REVERSALS: The Devil Reversed

Ascot said:

The surrounding cards would have to be clues imo.

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I think we'd agree that this is a given for any card in a spread at any time.

I don't really do reversals, but every so often despite my best efforts, a card will flip itself. Then I read my reversals, but my sense of a reversal of a card's energy is about the flow of that energy.

I am always reading for a single individual - it doesn't matter if it is me or a client, it's still a single person.

If a card is upright, I associate the qualities of that card as originating with the person being read for and passing out from them to the rest of the world (unless its position or question specifically says otherwise), and if it comes out reversed, then that flow is in the other direction, from the rest of the world inwards towards the person being read for.

for the sake of simplicity on this particular card, just assume the Devil turns up reversed for me, and all I can think of as its meaning in that particular spread is the power of being strongly tempted by things with negative kickback later. If iut comes out reversed, it might indicate that something I or the querent does or says could severely tempt someone else to behave in a "negative" way or succumb to something they really should resist, while upright it would say that of me or my client.

Devil

Okay here is my take

To me Devil has always stood synonymous to bondage, slavery to senses, to anything that leads one to the jaws of destruction where one may be engulfed by the blinding greed and is BUT bound to submit to the devil…the DEMON you might KNOW and be aware of as a part of your personality trait or your weakness to something else….where you feel puppet to your weakness and hence are totally BLINDED to do what is RIGHT and KNOWINGLY head to destruction of the sheer helplessness to break through the bondage…

While Devil reversed looks to me more as Doctor Faustus character who very much WISHES to break through the chains of bondage, laments his actions of having sold his soul to the FALLEN ANGEL and that’s exactly how and where his journey to TRUE LIBERATION BEGINS…..Faustus’s metamorphosis through his journey of temptations and FINALLY realization of the wrong striking to him…
He is liberated by DYING…which is when the true understanding of his actions come upon him….
So when the Devil is reversed….the person has already gone through THE BIT FAUSTUS does and his only means of liberation is having to meet the consequences where the repercussions of giving in to the devil or temptation still lurks in the background…..

Meaning even if the realization comes, liberty is attained…MOST IS LOST...

Somehow devil always stands negative to me…even when reversed that’s Devil manifesting at its WORST!

Tanu

I like that discussion, Tanu - thanks for that.

Thanks Nisaba...it was just a thought
Truth is i dread this card LOL! and most of this "discussion" comes from the expereince... having lived Faustus!

Yeats's G.:.D.:. Motto

I searched, a little, for Yeats's Golden Dawn motto (in Latin), but couldn't find it w/in the ten-minutes I spent looking, but, in English it was:

"The Devil is G*d Reversed . . ."

So what? I know . . . Anyhow . . .

Ascot said:

He stands for getting caught up and obsessed or enslaved, most of the time unwillingly. Also, most of the time unwittingly, Ive found.

A reversed Devil could indicate a willingness in self-sabotage.

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<cackle> Doesn't sound a lot unlike my relationship with Tarot itself: time-consuming and expensive, but very, very tempting!

In my opinion, this card is merely saying "I am looking at what seduces me", and to keep it in balance. Keeping it lively and upbeat.

On the flipside, when you overthink about what seduces you, your wheels keep on turning. Making something out of really nothing. Then your external actions could make what seduces you a horrible situation.

I think this card is mainly saying keep a happy perspective about what seduces you.

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I think that the Devil card up is very indicitive of an encounter that is specific enough to be a warning like, keep your gloves on. That is if you want to.
After you've had your fill of tangoing with such a person or corporation there are opportunities to get Devil out of immediate circle, and that is where [ 15 ]reversed comes in. When I see the card on the board I can say out loud "he go bye bye" and reliably, the Emperor card will be within the same swirl mix in the REVERSED position. ...and he go bye bye. That tells me that the Devil upright indeed enjoyed being the dominating party and the one who was given control as well.

So if the Devil is like a shark, the Devil reversed is as if, he's gone away. Now with the [ 15 ] reversed card it isn't as if he/she is out of the picture, just more like you've found refuge in a shark cage. He's still out there, circling.

I do think that the High Priestess is capable of sending him on his way. She doesn't have to explain anything at all, [ 15 ] is not worthy of honesty, just
so he go. What is more I think that she uses her hand-maiden Princess of Wands to show shock of selected truths to make the Shark leave.

Seeing the High Priestess as Dominatrix is very interesting to me. And equating her with the sadism of the Devil is interesting as well.
I have always held the High Priestess reversed as more the escapist, the non-commital one.

As I hold that Devil [ 15 ] to be non-commital, not in anything for loyalty, I suppose he would resemble High Priestess reversed, itching to get out- or there just to dominate, castigate even, then flee. This is revolutionary to me and exciting, thanks.