When the cards don't like your boyfriend

Had a regular and she came for 3 readings over 3 years and drew the same Devil card around her boyfriend,  who really wasn't very nice to her.  We had long discussions about it,  but the Devil has his charms and she stuck with it.

In our last reading,  she came and finally,  they were having a break.  So maybe,  finally she was over Daniel (not his real name) whom the cards never liked.

But what I find interesting is that she came to me and the cards had been shuffled by hundreds of people between readings,  or even a new deck had been introduced,  and she still drew the Devil card around him.  That's what convinces me that the tarot is real. 

Nowadays you are using your own deck*,  so I do recommend very thorough shuffling between readings,  to keep the energy clean.

* The way I read the cards,  the magic is in the shuffling.  So even when I do readings on line,  I need you to shuffle the cards.   I then talk you through the initial layout (Celtic cross,  pictured above) and we do the reading.  Without you doing the physical shuffling,  all I get is mud.  But with you shuffling,  I can read for you  no matter where you are in the world. 

Just Give me a Sign

Poor woman.  She came to me for a reading,  and the cards just hated the man she had recently started dating exclusively.  She drew The Devil,  Judgment reversed,  10 of swords. 

So we spoke for a long time about him and her feelings and how she wants it to work.  The cards were really clear,  and they did not see it working. 

And just before we ended,  she said to me that her friends don't like him and her therapist doesn't like him but she wanted to speak to a psychic,  and now I didn't like him (I don't know him! I just told her what the cards told me.)  She feels we are all being unsupportive and she is going to keep seeing him,  anyways. 

I felt like I was watching Steve Martin,  the The Man with Two Brains

She's getting all the signs,  she just doesn't want to hear them! I finally told her to come back in 6 months,  and we'll see where she is from there.  I know she is going to be disappointed in him,  but me knowing,  and her believing are two different things... 

Looking at the Devil card again

In the Rider Waite version the devil card just looks scary, but it also looks alien. Who here sincerely worries about the devil? I explain that the devil is the repetitive bad patterns, addictive habits that lead us astray, taking us away from where we want to go.

And who understands the true work of the devil better than the housewife’s tarot – that chocolate cake, tempting us to gluttony, sloth and short term gratification, bringing out all our bad habits and vices.  So clear and easy to understand,  I just love it! 

The Devil you know...

The devil, well he’s just so.. demonic in the Rider Waite card. All chains and misery. And that hand up, almost like stop sign.



I like the big bad wolf better, you can see the seductive element of the devil more clearly in that notion. When we meet the Devil our quest for excitment and adventure is leading us into the woods. We are putting ourselves in situations where we will be vulnerable to wolves, who do not have our best interests at heart...

More traditionally - our desire for physical and material things is out of balance, we hoard rather than rejoice, spend our energy collecting more things, rather than dealing with feelings. We long for material security rather than creative or spiritual fulfillment.



In this card, a woman is surrounded by addictions. The devil is about temptation, ambition run amuck, addictions over taking us…

One thing that the Tarot does emphasis is that all chains are of our own making. If we feel yoked to a way of life – too much materialism, too much competitiveness, then we can break those chains simply by becoming aware of them. Then again, if we refuse all joy, want everything extremely ordered and controlled, the devil card can be a message about breaking loose, letting go. It’s a very masculine energy, thrusting forward, fulfilling its needs. But, as the song says, the devil takes his dues, so beware of the costs, you may not want to pay them further down the line…