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Combinations · Rider–Waite–Smith Tarot
The Devil combinations
The Devil names an attachment, and the card beside it shows what that attachment is made of and how loose the collar is. Here is how card XV reads beside each of the other cards in the deck, upright and reversed.
Card meaning: The DevilCombinations are common patterns, not rules
The readings here describe how a pair most often reads. Check each one against two things before you apply it. The first is the question: the same pair says one thing about a relationship and another about a job offer, and the question decides which side of the pair matters. The second is the background, meaning what the querent already knows about the situation, the position each card holds in the spread, and the cards around the pair. When the question or the background points another way, go with them over the general reading. Each pair page lists the exceptions that come up most often.
Two small figures stand chained below a square black pedestal, and their collars are loose enough to lift off. That detail runs through every Devil pair. Upright, the Devil adds a hook to whatever sits beside it, and the partner shows what the hook is baited with. With The Lovers it is attraction tipping into obsession; with the Four of Pentacles, money and security held so tightly they confine; with The Hanged Man, a sacrifice made to the wrong master. No upright partner turns an upright Devil pair harmonious. The most it gets is mixed, where the partner brings what the querent needs to see the chain: Strength's self-mastery, the Queen of Swords' firm boundary, Judgment's wake-up call.
Two neighbours in the trump sequence show the two ways out. Temperance, just before it, is the antidote, loosening the collar slowly through boundaries and healing. The Tower, just after, breaks the chain for a querent who would not remove it, abruptly and painfully.
Reverse the Devil and the picture turns over. Liberation, awareness and self-determination replace the chain, and with an upright partner most pairs read as harmonious: the partner now shows what the freedom is for. The usual caution is relapse, an old habit returning in a new form.
The Devil beside other cards in a spread
Beside Major Arcana cards
Upright, the Devil gives each trump an appetite. The Magician's skill, The Emperor's ambition and The World's comfort all risk becoming the master; The Fool, The Hierophant and The Moon make the trap harder to see. Strength, Justice, The Sun and Judgment bring the light that exposes it. When the Devil is reversed, nearly every trump reads as harmonious, and the partner describes the life after the chain comes off.
Beside Wands
Earth and Fire are neutral, so each card keeps its full force, and the Wands bring speed and heat to the Devil's hold. The Eight accelerates attraction into fixation, the Knight acts on desire at full gallop, and the Seven, Nine and Ten defend or carry the thing that binds. The Ace, Three and Six are real starts and wins with a hunger in them that needs watching.
Beside Cups
Earth and Water are friendly, so the Cups feed the Devil's pull on feelings. A new love from the Ace or the Knight of Cups can turn into need; the Nine's wish comes true and the appetite grows with it. The Four, Five and Seven are the hard ones upright, numbing a flat routine, a loss soothed with a habit, a menu of options chosen by craving. With both cards reversed, those three read as harmonious, a release.
Beside Swords
Earth and Air are contrary, and with the Swords the Devil's hold works on the mind: secrets and schemes with the Seven, a fight for control with the Five, sleepless nights with the Nine, a trap the Eight cannot see out of. Half the upright Swords pairs read as challenging. The Queen and King of Swords are the help here, a clear eye and a reasoned look at the fine print of what binds.
Beside Pentacles
Both cards are Earth, so money, possessions and security dominate. The Four of Pentacles turns savings into the thing that holds the querent; the Ace offers good money on terms that may cost freedom; the Eight's work starts to own the worker's time. The Five is the bleakest upright, fear of lack keeping someone tied to what drains them. With the Devil reversed, the suit becomes security without the chain.
Beside court cards
Courts carry no number, so there is no quintessence, and the rank shows how the querent or another person handles the attachment. The Knight and King of Wands make it most dangerous upright, desire and authority serving appetite. The King of Cups and the Queen and King of Swords bring emotional control or a clear head that can help. With the Devil reversed, every court reads well; with the court reversed, none does.
Beside a card of the same number
No suit card reaches fifteen, so the same-number pair is the Devil doubled: one attachment gripping the querent from two sides, the collar no longer noticed. Fifteen reduces to six, the number of The Lovers, and the two cards answer each other in picture as well as number: the free couple of card VI returns in chains in card XV.
Beside reversed cards
Upright beside a reversed card, the Devil usually makes things worse, because the partner's weakness becomes the bait. Most of those pairs read as challenging. The exceptions are the heavy cards whose reversal is a release, such as the Four, Five and Seven of Cups, the Three, Eight and Nine of Swords and the Five of Pentacles, where the upright Devil leaves the pair mixed.
The Devil with every card
Each row gives the outlook in all four states, read from The Devil's side: The Devil first, then its partner.
Harmonious
Mixed
Challenging
↑ ↑
↑ ↓
↓ ↑
↓ ↓
Justice
An unhealthy attachment comes under scrutiny, and its true cost is weighed in plain figures.
The Sun
Daylight exposes the attachment, and honesty about it is the condition for the joy on offer.
Seven of Cups
Temptation looks like a menu of opportunities, and the querent is choosing by craving.
Seven of Pentacles
Long effort meets a strong hook, and staying begins to feel like the only option.
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