Major Arcana · XV

The Devil Year

Earth

The Devil year asks you to look straight at what you can't stop wanting. There's a strange relief in it: saying out loud that you check his location when he's late, that the second glass is the one you wait all day for, that you stayed for the status and not the work. Naming the craving shows you how much energy it took to keep it hidden. A want you can look at directly loses most of its power over you. Your appetite isn't shameful this year. Seeing the chain clearly is the first move toward noticing it was never locked.

What to do with a Devil yearName the want you've been talking around this year, somewhere it can be witnessed. Ask what the craving is actually trying to get you, and test whether the chain is locked or just heavy enough that you stopped pulling.

Your twelve months

Each month steps one place forward through the cycle. The same twelve, in the same order, for any Devil year.

January
The TowerFebruary
The StarMarch
The MoonApril
The SunMay
JudgementJune
The WorldJuly
The FoolAugust
The MagicianSeptember
The High PriestessOctober
The EmpressNovember
The EmperorDecember
The Hierophant

Element weather

How the twelve months balance across the elements.

4Fire months3Air months3Earth months2Water months

The rest of the cycle

The nine Majors a Devil year doesn’t touch.

The LoversThe ChariotStrengthThe HermitWheel of FortuneJusticeThe Hanged OneDeathTemperance
The full year-ahead reading

The whole Devil year, woven

This page is the theme. The full reading walks all twelve months in the Almanac’s voice, reads the element weather, brings in how your Bearing meets the year, and closes with the skills and reflection questions a Devil year calls for.

See a sample reading →

Find your own year card →
More on this card: The Devil, the full meaning · The Devil as a Bearing · all seventy-eight cards