Rider Waite Tarot Deck Devil Card

teddybear123

The upside down torch IMO represents light intentionally miss placed. In the raider deck, The Devil and the couple is in a dark room. Your perception of what is in the dark room is based on what you can see.

The torch held by the devil shines from below symbolically to show your pursuit of enlightenment, your perception of what is holy and valuable is an illusion set by the devil.

Thus, The devil is associated with materialistic desires and attachments of our world. The need to possess and own, the act of being territorial is what animals do. This includes us as well. It is not spiritual in any sense.
 

Richard

I know this may be difficult to answer for some people because they may not have the same deck, but for the devil card what is that thing that the devil is holding on his left hand?

As others have said, it is a torch. As a phallic symbol, the flames could represent ejaculation, among other things. It is not an evil card, and, as P. F. Case notes, there is an element of humor here. It is a parody of immersion in materialism. We may think we are trapped in the world of materialistic values, thrown into this situation without having a choice (as the existentialists put it). However, the message of the card is that this bondage is illusory. The chains can easily be removed: Just reach up and pull them off. If we don't liberate ourselves, it's because we don't want to be liberated.
 

Teheuti

The torch can represent whatever you want it to represent.

A separate question is what did Waite intend by the image? He followed the GD and used a close cognate of the image by Eliphas Lévi (only the torch is placed differently in the two pictures). It is worth reading relevant sections of Lévi if you seriously want to know what Waite and the GD were referencing. If you want to devise your own meaning - then go ahead.