From The Devil to The Star: A Journey from Capricorn Season through Aquarius Season

Sarah Andrae • February 6, 2023

When we stand at the foot of Saturn's gate, The Devil card asks "What binds you?" and "What are you going to do about it?" We all live in the physical world, and none of us are exempt from the spoils of "too much of a good thing." On our journey to The Star card, The Devil present us with two paths; free ourselves from The Tower or be thrust from it unwillingly. Let's talk about the price we pay for peace, sympathy for The Devil, and the strength inside of The Star.

Capricorn season spans from December 22nd to January 20th of the Gregorian calendar each year and finds its home in The Devil card (#15, major arcana.) Ruled by the planet Saturn, the planet of boundaries and responsibility, we can personify these correspondences as the gatekeeper between the worlds who grants us entry into the new year. In The Devil card in the RWS deck, we see a figure with bat wings and the horns of a goat perched on a stone slab where two prisoners stand chained. He raises his right hand to reveal the glyph of the planet Saturn, reminding us that we are limited by the physical nature of our existence. His left hand holds a torch downward illuminating only the ground on which the captives stand, limiting their view of all but what binds them. The two prisoners share a resemblance to the figures in The Lovers card (#6, major arcana) and The Lovers corresponds to The Devil via numerological reduction (The Devil = #15, 1+5=6, #6 being The Lovers.) Instead of standing naked on fertile land beneath the archangel Raphael, our lovers stand bound to the slab on which our devil (sometimes interpreted as the archangel Uriel) is perched. Uriel is the archangel of the north and the element of earth; much like our corresponding cardinal sign Capricorn. 


Though The Devil’s appearance in a reading often strikes the querent with dread, we can contextualize the universal nature of this card’s energy by observing the theme present throughout Capricorn season each year. It begins during a time of heightened consumption as folks around the globe engage in traditions of gift giving, feasting, and imbibing. These rites of hedonism often come to a head on January 31st as followers of the Gregorian calendar who partake in New Year’s Eve celebrations engage in a final night of ecstatic indulgence. When awaking on New Year's Day we will be met with any number of emotions. Some are rattled with existential guilt and driven to set lofty wellness goals as penance for the indulgences had over the precluding weeks. Some will feel moved to keep the party going. My home-city of Philadelphia for example celebrates New Year’s Day with an even bigger daytime blowout than the prior evening. Some will take pensive reflection and execute manageable and measurable changes. And, some will awake with a feeling of apathy for the passing days and a sensation that it’s all the same anyway. All of these responses, free of our own external judgements of the approaches taken, are of The Devil card’s realm. 


The vices that we engage with, like all forces in the natural world, are inherently neutral. Alcohol, rich food, and comfort mechanisms of all forms are not evil, dirty, bad, or morally reprehensible. However, as earth-bound beings of the physical realm we can find ourselves limited by our subjective experiences with any or all of these morally neutral temptations. The goal of the planet Saturn, who rules The Devil card’s dominion, has everything to do with learning from the boundaries we come up against in the physical world. These boundaries can look like the drink that takes us from a moment of revelry into a state of sickness or embarrassment. It can look like the moment that a bowl of your favorite snacks becomes a family-sized portion, leaving you nauseous and fatigued. It can also look like the moment your crush becomes an idol of your obsession. The Devil asks “Can you engage in this physical experience without allowing it to consume you? Can you invite this morally neutral being of the physical plane in without allowing it to take over?” and ultimately it asks us to name, in our own words, “What binds you?”



In the major arcana, The Devil (#15)  is followed by The Tower card (#16.) The Tower is the card of Mars, often signifying upheaval and disaster in the realm of what we refuse to release. In the zodiac however, Capricorn’s Devil is preceded by The Star, corresponding with the sign of Aquarius (January 21st-February 18th) and its ruling planet Uranus. The Star depicts a singular, naked figure knelt down with one foot in a cool lake beneath a sky of eight-pointed stars. The eight points of each star introduce a correspondence with The Strength card (number 8, major arcana) reminding us that soft resilience is essential on the road to grace. The person holds a pitcher in each hand, pouring water into the lake with one and onto the earth with the other. The Star shares a message of peace, rejuvenation, and the calm that follows chaos. The two pitchers of water are reminiscent of the Temperance card, but instead of transferring water from one cup to the other, the contents of each vessel are being equally distributed back to the land and the water. This symbolic redistribution of resources is highly representative of Aquarius’ energetic signature. An ibis bird (synonymous with Thoth the Egyptian god of magic, the moon, knowledge, and wisdom) perches in a tree in the distance like a teacher watching over a student as they review all that they have learned. It is, hands down, one of the most universally beloved tarot cards for many of us to see in a reading.


Our yearly journey from Capricorn season through Aquarius season provides us with an annual opportunity to observe The Towers we are building in our lives before they are struck down for us. The Devil card, the planet Saturn, and the sign of Capricorn are some of the most potent allies available to us. They are the teacher who shows up on time every day to provide their students with structure. They do not award homework passes or grade on a curve, but they will allow for extra credit. The Devil holds a torch to your chains, not to taunt you, but to remind you that they can be removed. The Star is the deep breath of crisp evening air that fills our lungs on the lawn of our crumbling Tower where we redistribute our once hoarded energy into the eternal return of life. We may think of this span of solar seasons each year as a dress rehearsal for breaking cycles of vice and materialism with agency, freeing ourselves from illusions of greed. When we refuse to see what binds us, the chains grow shorter, heavier, and tighter. The Tower of false-security grows taller. The designated exits begin to disappear from view. When The Tower is struck, it all comes tumbling down without our permission or agency. It is like a reset button akin to demolition, where the rot has become too deep for excavation and complete  foundational restructuring is now called for. 


This yearly evaluation reminds us that there are two gates that can lead us into The Star. The Devil gives us an opportunity to pay the price of our peace by releasing what is metaphorically weighing us down. So often The Devil is interpreted as the villain in this image, but I believe that this misunderstood archetype is putting himself at risk to bring light and awareness to these Lovers so that they may liberate themselves before The Tower falls around them. In Death (13, Scorpio) we composted what was no longer viable. In Temperance (14, Sagittarius) we learned how to channel that compost into creativity through balance. Now, any decay first missed by Death’s scythe comes up for re-review beneath The Devil’s (15, Capricorn) illuminating torch. It is also worth noting that the biblical name for the devil as we know it, is Lucifer. Lucifer is Latin for “light-bringer” and it has been debated by scholars as to whether God or Lucifer is the true hero of Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. The Devil card doesn’t remove our self limiting behaviors, it holds a light to them and offers us a choice. Destroy what binds you, or risk being destroyed by it. It encourages us to call on the lessons of Death and Temperance, utilizing the skills acquired in them to release what no longer serves us and channel it into something generative. All that we attempt to conceal in our pockets in fear will either be stripped from us in our fall from The Tower, or be shed willingly like heavy armor as we run toward the waters of The Star card with open arms. My wish for you is an eight pointed star; a point for courage, grace, humility, faith, compassion, life, death, and rebirth. May its light radiate through even the darkest hallways in The Devil’s Tower, like a lighthouse calling you back home to yourself. 


Cheers,

Sarah


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