stopped dreading it. When it pops up now, I take a deep breath. I ask myself: Where do I feel restricted? What am I obsessing over? Am I giving my power away to something – a job, a relationship, a habit, a fear? It’s become a signal to check myself, to look honestly at the less pleasant parts of my thinking and behavior.
It’s still not my favorite card, let’s be real. It’s uncomfortable. It forces you to look at the stuff you’d rather ignore. But I respect it now. It’s like that brutally honest friend who tells you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear. It points to where the real work is, where breaking free is possible, even if it takes effort. It stopped being just ‘the Devil’ and became a signpost for liberation, weirdly enough.
