The Devil to the World: the long way home

The middle row of the Majors ended with Temperance: balance, patience, things mixed back together. You might expect the story to finish there. Instead it drops straight into the Devil.

That drop is the point of the last row. Pollack calls it the great journey. The first row was about finding your place in the world, the second about turning inward, and the third goes deeper still, into what has been hidden, and then out the other side into the light. It holds the cards beginners worry about most, the Devil and the Tower, and it also holds the gentlest cards in the deck. They come in that order for a reason.

From left to right: XV The Devil, XVI The Tower, XVII The Star, XVIII The Moon, XIX The Sun, XX Judgement and XXI The World.

XV The Devil: the chains you could lift off

A horned figure squats on a block. Below him stand a naked man and woman, with chains round their necks and small horns of their own.

Look again at the chains. They're loose. Either of the two could lift them off over their head. That detail is the whole card. The Devil isn't evil arriving from outside. It describes what holds you by your own consent: a habit, a craving, a relationship you know isn't good for you, the belief that you have no choice. Pollack points out that the card echoes VI The Lovers, which also shows a man and a woman under a large figure. Here the same pair are bound instead of blessed.

In a reading, the Devil tends to ask what you're attached to, and whether it still serves you. It isn't a judgement on you. It's an invitation to notice the chain, and the fact that it's loose.

XVI The Tower: what lightning is for

Lightning strikes a tower on a rock. The crown at its top is knocked off, flames pour from the windows, and two people fall headfirst.

This is the most dramatic picture in the deck, and in a reading it usually describes sudden change: a shock, a plan collapsing, a truth coming out all at once. It isn't comfortable, and it isn't meant to be. But it helps to ask what the tower was. A tower built on a rock, with a crown on top, is a structure of pride and certainty, the thing you built to stay safe. The lightning knocks down what was false or too rigid to bend.

That's what the Tower is for. Read straight after the Devil, it's the moment the chains stop being a choice and something breaks them for you. Pollack observes that the work of the earlier cards is what makes a person strong enough to stand the lightning when it comes. The Tower can feel like an ending. Most readers see it as a release.

XVII The Star: hope, quietly

A naked woman kneels by a pool under a great star and seven smaller ones. She pours water from one jug into the pool and from another onto the land.

After the Tower, everything is calm. Nothing is being defended any more, and nothing needs to be. The Star is the card of hope and renewal: not excitement, but the quiet sense that things can heal. In a reading it often points to faith in the future, generosity, and being open again after a hard time. If you meet it after a difficult card, it's worth noticing the order.

XVIII The Moon: the uncertain path

A full moon with a face hangs over a path that runs between two towers into the hills. A dog and a wolf howl at it, and a crayfish crawls out of a pool at the bottom.

The Moon is the card of uncertainty, dreams and imagination. In its light things look strange, and you can't be sure what's real. It can describe confusion, worries that grow at night, or simply a time when you can't see far ahead. It can also describe intuition and creative depth, the part of the mind that works in images. The path is still there, between the animals and the towers. The card doesn't say you're lost. It says you'll have to walk without full light for a while.

XIX The Sun: plain joy

A child rides a white horse under a blazing sun, arms wide, a red banner flowing behind. Sunflowers grow over the wall.

After the Moon's half-light comes full daylight. The Sun is about as simple and happy as tarot gets: joy, clarity, warmth, energy, success you can enjoy. Where the Moon blurred things, the Sun shows them plainly. It's the card most readers are pleased to see, and the child on the horse suggests a joy that is open and unguarded.

XX Judgement: the call

An angel blows a trumpet from the clouds. Below, people rise from open coffins floating on the water, arms raised towards the sound.

The picture comes from the Christian Last Judgement, but in a reading it rarely means being judged. It's closer to waking up, hearing a call, and answering it. A realisation about your life, a sense of what you're meant to do, a fresh start that feels earned. It can also mean looking back honestly over a long stretch of time and coming to a decision about it.

XXI The World: arrival

A dancer, wrapped in a sash, moves inside a great oval wreath. In the four corners are the same angel, eagle, lion and bull that sat round the Wheel of Fortune.

The journey is complete. The World is the card of wholeness, achievement and integration: a cycle finished well, every part of a life finding its place. The creatures in the corners are a quiet link back to the Wheel. There they watched things turn, and here they frame a dancer at home in the turning. In a reading it tends to describe completion, fulfilment, or a long effort coming together. And because it's a dance and not a throne, it also hints that the story goes on. After the World comes the Fool again, setting out.

Why this row comes last

It's tempting to read the last row as bad news followed by good news. That misses how it works. The Devil and the Tower aren't punishments the Fool must survive before getting the nice cards. They're what makes the Star possible. Something has to be faced and something has to fall before hope can be real rather than polite.

In a reading, this is useful. A difficult card from this row is often part of a movement, not a dead end. If the Tower turns up, it's worth asking what the Star would look like on the other side of it.

What to take from this

• This is the deepest row. XV to XXI go down into what was hidden, and out again into light.
• The Devil's chains are loose, and the Tower knocks down what was false. Both describe something you can come through, not a sentence.
• The row ends in arrival, and then begins again. The World completes the journey, and the Fool steps out once more.

Next, we leave the Majors and turn to the Minor Arcana, starting with the four suits and the four elements behind them.