The Devil grins from his black throne, two figures chained at his feet, yet the chains are loose enough to remove. Devils are many things: Ravage, violence, force, vehemence, extraordinary efforts, fatality -- that which is predestined but not for this reason evil. The fatality here is of force itself; there is the possibility of psychic manipulation and there is bondage we choose and can unchoose. Reversed: Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness, blindness. The ending of anything evil is never pretty; the emanations of evil may winnow the spirit in these ways.

UPRIGHT: Ravage, Violence, Extraordinary efforts, Fatality

REVERSED: Evil fatality, Weakness, Pettiness, Blindness

As Denzel Washington once said, “In your highest moments be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.” Demons crave corruption, and only the truly hallowed can be corrupted; any reasoned person understands that all success and gain carries a dark side, and how things can inevitably go too far. The Devil is someone that never gives up and is as committed as the angels to his one track, it just goes the opposite way; as Moses the Black once said: “You fast, but Satan does not eat. You labor fervently, but Satan never sleeps. The only dimension with which you can outperform Satan is by acquiring humility, for Satan has no humility.”

On the journey, the hero faces The Devil!! {Usually at a crossroads…or at the peak of one mountain or another.}

Bottom Line: When you meet The Devil, hold fast to your convictions and pray.

Tree of Life Path: Tiphareth ⟷ Hod. Raw heart energy bleeds into the notions of logic x building x ambition; this is where Hermes and Saint Michael the Archangel make their homes, in fact, so as to study and stymie the efforts of rising devils. 

A.E. Waite quote: “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 forever. Even now, he is also a bondsman, sustained by the evil that is in him and blind to the liberty of service. With more than his usual derision for the arts which he pretended to respect and interpret as a master therein, Éliphas Lévi affirms that the Baphometic figure is occult science and magic. Another commentator says that in the Divine world it signifies predestination, but there is no correspondence in that world with the things which below are of the brute. What it does signify is the Dweller on the Threshold without the Mystical Garden when those are driven forth therefrom who have eaten the forbidden fruit.”

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