The Devil as a Person: Magnetic, Bound and Not Letting Go

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Devil as a person is the one you cannot stop thinking about and should probably stop seeing. Here is the character, upright and reversed, in love and at work.

If you want the short answer, the Devil as a person is magnetic, worldly, intense and bound: someone with strong appetites, strong charisma, and a web of attachments, to pleasure, to power, to money, to people, that holds them and tends to hold whoever gets close. They are not evil. They are compelling, and they are not free, and they do not want you to be either.

This is the horned figure on the pedestal with two chained humans at his feet. The chains are loose. Nobody is taking them off, including him.

The Devil as a person: the character

Tina Gong's the Devil guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with attachment, addiction, materialism, sexuality and bondage. Major Arcana cards are less often read as people than the court cards are, and when they are, they describe a person living out that card's theme rather than a fixed temperament. The Major Arcana overview at Biddy Tarot is a useful second reference.

The Devil person is charismatic, sensual, ambitious, worldly and often very successful. They enjoy the material world without apology: money, sex, food, power, status. They are good at getting what they want and at making other people want it too. They have at least one thing they cannot stop doing, and usually several. They are honest about their appetites in a way that can be refreshing and can be a trap.

They are not necessarily bad people, and reading the card as a villain misses it. The Devil describes bondage, and the person who carries it is often as bound as anyone they bind, and often more aware of it than they let on.

Their strengths

Charisma. Honesty about desire. Worldly competence. Intensity that makes life vivid. The ability to see through other people's pretences, because they have none of their own. Power, when used well.

Their shadow

Addiction. Manipulation. Possessiveness. Materialism that becomes the whole of life. Using people. Cynicism about anything that cannot be bought or bedded. A refusal to be free, and a need for company in the chains.

The Devil reversed as a person

Reversed, the Devil as a person is either the bondage broken or the bondage hidden: someone who has got free of an addiction, a relationship or a pattern and is rebuilding, or someone whose chains have gone underground and are tighter for being denied. The first is a person in recovery, often humbled and often wise. The second is more dangerous than the upright card.

Which one it is shows in behaviour: the recovering Devil talks about the chains. The hidden one insists there are none. A reversed card as a person is the same theme lived badly, or a person stuck in the card's lesson. It is not a different person.

The Devil as a partner

As a partner, the Devil is passionate, exciting, generous with pleasure and possessive, and the relationship tends to have a hook in it that is hard to name and harder to leave. They need a partner who is free, who can enjoy the intensity without being owned by it, and who will walk away if the chains tighten. Many people love a Devil for a while. The ones who stay well are the ones who kept their own key.

The Devil at work

At work, the Devil is the rainmaker, the closer, the executive who gets results and leaves a trail. They are excellent in sales, finance, anything that rewards appetite. As a boss they are magnetic and controlling, and their teams are loyal in a way that is not always healthy.

How to recognise the Devil in your life

Look for the person who is the most interesting one in every room and the one your friends are worried about, who has everything and wants more, who you keep going back to. In yourself, the Devil is the part that wants, and the part that has stopped asking what the wanting costs. No card can identify a specific real person, and a reader who tells you a Major Arcana card is definitely your ex, your boss or your new match is guessing. What the card can do is describe a theme clearly enough that you recognise who in your life is living it, or which part of yourself is.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, who the Devil might describe, and what binds them. The third note is the whole card, and it may also be what binds you to them.

For comparison, the Lovers as a person and the Tower as a person describe different characters. The the Devil card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Devil as feelings, the Devil as timing and the Devil as a yes or no cover the other questions people most often ask of it. For a personal interpretation, my guide to a love psychic reading online explains how I work, and the three-card tarot listing and customer reviews are worth reading before deciding whether to order.