How to interpret the Devil tarot card in a reading.
How does the Tarot work?
I’ll tell you how it works….in mysterious ways.
This morning I awoke at 6am and immediately wanted to work a bit more on this book/manual idea as I have been feeling decidedly frustrated, confused, and generally consumed about how to go about it. It occurred to me that my friend healer and great tarot reader always talks about ‘working’ with a card. And if this was going to be a kind of workbook centred around the Tarot, then I should do an example. So I decided to choose the Devil, for some reason?
Passion and Desire can easily become obsessive and intense when we are over attached to what we desire.
This is what I wrote…
Working with Devil
the Devil is all about passion and desire.
Everyone has experienced being under the spell of a great passion, and if we havent we’ve seen it enough in the movies. It has a raw intensity, focus, desire, sublime moments of happiness, exstasy, joy, delight. It’s Glorious, you are on fire, you are obsessed. You cant think about anything else. You come alive. This is what you’ve been waiting for your whole life. This it is.
This is passion. And desire. The Devil in Tarot, and in its pure perhaps raw is a better word, it is the highest form of passion..
Without passion and desire we wouldn’t get out of bed. It is our passions that lead our lives. And so they are a very good thing…..until we start to become over-attached, too passionate, addicted to, our only focus, so intense it takes over.
I recognise the Devil when I obsess about something, to the extent that it is my whole focus, and after a week or so I notice it’s taken over. I feel stressed because I can’t stop thinking about it….there’s a low grade misery around not being able to obtain my desire, and not being able to obtain the relaxed inner peace of mind I like to live with in my life. I’m more than happy to have goals and be passionate about them but when they take over and there isn’t a moment for anything else then I know I’ve got a bad case of the Devil.
This is a form of addiction, we can become addicted to our desire, a relationship, work, alcohol, perfectionism, sex, drugs and rock n roll.
I decided for my Instagram post and for the blog to do a ‘how to set your north compass’ spread otherwise known as ‘how to unlock your potential’ spread….as I often recommend it when people are feeling stuck. And I was stuck in my thoughts about this book or whatever it was going to be and floundering around in it, it felt like a mess, ideas all over the place, and it was making me feel m’fungled and chaotic and unbalanced and frustrated.
This is how the spread goes. Central card for the present, crowning card 2 for how to set (or unlock) your north compass, root card 3, your root skills that support you, card 4 what you need to let go of, card 5 where its leading….
Unlocking the Potential at Hand....Setting your North Star Compass
I pulled the ACE of Wands, present situation….A brand new spark of inspiration, new beginning, new passion (well that certainly talked of my idea idea)
How to unlock/set. The Ten of Swords…let go of control, of your ego, of how things should be, over thinking, of controlling things and yourself, let for for a new dawn…
Root skill/support Queen of Wands. Independant, Creative, a free spirit, entrepreneurial, leader, she follows her intuition
What to let go of?
And you won’t believe this!
I pulled The Devil. I literally felt my whole body react, with astonishment, shock and after a beat or two gratitude, as if it was a sign, an endorsement from the tarot about how it communicates with me.
Where its leading. The Six of swords.
Only those of you who have read my blog of three years ago on the six of swords will understand the power of receiving that card. To me it means, you are crossing to the other side of the river, to the bank you want to get to. All your lessons, hard work, experiences, are with you on the boat as you move from rough waters to smooth. I might add it also suggests a bit of a journey, not sudden wealth, success, acclaim. No. but to me it encourages me on my journey to write. And reminds me of my 70th birthday wish, to be a well respected tarot healer and to have written a book (and have had great sex….am happy to relinquish that, I think?)