Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc
By Sarah Taylor
This is a reading about making a choice, and the consequences that come from that. There is a clear and logical progression, and although I tend not to approach three-card readings in terms of ‘past-present-future’, what is clear here is that the second and third cards stem from the first: they are contingent upon it.
The Devil represents a point of decision where that decision is not made entirely freely. The Devil comes into play when our decisions are driven by our imbalances, by the shadowy corners of our psyche, by desire that comes with a price attached to it. Perhaps all three of these are simply a different way of saying the same thing.
The number of (human) figures in each card moves from two, to one, to five. The Devil often speaks of a situation made in relationship to someone else, but it is also about the relationship that you have with yourself. As a result, something is coaxed out of the darkness so that it comes into the light of consciousness; and this experience is frequently a painful and uneasy one. Once the moment of The Devil has passed, we are then left to sit with the confusion and chaos. This process is one we do alone. When we are in despair, no-one is able to share that with us. We feel isolated and lost. The chains that once bound us to someone or something have morphed into the nine Swords that now weigh down on us from above, dominating our experience.