His clawed feet warn us that if you stick to your chosen way all along, perhaps you will find that you are already in the hands of the Devil. We make the decisions, but we have to accept the consequences too!
The Devil says that if we go too far, in the end, only the things that cause profit for us will motivate us. We will be egoists, we will succumb to our baser desires and our lives will be all about chasing physical pleasures and material goods. On the card we see a naked man and a naked woman, but both the goat's horns and the beard are a reference to sexuality and – as with the ‘old goat’ - an obsession with sex.
Notice the similarity between the Devil and the Lovers card! Each man has a good and a bad side, thus the concept of the Devil is universal, because it can be found in all of us. There is no religion which has managed to get rid of him because we as humans are our own enemies. We reject, deny, refute and we make every effort to ensure that we can still look into our own eyes at the end of the day. That is why we hate this archetypal figure so much, he who looks back at us frankly from his altar on the card.
The chain which binds the woman and the man to the throne is loose since there is a choice. We are the ones that decided to camp next to it so in the end we got it. If, however, we accept the consequences of our actions we will get freedom eventually and be released from evil slavery. If the Devil tightens the chain we get a critical situation and we feel cheated and trapped. Frustrations, barriers, obstacles and fears and bad experiences await us, and there will be suppressed negative energy in us.
Get rid of everything that holds us back and is self-destructive! Instead, let's face our negative characteristics honestly and recognise their harmful effects!