Collage of Death (left) and The Devil (right) from the most iconic modern Tarot deck, the Rider-Waite Tarot deck designed by A.E. Waite and Illustrated by Pamela Colman-Smith (first published by William Rider & Son in 1909, hence the name) – public domain image

(3) TAROT – DEATH & THE DEVIL

The Tarot may have its mystique and even its mythos, but does it have villains?

O yes – hence this special mention, drawn from the archetypal characters of individual cards, particularly those of the more iconic Major Arcana or “trumps” of the Tarot.

But are there enough ‘villainous’ cards of the Tarot for their own top ten?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, in that all or almost all cards of the Tarot have their dark inversions or negative connotations and are therefore capable of being villainous cards in that respect. Setting that aside, twelve cards of the Major Arcana – from the Hermit as ninth card through to Judgement as the twentieth card – are ‘underworld’ cards, depicting figures of the mythic narrative of the Fool’s descent into the underworld or hero’s journey, and are hence potentially ‘villainous’ cards.

And no, because when you come down to it, there are only three unequivocally ‘villainous’ cards that are also the infamous trinity of cards one flinches at in readings as ‘bad’ – Death, the Devil, and the Tower Struck by Lightning.

Unequivocally ‘villainous’ that is, in the sense that they are not also at the same time among my heroes or girls of the Tarot – only as ‘villains’, even if they can have positive interpretations. Aptly enough for a card midway through the Tarot, the Death card has interpretations of a new beginning after an end, rebirth or transformation – famously in that episode of The Simpsons with Lisa’s future foretold by a Tarot reading, although it added its own ominous card of The Happy Squirrel.

Of this trinity, I rank Death and the Devil in this special mention, given that the Tower Struck by Lightning does not feature a distinctive figure as such but instead evokes an impersonal force of destruction. Death of course features the personification of death, while the Devil is the literal personification of evil. The visual design of the latter card in the Rider Waite Tarot deck sees the latter and raises it even higher in evil stakes, as a dark inversion of the card of The Lovers, including the two figures of the Lovers themselves, now demonic figures chained to the Devil’s altar – and of the backdrop of Hell now substituted for the Garden of Eden.

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (DEVIL TIER)