The Devil sits on a half stone cube. He holds up his right hand and in his left hand he holds a burning torch. This is pointed downward.
Chained to his base are a man and a woman. They are naked and have horns and tails.
The Devil has horns and an inverted pentagram on his head. He also has the wings of a bat (a night animal and leech). The background of this card is all black.

On card 6, The Lovers, man faced a decisive choice. The Devil can be seen as a direct result of this choice.
By this is meant, that a decision was made, entirely focused on the self interest.
Furthermore, the Devil stands for all I-directed action, from the lower self, the instinctive in man. This is expressed by the tails and horns. As soon as man no longer masters his lower instincts, among other things the desire for power, money, sex, then he is no longer free. He becomes chained to matter.

The Devil stands for absence. Absence of harmony, love and unity. He is the man bound to matter, who judges only by the outside, who has no insight into the real values, nor into spiritual matters.

He holds the torch down. With this he indicates that for him the real world is only the visible, the material.
The inverted pentagram symbolizes the inversion of the real values. Thus he is also the inverse of the light.
The black background indicates absence of light, no insight.
The sign in his right hand is the Saturn sign, which represents man's limitations and weaknesses.

The half, stone cube symbolizes the world of appearances, matter. Matter, however, is only half truth, half knowing.
The people chained to the pedestal refer to the bond with matter. The fact that the chains have been placed loosely around the neck means that man can free himself.

The Devil symbolizes absence of light, a distortion of reality. He represents the lower aspects of the personality.

The Devil is the dark counterpart of a large number of Tarot cards:
- opposite The Magician (1) he is the black magician;
- he forms part of the dark side of The High Priestess (2);
- the hypocritical and materialistic opposite principle of The High Priestess (5);
- the side of The Beloved, which has deteriorated into power struggles or insensitive lust (6)
- the corrupt or self-righteous shadow side of The Justice (8);
- he embodies the unrestrained sigh of The Power (11);
- the immoderation as opposed to The Moderation, 'The Right Measure' (14) and
- is ruler of vast expanses of the Lunar Landscape (The Moon - 18).

OBSTACLES AND FEARS THAT, ONCE REMOVED, RELEASE POSITIVE ENERGY
Selfishness. Conceit. Injustice. Distortion of reality. Ignorance. Fear. Material or physical desires. Bondage.

You have been thinking very negatively lately, haven't you? Sometimes you can just be overwhelmed by the feeling that everything is going wrong for you. It seems like things can never go right. You do things that you don't really want to do. Against your will you have obligations that you would prefer to get out of. Bound to something that no longer fits you. All this makes you gloomy and often you see therefore life is not rosy. The need and not wanting to have to do something because it makes you feel bad. Also, this card can mean: you are full of obsession and addiction.

What do you think you are stuck with?
What do you think you cannot get out of or from?
Who or what do you think you are dependent on?
What do you want to renew?
What do you want to see/not see?
What needs do you experience as improper and/or impossible to meet?
What do you think you need to enforce?