Le Diable Tarot (Kraken)

The earliest known tarot card decks date to the early 1400s, and for several centuries they were used simply as game cards, becoming associated with divination only after the 1780s.

This interpretation of Le Diable shows another kind of devil - one that plagued at least the nightmares of sailors and fishermen venturing out on the Atlantic Ocean. As a card that represents seduction with the material world, and obsession with power and money, it seemed appropriate to picture a Kraken in the shape of a giant squid half submerged, a creature feared both by merchant ships and the pirates who plundered their treasures.