The Chimaera (The Devil)

In a reading

• Meeting what people usually hide behind a socially approved mask. A state of running into your secret desires, fears and hang-ups.
• Being obsessed with some idea, losing control over your impulses. A state where instincts take over reason.
• On the positive side — huge, primal life energy, if you learn to handle it.
• Relationships, love: wild passion, the strongest physical attraction without a deep spiritual bond. Often points to a toxic relationship, codependency, manipulation, jealousy and abuse. A partner like a drug — bad with them, impossible without them.
• Career, money: great prospects for big earnings, but with a catch. Being able to play on other people’s weaknesses. Playing big. Points to a golden cage, workaholism, and always the temptation to take the dishonest route — to use corrupt schemes or dirty tricks against competitors.

Shadow side

Complete enslavement, sinking into addictions — from substances to gambling. Crime or harshly crushing someone else’s will. Cruelty, a person falling apart under the pull of their vices.

What matters

Admit your hidden desires and weaknesses. Don’t hide your shadow. Don’t let yourself be controlled. Don’t take the bait. Don’t make shady deals with your conscience.

From the wider tradition

Not Tahmina’s own words: meanings common among other tarot readers, which she has reviewed and approved.

• The loose chains around their necks — they can be taken off at any moment; the captivity is voluntary, an illusion.
• The Lovers twisted (two people in chains) — love that has turned into dependence and possessiveness.
• Materialism, consumerism, the power of money and status over a person.
• Shadow work — admitting your baser desires so they don’t secretly run you.

Stage of the journey

The Devil is card XV; it comes after Temperance, XIV, and before the Tower, XVI. This is a really important point on the path. A person has already realized, lived through and let go of a lot, but now runs into what still has power over them.

What a person has already been through. They came to the Devil after: the Fool — dared to start the path; the Magician — learned to act; the High Priestess — learned to hear themselves; the Empress — created and made things real; the Emperor — built boundaries and order; the Hierophant — formed their values; the Lovers — learned to make a choice; the Chariot — moved toward the goal they chose; Strength — learned to handle themselves; the Hermit — looked for answers inside; Wheel of Fortune — accepted changes they couldn’t control; Justice — saw the consequences of their decisions; the Hanged Man — changed how they see things; Death — let go of the old; Temperance — got their balance back. And now a person thinks: “Looks like I’ve finally figured it all out.” And the Devil asks: “All of it? Are you sure? What’s still holding you?”

What happens in the Devil. Here a person meets their shadow. It could be addictions, attachments, fears, money, power, sexuality, control, jealousy, needing approval, the same old relationship patterns. And a really important point: the Devil doesn’t only show limits from outside. Often a person helps build their own cage. So the Devil’s main question is: “What do I call my lack of freedom, while I keep holding on to it myself?” At the same time, the Devil isn’t necessarily about something “bad.” He’s also about desire, pleasure, the material world, the body, life force. The question is whether a person runs it, or it runs them.

Where the Devil leads — to the Tower, card XVI. If a person has seen what’s holding them, the next stage is tearing down the structure that can’t stand up to the truth anymore. The Devil — “Here are your attachments”; the Tower — “And now what’s built around them starts to fall.”

And you get a very logical sequence:

• The Hanged Man — see it differently.
• Death — let go.
• Temperance — recover.
• The Devil — see what’s still holding you.
• The Tower — tear down what can’t stand anymore.

The section above is the shadow side of the upright card — every card has one. I don’t read cards upside down — here is why.