Devil as Feelings in Love & Relationships (Upright & Reversed)

When the Devil turns up as someone’s feelings, it means they are hooked on you. They feel a strong physical pull they can’t easily walk away from, and it often comes with jealousy, possessiveness or a need to control. Reversed, that hold is loosening: they are questioning the attraction, pulling back or trying to break a pattern they know is unhealthy.

Interpretations follow the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, with the Golden Dawn attributions that deck was built on.

The quick answer: Devil as feelings, upright vs reversed

Upright, the Devil describes craving more than affection. The person thinks about you more than they want to admit. They want your time, your body and your attention, and they get sharp or sulky when they don’t get them. Tender, secure love is not what this card shows. Desire, fixation and attachment are.

Reversed, the person has noticed the hook. They might be cooling off, confused, ashamed of how they acted, or deliberately stepping out of a dynamic that had a grip on them.

Situation	Devil upright as their feelings	Devil reversed as their feelings
A crush	Strong physical attraction and fixation, not necessarily a wish for a relationship	Attraction cooling, or they’re fighting it
Someone new	Fast, intense chemistry; possible love-bombing	Stepping back to see if there’s anything under the chemistry
A partner	Bound by need, habit, sex or fear of leaving; jealousy is common	Noticing the pattern; wants space, change or an exit
An ex	Compulsive pull, late-night contact, little accountability	Detaching, ending the cycle, going quiet
A friend	Dependency, a shared vice or hidden jealousy	The friendship rebalancing, or fading out

What Pamela Colman Smith drew, and what Waite wrote

To read the Devil well, start with the picture. Pamela Colman Smith drew card XV for the deck Rider & Son published in 1909. A. E. Waite then described it in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. Almost every detail on the card bears on how someone feels.

The horned figure on the altar

Waite calls the central figure “the Horned Goat of Mendes”, with bat’s wings, standing on an altar. Smith drew it on a dark block. The figure echoes the Baphomet that the French occultist Éliphas Lévi made famous in the 1850s.

In a love reading, this figure is the appetite itself, not one of the people involved. Nobody in your reading is “the devil”. The card shows what happens when desire runs the relationship instead of the two people in it.

The inverted pentagram and the sign of Mercury

Waite notes a reversed pentagram on the figure’s forehead and the sign of Mercury at the pit of its stomach. An upright pentagram stands for spirit ruling the four elements. Turned upside down, matter rules spirit.

For feelings, this is the clearest symbol on the card. Body and ego are in charge, and judgment has gone quiet. The Mercury sign in the gut adds a sharper point: the thinking happens on instinct and appetite, which is why people under the Devil’s spell rationalise so well.

The reversed blessing and the downturned torch

Waite describes the raised right hand as “the reverse” of the benediction given by the Hierophant in card V. It looks like a blessing but means the opposite. In the left hand, a great flaming torch points down toward the earth, toward the man’s tail.

Put that into a relationship and you get passion aimed at the wrong target. There’s plenty of heat but no direction, and the energy goes into stoking the fire instead of building anything.

The chained couple and their loose collars

Below the figure, a naked man and woman stand chained by the neck to a ring on the altar. Waite compares them to “Adam and Eve after the Fall”, which ties them to the couple on the Lovers. Both have grown small horns and tails. The woman’s tail ends in grapes and the man’s in a flame. In Waite’s words, the tails “signify the animal nature”, but “there is human intelligence in the faces”.

Modern readers point out that Smith drew the collars loose enough to lift off. Waite says something close: the figure above them “is not to be their master for ever”. That’s the core of the Devil as feelings. The attachment feels inescapable from the inside, but the person keeps choosing it, day after day.

Waite’s own divinatory meanings

Waite’s keywords for the upright Devil are harsher than most modern love guides: “Ravage, violence, vehemence, extraordinary efforts, force, fatality; that which is predestined but is not for this reason evil.” Reversed, he gives “Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness, blindness.”

Two things follow for love readings. First, “vehemence” and “extraordinary efforts” fit someone who pursues you hard and can’t let go. Second, Waite says the fated quality is “not for this reason evil”. An intense, almost fated attraction is not automatically abuse. The surrounding cards and the person’s behaviour tell you which version you’re dealing with.

Golden Dawn correspondences and what they add

In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s system, which the Rider-Waite-Smith deck follows, the Devil belongs to Capricorn and the Hebrew letter Ayin.

Correspondence	Attribution	What it adds to a love reading
Number	XV	Fifteen reduces to six in numerology, so modern readers pair it with the Lovers (VI) as its shadow
Hebrew letter	Ayin, meaning “eye”	Attraction that starts with looking: appearance, image, what someone sees in you
Path on the Tree of Life	26th path, Tiphareth to Hod	The heart’s energy running into the calculating mind; feelings that get rationalised
Zodiac sign	Capricorn (cardinal earth)	Ambition, endurance, status; bonds kept for security
Ruling planet	Saturn	Obligation, contracts, consequences; staying because leaving would cost too much
Exalted planet	Mars	Drive and sexual heat held under pressure
Esoteric title	Lord of the Gates of Matter, Child of the Forces of Time	The pull of the physical world and of time spent together
Book T keywords	Materiality, material force, material temptation, sometimes obsession	The Golden Dawn’s own notes link obsession to this card, especially next to the Lovers

Saturn deserves more attention than it usually gets. When the Devil shows someone’s feelings, ask whether they stay because they want to, or because leaving would cost them: a shared flat, money, social standing, a routine they’re afraid to lose. Capricorn’s earth explains why the attraction is so physical. Mars, exalted in that sign, explains why it can burn for a long time without cooling.

Devil upright as feelings: six shapes the pull takes

The upright Devil covers a range from harmless lust to coercive control. Which one you’re looking at depends on the person’s behaviour and the cards around it.

1. Magnetic chemistry. Sometimes this is the whole story: two people who can’t keep their hands off each other, with no harm involved. Next to the Two of Cups, it’s usually mutual.
2. Obsession. They think about you constantly, check your profiles and replay conversations. Their attention has crossed from interest into compulsion, and they may not like how much they think about you.
3. Possessiveness and jealousy. They feel you belong to them and read neutral behaviour as a threat. Early on it can sound flattering (“I can’t stand the thought of anyone else with you”). It’s the collar being fitted.
4. Conquest. The feeling is a hunt. Once they “win” you, interest can drop sharply, because the card is about wanting, not having.
5. Control. They want a say in what you wear, who you see, how you spend and how fast you reply. It often hides behind concern, the same way the raised hand imitates a blessing.
6. Manipulation and love-bombing. The Devil is the card of the bargain. Watch for affection used strategically: a flood of attention early on, then warmth withdrawn when you don’t comply. The lines to listen for are “after everything I’ve done for you” and “I don’t know what I’d do without you”.

The quickest way to tell these apart is to look at what happens when you say no. Chemistry survives a no. Control escalates.

Devil as feelings in each relationship situation

The meaning moves along a scale depending on who you’re asking about: lust with someone new, entanglement with a partner, unfinished craving with an ex.

A crush who hasn’t made a move

If you ask how a crush feels and get the upright Devil, they notice you physically and probably think about you more than they let on. It doesn’t promise they want a relationship. They may be fighting the attraction because it doesn’t fit their plans, their image or their current situation (Saturn again).

If they’re already involved with someone else, the Devil often describes a forbidden pull they won’t act on cleanly. Reversed, the crush is cooling or deliberately keeping away from you.

Someone new you’re dating

Here the person is intensely attracted to you and thinks of you sexually more than as a partner. They want to see you, but often on their schedule.

Red flags at this stage:

• pushing for intimacy faster than you’re comfortable with
• big declarations within days
• irritation when you have plans that don’t include them
• interest in when you’re free, but little interest in your actual life

More reassuring signs are mutual chemistry, an easily accepted no, and steadier cards nearby such as the Four of Wands, Temperance or the Ten of Pentacles. Even then, the foundation is desire, so build friendship and trust deliberately.

A long-term partner

With a partner, the card shifts from lust to entanglement. They feel bound to you, and “bound” is the key word. They might stay out of fear, habit, money or a belief that nobody else would put up with them. Jealousy that used to be occasional has become constant.

It can also show a partner whose attention is chained somewhere else: drinking, gambling, porn, overwork. In that case the card isn’t really about you. You’re standing next to the altar, not on it.

One more common version: the sexual bond is still strong while everything else has gone stale. Couples who fight constantly and make up in bed pull this card often.

An ex

Upright, your ex isn’t over you, but probably not in the way you’d hope. They feel a compulsive pull, often strongest late at night or after a drink, and may reach out in bursts. The pull is toward the parts of the relationship that felt good, not toward fixing what ended it.

The surrounding cards matter most here. The Six of Cups beside the Devil shows real nostalgia and unfinished business. The Seven of Swords or Five of Pentacles shows someone who wants comfort and access without accountability. Expect a “you up?” text, not an apology.

Reversed, your ex is detaching. They’re questioning why they were so drawn to you, or deliberately breaking the habit of getting in touch.

A friend

The Devil rarely means a friend secretly wants you, though a supporting spread can say so. More often it shows a friendship built on a shared vice or a dependency. That might be the friend you only see when drinking, the one who needs rescuing every week, or the one who goes cold when you spend time with other people.

It can also point to hidden competitiveness: a friend who keeps you close because you make them feel superior. If you leave their company drained and slightly guilty, that fits the Devil.

Your own feelings

There are two chained figures on the card. Asked about “their” feelings, the Devil can still be describing yours. If you keep checking someone’s profile, rehearsing arguments or going back after promising yourself you wouldn’t, the card is holding up a mirror.

Devil reversed as feelings: what changes

Reversed, the Devil doesn’t simply mean “freedom”. It marks the moment someone notices the chain, and people react to that moment in very different ways.

They’re questioning the attraction

They liked you intensely and now they’re asking themselves why. The heat is turning into puzzlement. That’s not the same as losing interest. They’re checking whether there’s anything under the chemistry. Give them room. Pushing for reassurance confirms their fear that the connection was only ever a hook.

Mixed feelings and mixed signals

They’re torn between wanting you and wanting out, and the mixed signals reflect what’s going on inside them. With the Two of Swords or Seven of Cups nearby, expect the indecision to drag on.

Self-sabotage

Some people pull away because the feeling scares them, not because it’s gone. They’re used to bonds that hurt and don’t trust one that doesn’t. The reversed Devil beside the Five of Cups or Nine of Swords describes someone who ruins good things out of habit.

Waking up from manipulation

If you were the one being manipulated, this is the morning after the spell breaks. Suddenly you can see the guilt trips, the hot and cold, the way you shrank to fit. Read for the other person, it can mean they’ve realised they were controlling and are backing off in shame. It can also mean they’ve simply lost their grip and are rethinking their approach.

They’re reclaiming their own life

The most hopeful version: the person has lifted the chain off their own neck. They’re choosing sobriety, therapy, boundaries or distance. If that’s your partner, expect them to be less available for a while, and expect the relationship to change shape.

For singles

For a single person, the reversed Devil says your taste is changing. The type that used to excite you now looks like hard work you don’t want. That’s your standards catching up with your self-respect, and it often follows a stretch of no contact with an ex.

How neighbouring cards change the Devil

The cards around the Devil decide whether you’re reading heat or harm. These are the pairings that come up most in love spreads, read in the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition.

Devil with…	What it says about their feelings
The Lovers	The obsession pairing named in the Golden Dawn’s Book T: a choice of partner driven by temptation, or two people bound by attraction they can’t resist
Two of Cups	Mutual, intense chemistry that’s real but needs structure
Ace of Cups	New feelings that are already tangled up with desire or dependency
Knight of Cups	A charming pursuer whose romance is partly bait; check what they want in return
Six of Cups	Nostalgia for an ex; old patterns pulling both of you back
Seven of Swords	Secrecy or a hidden agenda; possibly an affair
Three of Swords	Heartbreak tied to an affair, an addiction or a painful bond you keep going back to
Four of Pentacles	Possessiveness: they hold on to you like property
Eight of Swords	You both feel trapped; the fear is mental as well as physical
the Moon	Illusion and secrets; feelings you can’t see clearly, with deception likely
The Tower	The pattern is about to break suddenly, often through something coming out
Strength	Desire brought under control; a hopeful sign that the bond can mature
Temperance	A chance to balance passion with patience
the Sun	Open, joyful attraction; the heat is mostly harmless and honest
Judgement	A reckoning: one or both of you is ready to face the pattern honestly
Ten of Pentacles	A committed bond with a strong physical or material base; check for staying for security

Devil as intentions, how they see you, and outcomes

As intentions

Feelings and intentions are different questions. As intentions, the upright Devil means the person wants something specific and will use charm, pressure or guilt to get it. Usually that’s sex. Sometimes it’s money, attention or a sense of power. It doesn’t make them wicked, but their agenda is their satisfaction, not your wellbeing.

Reversed, they’re dropping a plan they had, or their motive is shifting from wanting to take to wanting to leave.

As how they see you

Upright, they see you as irresistible, and also as something to have. You stand for temptation, pleasure or status in their eyes, which links back to Ayin, the “eye”. Reversed, they see you more realistically, and may now see you as a lesson or a habit they’re trying to quit.

As the outcome of a relationship

In an outcome position, the upright Devil says the relationship will either stay stuck in its current pattern or deepen into something more consuming. If the pattern is fun and mutual, expect the same intensity without much movement toward commitment. If it’s controlling, expect it to tighten.

Reversed, the bond breaks or changes. One of you steps out of the chains. That can mean a breakup, or a relationship that survives because the unhealthy dynamic finally gets named and dealt with.

Is the Devil a yes or no in love?

Upright, it’s a no. It says compulsion, imbalance or someone’s agenda is driving things, not mutual care. “Does he love me?” gets a no with a footnote: he wants you. “Will we get back together?” gets a no with a footnote: you may end up in bed anyway.

Reversed, it’s a cautious yes for questions about leaving, healing or breaking a pattern. For “will this work out?”, it’s a maybe that depends on whether both of you do the work the card describes.

The Devil compared with similar cards

Several cards share themes with the Devil. The table shows where they differ.

Card	Shared theme	Key difference
The Lovers (VI)	A couple with a figure above them	An angel blesses a free choice under an open sky; the Devil shows the same pair chained in the dark
The Tower (XVI)	Uncomfortable truth	The Tower is the sudden collapse that follows the Devil’s slow entanglement
Strength (VIII)	Dealing with a beast	A woman calmly closes a lion’s jaws: desire mastered, where in the Devil desire is in charge
Eight of Swords	Feeling trapped	The bonds are mental (fear, overthinking); the Devil’s are physical and habitual
Two of Cups	Mutual feeling	Affection offered openly and equally, without the hook

What to do after pulling the Devil in a love reading

The card isn’t a verdict. It’s a prompt to look at the chain and see how loose it really is. These steps turn the reading into a decision.

Name the hook

Finish the sentence “I keep going back because…” honestly. “Because the sex is great”, “because I’m scared of being alone” and “because they need me” are all Devil answers. Naming the hook is how it starts to loosen.

Test the loose chain

Pick one small thing you’ve been avoiding because you fear their reaction: a night out with friends, leaving a message unanswered for a few hours, a clear “no”. Someone with healthy feelings adjusts. Someone with Devil feelings escalates. You’ll usually know within a week.

Set one boundary and keep it

One boundary, not five. “I won’t discuss our relationship after midnight” or “I don’t share my location” both work. The Devil feeds on vague boundaries, and specific ones starve it.

Check your own tail

Before deciding the other person is the problem, ask where you’re being possessive, jealous or manipulative yourself. Most Devil relationships have two people in them.

Try a three-card spread for the Devil in love

Lay three cards left to right:

1. What binds us: the real reason the connection keeps going.
2. What it costs me: the price you’re paying, which is often invisible from the inside.
3. The loose link: the one action that would free you or change the bond.

Treat the third card as an instruction, not a prediction. If the Devil comes up again in position three, you aren’t ready to act yet, and that’s useful to know too.

Ask yourself these questions

• When I picture this person happy without me, what do I feel first: relief, panic or anger?
• Have I told anyone the full truth about how this relationship works?
• What would I tell a friend in my exact position?
• What have I stopped doing since this person came into my life?

When it’s more than a card

If the upright Devil matches what’s happening in real life, such as tracking your location, controlling your money, cutting you off from friends or threatening you, treat it as a safety issue, not a reading. In the US, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is free and confidential at 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788. You can call even if you’re not sure whether what’s happening counts as abuse.

FAQ

What does the Devil card mean as feelings for someone?

Upright, the person feels an intense, compulsive attraction to you that comes from desire, need or a wish to possess you, not from gentle love. They think about you a lot and find it hard to pull away. Reversed, they’re questioning the attraction or trying to break an unhealthy pattern.

Does the Devil card mean they’re obsessed with me?

Often, yes. The Golden Dawn’s Book T lists “sometimes obsession” among the card’s meanings, especially next to the Lovers. In practice it shows someone who can’t stop thinking about you, checks up on you or needs your attention. Whether that’s flattering or worrying depends on how they behave when you set a limit.

What does the Devil reversed mean for an ex’s feelings?

Your ex is loosening their grip, either by asking why they were so drawn to you or by deliberately breaking the habit of getting in touch. It can also mean they’ve realised the dynamic was unhealthy. Getting back together is unlikely unless the pattern changes, not just the feelings.

Is the Devil card a yes or no in love?

Upright, it’s a no: the situation runs on lust, control or dependency rather than mutual care. Reversed, it’s a cautious yes for questions about leaving, healing or breaking free, and a maybe for whether a relationship can be saved.

Does the Devil card mean someone is lying or cheating?

Not on its own. The Devil shows pressure, temptation and hidden agendas more than outright lies. Next to the Seven of Swords or the Magician reversed, deception becomes a strong possibility. With the Three of Swords, an affair is a common reading.

Can the Devil card be positive in a love reading?

Sometimes. Waite himself called the card’s fated quality “not for this reason evil”. Next to the Two of Cups, Temperance or the Ten of Pentacles, it can describe strong mutual chemistry and two people who accept each other’s flaws. Even then, build friendship and trust alongside the physical bond.

What zodiac sign is the Devil card?

Capricorn, a cardinal earth sign ruled by Saturn, with Mars exalted there. The Golden Dawn also gives the card the Hebrew letter Ayin, meaning “eye”. Together these explain why Devil attachments are so physical, so persistent and so often kept going out of fear of what leaving would cost.