The chains
The chained man and woman at the Devil’s feet stand where the Lovers stood, now horned and tailed, held by what Waite calls the chain and fatality of the material life.
In the tradition
Modern readers point out that the collars are loose enough to lift off, and read the card as a bondage that is chosen. That reading is not Waite’s, though the picture allows it.
In the cards
Strength makes the contrast: there the chain is made of roses and binds the lion gently.
Sources
- A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910). Waite's own guide to the deck he designed with Pamela Colman Smith, with each card's divinatory meanings.
Updated October 9, 2026.
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