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The Magician

	Number	1
	Element	-
	Planet / Sign	Mercury
	Astrological Decan	-
	Associated Dates	-
	Season	-
	Direction	Above
	Hebrew Letter	Beth (House)
	Universal Principle	-

Basic Observations

The Magician is dressed in a white tunic with a snake belt (ouroboros) around his waist.  Over the undergarment he wears a red robe. 

In his right hand he holds a wand pointing to the heavens – his left hand is pointing to the earth.  He wears a white band around his head and above him is the sign for infinity. 

On the table in front of him are a wand, a cup, a sword and a pentacle.  The edges of the table are decorated with hieroglyphs. 

The background is yellow with a garland of red roses above and red roses and lilies in front of him.  The card is numbered 1.

The Magician and Numerology

One is the number of beginnings, of individuality, of the prime force of creation - it is raw energy and power.  It is the beginning of anything - it is the moment of the conception of an idea, the first step, the first action. It deals with that which is about to take form. 

One is the 'seed'.  A seed contains all the information and genetic makeup it needs to become a fully grown plant.  If the seed germinates and is tended properly it has the potential to become a majestic oak, a nourishing vegetable or a beautiful flower or plant. 

Likewise with the one's of the Tarot ...

The Magician is a pure one (1/1) and has all the power he needs from above and below, spirit and matter, his conscious and subconscious to achieve his goals.  He has the potential to become a mighty oak (upright) or stunt his growth and fail to reach his full potential (reversed).

The Magician is independant - he is the first and the best.  He is a leader and makes his own decisions.  He is an original thinker and inventor.

When reversed the Magician can be arrogant and have an overpowering ego.   Reversed the Magician can indicate an unwillingness or inability to make use of his/her own power and a failure to reach goals. 

The Magician indicates absolute beginnings, the Wheel of Fortune (10/1) karmic beginnings and the Sun (19/10/1) regeneration of existing conditions.

The Magician and the Kabballah

The Magician is associated with the Hebrew letter Beth (ב ).  Beth means house and reminds us that our bodies house our mind and spirit.

The Magician and Mythology

He is associated with the Greek God, Hermes and his counterpart in Roman mythology - Mercury.  (Note: Hermes became synthesised with Mercury around the time of the Roman Republic around the 4th century BC.  As with all other religions the Romans integrated their Gods with the Gods of the country they conquered).

Hermes/Mercury was the messenger of the Gods – he negotiated between men and the other Gods.  Hermes delivered messages from Olympus to the mortal world. 

He is the god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them.  He guided mortals on their quests and guided the souls of the dead to hades.  He is one of the few Gods who could enter the underworld and leave unaffected.  If the Magician is on a quest you can be sure he is being aided by Hermes/Mercury.

He is also the God of thieves, liars, tricksters and make believe.  The reversed Magician could indicate that you or someone you are dealing with is using trickery of some sort to achieve a goal.

He is the God of words (as the Greek God Hermes, he promised his father Zeus he would not tell lies as long as he was not bound to tell the whole truth), commerce and invention.  This includes being God of orators and wit, of literature and poets – How much of the truth is included when telling a story or writing a poem?  When we are setting up a new commerical project or financing an invention we conveniently leave out those details we think the backers would not like.  We use clever words to achieve our goals but perhaps we don’t always tell the whole truth.

It’s lucky that Hermes/Mercury was indeed a God!  As a mere mortal he would have had a hard time keeping up with all the pies he had his fingers in.

The Magician and Astrology

The Planet Mercury is associated with the Magician.  Mercury is the planet of communication and rules the intellect, logic, reasoning and our awareness.

In ancient times Mercury was the 'winged messenger' (see mythology above) who travelled back and forth between the gods and mortals carrying their messages hence the Magicians ability to synthesise between spirit and matter.

Mercury is the planet of the mind. Mercury (and the Magician) guides us to a greater understanding of 'higher consciousness' and through the mind leads us to a greater sense of purpose in our lives.

The planet Mercury is associated with the element of air, symbolizing the mind.  Thoughts and words have a great deal of power.  If we believe we can achieve something we will as it is through our thoughts that we shape our experiences of the world.  Words transmit our ideas which can then be turned into reality.

Mercury’s symbol is the Caduceus (two snakes winding up and around a wand with wings at the top) and indicates the power of the mind to heal.

Magician Article

In the previous card, our fool had all the ‘potential’ but had not yet learnt how to use the tools at his disposal.  Now that he has become the Magician he has gained mastery over them.  Here is a man who has learnt all he needs to in order to turn his desires into reality. 

The card is number one – the first number, the number of beginnings. Hovering above the Magicians head is the lemniscate – the sign of infinity indicating limitless, never ending power, while around his waist is the ouroboros (the snake eating its own tail to form a circle) indicating the unity of the conscious and unconscious mind. 

On the table in front of him are the symbols of the suits which he now uses as tools to achieve his goals.  The wand gives him inspiration, the cup his love of the work he is doing, the sword his intelligence and the pentacle his practical ability.

He wears a white undergarment and band around his head indicating that his intentions are pure of mind and body.  His robe is red – the colour of desire and passion.  Above and beneath him are roses and lilies – the red roses also symbolise passion and the white lilies purity.  So, while he is passionate about his goals his intentions are pure.

He has the skills, the willpower and ability to accomplish anything he puts his mind to.  From the heavens he draws his power, which passes through him to make his will manifest on earth.  This is indicated by his right hand (the hand of conscious action) holding the wand pointing to the heavens and his left hand pointing to earth.  His power is not physical - it is spiritual.  We cannot touch this power but we can use it.  It is the inspiration we need to go ahead with our ideas.  It is the inner knowing, the inspiration, the force behind all actions. Our earthly existence reflects our spiritual reality and so we have the power to manifest our dreams in our physical reality.

The author of the deck (A.E. Waite) in his description of the Magician, states that the Magician is in possession and communication of the powers and the gifts of spirit.  He is the divine messenger – Mercury.  Astrologically, the Magician is linked to the planet Mercury.  Traditionally Mercury was the symbol of the occult knowledge that bridges the material and spiritual worlds.  He is the highest level of awareness – of himself and others, of cause and effect.

It can be difficult to get across the meaning of the Magician card in relation to mere human life – he seems like something out of time, someone from myths and legends – not someone we can easily relate to in today’s world.  We can tell our sitter to believe in themselves because they have the power to do anything they wish, to have the confidence to go forward in whatever their current endeavour is.  We can tell them they are the master of their own destiny and that they have all the tools they need to achieve their goals. 

But, it’s quite another thing to get your sitter to accept this.  ‘Great’ they say, but their face shows a different story – there’s a narrowing of the eyes and a look of ‘if you say so’ - they don’t quite believe they have the ability the Magician says they do.  Everyone is fascinated by the charisma of a Magician.  Whether its sleight of hand or fast talking (the Magician could sell sand to Arab’s) we are all drawn in by him.  But we never quite believe we can be like him.

Children embody the Magician – they believe they can do things and given the chance, nothing and no one is going to stop them.  They don’t stop to consider that there is any reason NOT to try to do something.  They have such belief if their own abilities to achieve whatever it is they set out to do.  They don’t sit there thinking ‘oh maybe I can’t do it’ in the way that adults do.  They believe in the magic of the world.  They believe they can fly to the moon, catch a star, swing on a rainbow (Oh, to be a child again!).  They are the Magician!

This then is the faith we adults need when the Magician crosses our path.  We must believe we can start that new business, that we have the ability, the funds, the tools and the wisdom to go ahead and make a success of it.  I’m not saying we should be blind to the dangers as children are but that we should take calculated risks to achieve our goals.  When the Magician appears the odds are stacked in our favour and the advantages far outweigh any risks.

Turn the Magician card upside down and it doesn’t seem to make that much difference to his pose – one hand still points to heaven and the other to earth – he still has flowers above and below him.  The only difference is that the Magician is now upside down and his tools are about to fall from the table.  From this perspective the world will obviously look very different to our Magician.

The reversed Magician implies that the client isn’t seeing things objectively and that if he doesn’t act soon, all the advantages he has at the present time are going to slip away and he will miss out on the opportunities the upright Magician presents.  Because the reversed Magician is not objective, he can also bring us things we want with all our hearts but which might not be good for us – so be careful what you wish for!