The Devil (Reversed): Not as scary as it sounds.

If you read my last post, you know I pulled the Father of Wands reversed—guidance from my maternal line, asking me to reimagine how I lead and how I trust.But the second card I pulled? That’s the one that cracked me open.

The Devil. Reversed.Yes, I know. That word alone makes people flinch. Our culture—especially in its more cult-like tendencies—has trained us to associate “the devil” with shame, punishment, and everything we’re told to avoid.

But this card isn’t about hellfire.It’s about shadow.About attachment.About addiction, fear, secrecy, fantasy, and the quiet constraints we place on ourselves.About the parts of us we hide—and the power we unlock when we stop running from them.

The Devil card shows Baphomet, the Horned Goat of Mendes—a figure that once symbolized balance: masculine and feminine, light and dark, human and beast. Over time, society distorted its meaning. But originally, this card wasn’t evil. It was honest.

And honesty is exactly what this card called me into.

For me, it represents the dark corners I don’t like to visit. The thoughts I don’t say out loud. The behaviors I excuse, the shame I carry, the habits I pretend don’t control me. I’m not proud of those parts of myself—but I’ve never fully rejected them either. I just… hid them. Quietly. Elegantly. Like many high-functioning people do.

But I’m on the verge of something. I can feel it.A breakthrough.An up-leveling.A new version of me that wants to emerge—but can’t until I make peace with the shadows I’ve kept locked away.

And I’m seeing it happen in the smallest ways.

Like the custom closet I bought. I spent two months looking for someone to install it because I didn’t believe I could do it myself. It felt too big. Too overwhelming. Too advanced. But one day I said, “F**k it.” I researched, I focused, I took my time… and I did it. Alone. And it felt so good—not just because the closet is beautiful, but because I shattered a limiting belief I had quietly lived under for years: that I’m not capable of certain things. That lie? Dead now.

The Devil reversed also calls us to forgive ourselves—for our thoughts, our shame, our habits. To accept the whole self, not just the curated one. I know I’m carrying guilt for the parts of me I don’t let people see. And I know that holding onto secrets only tightens the chains.But I want to feel free. I want to share my darker self with at least one trusted soul. I want release.

This card ends with a powerful invitation: Practice detachment. Not coldness. Not avoidance. But the Buddhist kind—letting go of what you cling to, so you can be whole, not just perform "okayness."

So here I am, not performing.Just reflecting.And offering you the reminder I needed myself:

Your shadows are not the enemy. They are the path to your freedom.They are asking to be seen, so you can finally let go.

—Jessica Nichole, PhD