The Devil as Intentions: To Have You, on Their Terms

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Devil as intentions is a plan with a hook in it. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed, and why the loose chains matter.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Devil as intentions that are intense and not free. In an intentions position the card suggests the person wants you strongly, physically, obsessively, possessively, and intends to have you in a way that keeps you bound: to them, to a situation, to a pattern. The intention is real. It is not the same as an intention to love you well, and the card is clear about the difference.

This is the horned figure with the two chained humans. He intends to keep them. The chains are loose, and he intends that nobody notices.

The Devil upright as intentions

Tina Gong's the Devil guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with attachment, addiction, materialism, sexuality and bondage. When the card lands in a position that asks what someone intends toward you, I read those meanings as the shape of their plan rather than as a promise about what they will do. Feelings and intentions are different questions; the Devil as feelings covers the first, and this page covers the second. The general card meanings at Biddy Tarot are a useful second reference.

Upright, I read the Devil as a person whose intention toward you is possession: to have you, to keep you, to be the thing you return to. There is heat in it and there may be real feeling. There is also a bargain: what you get comes with conditions that may not be stated, and the person intends you to accept them.

What I would not read into it is love in the open-handed sense. The Devil intends to hold. Whether it also intends to care is not something the card can say, and the two are often confused by both people.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the person's intentions are healthy, that they are free of other attachments including to someone else, or that their desire will become a relationship rather than a cycle. No card lets a reader see another person's plans. What a card can do is describe the kind of intention that fits the person's behaviour, and give you something to check against what they actually do.

The Devil reversed as intentions

Reversed, the Devil as intentions describes release or concealment: a person who intends to loosen their grip on you, or on the pattern, or someone whose possessive intentions have gone underground and are being pursued more quietly. The first is a person getting free. The second is more dangerous than the upright card.

In your own question, ask whether the person has pulled back in a way that looks like health, or whether the pull has gone silent and become something they will not discuss. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

The Devil as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, the Devil as intentions can suggest they intend to have you back in the same pattern: the on-and-off, the late-night message, the return without change. Many relationships live in this card. The question it asks is not whether they intend to come back; it is whether their return would free either of you. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

The Devil as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card describes intense desire with something attached: a situation, a secret, an unavailability, a need to own. Find out what the attachment is before you decide what the heat means.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for intensity with conditions: wanting you and not being seen with you, returning and withdrawing on a cycle, being drawn to you and resenting it. A Devil intention looks like wanting with strings. Wanting without strings is a different card.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, what seems to bind the person, and what binds you to them. The third note is the one people skip, and it is the one the card is asking about.

For comparison, the Lovers as intentions and the Devil as feelings describe different intentions. The the Devil card meaning page covers the card in full, and 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.