Could The Devil rx = The Lovers ??

I've been reading threads on the Devil...one of my favourite cards..and I ran into an interpretation that states Devil is the Lovers' shadow...
If the Devil reversed is one coming out of an addiction and bondage, the lovers being the epitome of surmounting obstacles...what do you think???

hm not sure i understand what you mean but from experience when i got the devil reversed in a reading it signified me getting out of a codependent unhealthy relationship - i breathed a sigh of relief/freed myself and the other person from the obsessive, day in day out same sh*t type of thing - cut the bonds

if i'm reading you right it can mean letting go of the bad bits in a relationship and making way for the best of the lovers to thrive?

devil reversed = a good decision?

Wonderwoman said:

I've been reading threads on the Devil...one of my favourite cards..and I ran into an interpretation that states Devil is the Lovers' shadow...
If the Devil reversed is one coming out of an addiction and bondage, the lovers being the epitome of surmounting obstacles...what do you think???

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Devil RX can certainly indicate freedom from the addiction--or a near escape from being entrapped by the devil. And it's possible that this was achieved via love--that is, the addict fell in love with someone, or someone loved them enough to help them out of their addiction.

But keep in mind that the Devil on his throne with two "acolytes" also reflects the Hierophant. And so RX can indicate a person escaping addiction by taking on a strict moral code. Going from one extreme (the wild life) to the other (a rigid religious life).

Thirteen said:

Devil RX can certainly indicate freedom from the addiction--or a near escape from being entrapped by the devil. And it's possible that this was achieved via love--that is, the addict fell in love with someone, or someone loved them enough to help them out of their addiction.

But keep in mind that the Devil on his throne with two "acolytes" also reflects the Hierophant. And so RX can indicate a person escaping addiction by taking on a strict moral code. Going from one extreme (the wild life) to the other (a rigid religious life).

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Thirteen, this is really eye-opening, Could the devil reversed mean dodging the "wild life" bullet in search of the spirituality path? Like a party girl finds that her drinking habits are taking her further and further away from the happiness she thinks she finds in the "spirits" thus she turns around and finally realizes that the "spirits" were literally killing her spirit....

star-lover said:

if i'm reading you right it can mean letting go of the bad bits in a relationship and making way for the best of the lovers to thrive?

devil reversed = a good decision?

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Yeah, like a couple or a person that was totally in the dark just like its depicted in the card..chained perpetually to the bad habits...then something happens..and Wham...the picture turns clear just as the Lovers would...Maybe i'm being too literal???

Wonderwoman said:

Thirteen, this is really eye-opening, Could the devil reversed mean dodging the "wild life" bullet in search of the spirituality path?

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I think so. But I'd emphasize that the person turns to the spiritual life more out of fear of what they've just escaped than because of some higher calling. It isn't that the divine filled their spirit so much as that they saw the devil and ran.

Wonderwoman said:

Yeah, like a couple or a person that was totally in the dark just like its depicted in the card..chained perpetually to the bad habits...then something happens..and Wham...the picture turns clear just as the Lovers would...Maybe i'm being too literal???

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yes - it does seem like both cards are connected
the devil is 2 people in love but doing everything for all the wrong reasons together - both cards are about bonds - love is there but is tainted by many things - devil reversed frees them to enjoy the positive in the relationship/learn to relate better

Thirteen,

This is so insightful! And I can say from personal experience that it does happen just like you say.

And, thinking out loud here, I suppose that would imply the other direction as well? A strong, dogmatic, ridgid moral code actually maybe has as its shadow the Devil--even creates it. Like a "Don't think of a monkey" sort of thing. I know that when I was Catholic (strict, Tradtionalist sort of Catholic--went to confession every week, prayed Rosary every day, etc.) that I regulated my thoughts and actions and senses very carefully--or at least I tried. And as a result, I think that it more or less created an unhealthy relation to certain things that wasn't naturally part of my make up.

When I stopped worrying about those things (and stopped being Catholic) the whole situation changed and resolved itself on so many levels.

And the black mass and satan worship come to mind. Possibly a creation of the Church, indirectly at least? I'm also thinking of the famous witch hunters document, too, and some "Demonology".

Anyway, just some thinking out loud. Certainly, many many main-stream religious people avoid this, and are genuinely spiritual and healthy and leading wonderful lives directed towards the divine. No question. Which brings to mind one of the things I dislike about the Robin Wood Hierophant. She sees this card in a negative light and it shows. The Hierophant looks constipated, not wise. Oppresive, not beneficient. And so it can be, in a negative aspect, but there is also the positive. Which I also have first hand experience of, from being a Catholic. When I stopped being Catholic, and lost my daily practice, it was a lot like throwing the good out with the bad. I lost a lot for a time, until I found a new path.

OK. Cutting myself off now.

p.s. I love what you've written about the Tarot, Thirteen. Thank you so much for all that you have given us!!!

You're very welcome And please keep thinking out-loud.

cheekyinchworm said:

I suppose that would imply the other direction as well? A strong, dogmatic, ridgid moral code actually maybe has as its shadow the Devil--even creates it.

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This would be a good way to see the Hierophant RX, I think. Either the Hierophant at his most strict (religion putting chains on people rather than setting their spirits free of Earth to reach a higher plane), or a suggestion of what you mean here--strictness of religion prohibiting natural desires to the point where they are expressed in unhealthy ways. Because people are not allowed to engage in certain activities they become obsessed with then...

Or, in other words, like the Devil, they become chained to them. Sex for example, if seen as dirty and forbidden and to be hidden away, can beome a huge, all consuming thing, with people screaming and fainting if they catch sight of a woman's nipple on television.

See sex as natural, however, live in a nudist colony, and it becomes no big deal.

Seeing Clearly

Those who have been drawn to The Golden Dawn's
ritualistic magickal kabbalistic complete revision of
the order of all 22 Major Arcana cards see this as:

XV The Devil (Capricorn) opposite VII The Chariot (Cancer)

And those who believe that no kabbalah
or ritual magick is needed in Tarot see:

XV The Devil (Sagittarius) opposite VII The Chariot (Gemini)

The beauty of the easy approach is that we then have
the Lunar Nodes as our models for both of these cards,
which relieves us of there really being a "Devil" at all.