The Devil is the wild king of the autumnal equinox, when the light of the year is fading and the bounty of the harvest has come in. His are the unrestrained pleasures of life, when wine and beer are made and the people retreat from their outdoor life and return to the harvest home and the joy of the September bounty. The Emperor - who believes in the supreme authority of the ruler and the infallibility of his direction - now gives way to the Devil, who believes in anarchy and complete individual freedom. This is the contrast of the organized community work of the late winter and spring, ploughing and planting, and the chaos of the harvest festival, as the produce is brought inside and the kitchen is busy with the smells of food. The family now prepares to retreat to the inner life of the home and longer hours of darkness for the pleasures of the bed. The Devil's autumn world is one of amazing commotion, freedom and uninhibited sexuality in the concealment of autumn's shadows.

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Autumn is the season of harvest, and yet, as the bounty of produce is stored and processed, the darkness of the season increases and the cold creeps in. These are the natural processes that the Devil responds to; the extremes of the year are both represented in the fall: its joy and sorrow, strength and fear. The Devil symbolizes the attachment we have to the emotional experience of extremes. As a culture we are drawn to the darkest tales of human depravity for the emotional ride it gives us. We are also drawn to the storybook fairytale happy ending as the other extreme of this. The Devil is the fulfillment of our desires, the attachment we have to our lives, and the drowning in the pain and pleasure of the senses. He revels in the experience of drunkenness with the vine and the mushroom. He loves the sexual experience, and will be just as inquisitive there for it is his desire to experience the full range of human possibility.

In recent Christian times the experience of nature as primitive, sexual and dark was opposed to the creation of the pure idea world of God. The attachment to the pleasures of the body was a sin to be mortified and these sins were associated with The Devil, God's fallen angel who was opposed to Christ in every way. Christ is the Christian Emperor, the lawgiving king of the light half of the year; he represents the human world of mind. The Devil is the king of the growing darkness and the wild world of nature and the body. In ancient times the Devil would have been called Pan or Dionysus and his revels would have drawn hoards to enjoy the experiences of excess and the pleasures of the body.

The negative meanings of the Devil are obvious. The over attachment to intense experience can bring tragedy into your life as drug abuse, alcoholism and even more horrible criminal acts which hurt others. Anything that brings with it emotional ecstasy or its opposite is an experience of the Devil card. The key is that we recognize the differences between use and abuse and we must learn not to let our own excesses hurt others around us.