TAROTThe Magician
Upright
You have all the skills you need for success.
Turn a dream into reality through inner thought, resources, and action.
Changing the world by putting ideas into practice, or changing oneself by receiving new thoughts and concepts.
Intuition
The Magician is part man, part animal, symbolizing the duality of mind and the physical world. He represents the elemental forces of intellect and will applied to the natural world to create change.
There is a raven on the table representing a messenger from the Gods and a route to breaking the confines of our environment through higher intellect.
Reversed
You have the skills you need but are blocked by lack of confidence and self-doubt
Not trusting one’s own abilities.
Plans blocked by others or external hidden agendas.
Disorganized ideas and/or misuse of resources and tendency towards destruction rather than creation.
Astrologia
Quick witted and a strong communicator. Intellectual and always learning. A resourceful problem solver. Can be prone to overthinking or distracted by many ideas at once.
The Magician
The Magician card represents a person’s thoughts and intellect and how abstract thoughts can be made real by transforming the physical world. This transformation does not come naturally nor through magic. It requires will, training and often hard work.
The Magician can also represent ideas learnt and communicated with others, causing transformation or initiation within the person. It can involve moving to another state of being through learning.
The magic of the Magician is the power of the abstract intellect to change the world through the will of the self, aka ‘manifestation’.
The Magician card takes its inspiration from a very ancient archetype and one of the earliest Gods.
The ‘Auroch God’
Early pre-farming (hunter-gatherer) cultures revered the Auroch, a powerful but now extinct beast that reached six feet in height. This animal provided food as a hunted animal and also represented danger as a very powerful adversary. Several ancient cultures worshipped horned male deities based on the Auroch: the ‘Auroch God’ from Gobekli Tepe (the earliest Temple known to us), the Sumerian Bull of Heaven, the Celtic god Cernunnos, and others.
As farming took hold and Aurochs were domesticated into far less intimidating bovines, the Auroch God transformed into a less powerful entity, giving us the Greek God Pan. This archetype still maintains some of his former glory in myth as an old God who is the tutor for a younger, powerful god; Apollo.
As a half-man, half-animal chimera, Pan forms an excellent visual metaphor between raw nature and the human mind. The mind can control and transform nature to its will but the raw animal of the elemental Auroch is also there. We think we are in control and rational until the moment the old-brain takes back control and we fall into anger, fear, avarice and doubt.
Pan represents the teacher of our higher self - Apollo - and we see Pan speaking to Apollo’s messenger the raven. Pan also represents the old Gods and the ancient knowledge of the Magician. Finally, he represents the Male duality of the archetypal Male Elemental god: intellect/animal, helper/trickster, protector/predator, day/night, Oak-King/Holly-King.
Description and Symbology
We see the God Pan stood in a forest clearing. The leaves blow around him in a cyclone but the central portion on which Pan stands is still. The wind has weathered a rock into a table of sorts and around it we see the 4 Suites of Tarot: a Wand (the Fire element and passion, drive and creativity), a Cup (the Water element and emotion, intuition and relationships), a Sword (the air element and intellect, reason and communication) and Pentacles (the Earth element and material wealth, resources and stability). This symbolizes that the Magician has learned to control and work with all of them.
The Magician points both upwards and downwards, signifying a quote from The Emerald Tablet, a Hermetic text translated from Greek to Arabic and then later to Latin and finally English. The earliest English translation reads;
That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.
This is usually simplified to As above, so below.
This broadly means that things tend to work the same at different levels of the universe and the rules that govern the cosmos also govern our lives, but the original text implies the connection works not just in one direction but both ways. To understand this older meaning we first need to know the principles of Hermeticism:
Principle of Astrology. The celestial planets in the heavens influence the lives of people below. That which is above is like that which is below.
Principle of Alchemy. The natural transformations of base metals into higher metals are the same as the ones that cause spiritual transformations.
There is an often overlooked third principle:
Principle of Theurgy. The end goal of Alchemy is not the creation of gold or an elixir. Being able to effect material transformations in metals is the key to the process of attaining spiritual transformation upwards towards the divine. This explains the reverse connection; man can become the divine. This was a common belief of the ancients and we see it often, from the deification of Egyptian Pharoahs to mortals often becoming Gods (Herakles/Hercules, Psyche, etc).
The Magician knows this deepest truth; the Gods are not that different from us and perhaps we should take the time to enjoy this world rather than hurrying to the next one. Some would call him the ultimate Trickster for it.
We see Pan conversing with a raven. The raven is the messenger of the God Apollo, and Pan is known to be his tutor. In the same way the Magician is the elemental tutor and father to our intellect. We learn about the world outside us through him. We learn how to control it for mutual benefit, but taken too far we may end up misusing and destroying it and may even anger the Divine.
Magician Symbol
The Magician is represented by a glyph of the Auroch God.
Forest Clearing
The card is set in a forest clearing, signifying a world of plenty around us. This world of plenty will only become useful to us once we take the hard route of learning how to use it. Any shortcuts may lead to destruction, waste, and may anger the Divine, or kill the Divine within us.
Wind around the Magician
The air around the magician has been formed into a wind that scatters leaves but also shapes a rock into the Magician’s table. This wind, formed of air, represents the power of the intellect to manifest change upon the natural world.
The Magician as a Chimera
The Magician has the upper half of a man and the lower half of a beast. By realizing our rational self sits on an older irrational brain (and that ourselves and our environment part of the same whole), we gain complete control of ourselves and our world. This is the promise of the Magician’s way.
The Magician’s pose
The Magician points upwards to the heavens and the ground below, implying 'as above, so below'.
The Magician and the raven
The discussion between Pan and the raven appears to be light-hearted. The Magician has the power to manifest transformation, but also has the sight to see the world the way it really is. As a God himself, Pan knows the difference between the Gods and mortals is sometimes slight. Being closer to the Divine is a lofty aim, but sometimes it is time to sit back and enjoy the current world.
The ouroboros
At the base of the table we see the symbol of the ouroboros; a snake eating its own tail. This represents eternity and the repeating cycle of the World Soul. Similar to the ouroboros, thought is infinite. We see this cycle again when we consider the green summer leaves of the forest at the top of the card against the fallen autumn leaves at the foot of the card. Life repeats as a cycle of birth, growth and death.
Tips for Readings
The following table shows the upright and reverse meanings for general questions. The last row ('Yes/No') is useful when you are picking a single card to decide a yes or no decision.
Upright
Reversed
You will be central in making things happen. You already have everything you need to solve any problem. Embrace your positive assertiveness in finding solutions for relationship problems.
Beware of being open to deceit from others. You have everything you need to solve any problems, but others are setting you up for failure via trickery and lies.
There may be difficulty in resolving issues because of power imbalances.
You will be focussed on results, gaining mastery through training or experience. You are set up for success through having everything you need, and the skills to put into practice.
You are suffering from a lack of focus. You may be falling behind because of a lack or skills. You may be open to deception in the workplace.
Consider carefully if you are being held back in your progression, and rethink your future course if it looks likely.
You are entering a period of being very self-disciplined and goal driven.
Now is the time for making positive changes and even becoming your own personal trainer!
You are failing to stick to routines and are perhaps too focused on what others think.
This may be a time to rethink, because your current health plans are doomed to failure.
You will be finding enlightenment in the world around you.
A time to get out more as you will find yourself there; nature is often a reflection of the soul, and you are now very open to it. Remember; animals are the original archetypes, and if you see any acting strangely or out of character, it may be a message.
You will find difficulty in connecting or making things happen spiritually, and will feel a disconnection.
Be careful of being pulled in to false beliefs and cults as you are very open to deceit and falsehood right now.
Remember, spirituality has a wide meaning today; are you being pulled in by materialism, avarice, poor self-image or any one of the 'cults of identity'?
Expect a period of growth by properly deploying money for investment. Now is a perfect time to make future plans happen!
If you are feeling you don’t have enough to move forward, assess what you have. It is probably enough!
Beware of falling for cons and deceitful practices. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is!
You may be moving forward via unfocused planning or are out of your depth. Stop and think over your real targets and whether you truly expect to achieve them. If not, pause and rethink.
Yes, through making things happen.
No, through lack of confidence, self-doubt.
Reading the card
Although the Magician is often seen as a male archetype (and the complement to the female High Priestess), intellect is of course sexless just as intuition is sexless.
The Upright card
The upright Magician is a powerful signifier for success, but the Magician merely symbolizes that the person has untapped potential, skills and resources required for success. Even when seen upright there is still the requirement to use the thoughts and resources to move forward.
There is also a need to balance intent and action. Other cards that signify balance or the lack of it can be significant modifiers to the upright Magician.
Any sense of self confidence boosts the power of the Magician, but self-deception and doubt may make success more difficult and are worth noting as warnings.
The reversal
A reversed Magician is not on its own a message of failure. A reversed Magician signifies that you still have the potential for success but the going will be hard. There may be a lack of focus, overconfidence or indecision.
It may also suggest that success will come but the plan will not take you where you want to be. You may be misusing your resources, or your plan may take you to your destination but will leave others you will miss behind. Always remember that the Magician is neither good nor bad. He gives you what you want but this may not be what you need!
There is also the potential for your plan being successful but dishonest or manipulative. The Magician represents the rational mind but he often lacks emotional depth to foresee the effects on others.
Finally, a reversed Magician could represent a lack of creativity and becoming stagnant. A reversed Magician is not necessarily bad in this context; he tells you to step back and learn so you can try another way later. Unreadiness today is not unreadiness tomorrow; the ouroboros will keep turning!
The magician as a Trickster
As noted above, the Magician tends to give you what you ask for but that may not be what you need. The High Priestess’s intuition can fail through self-delusion, but the intellect can fail just as hard through over-confidence, not considering the feelings of others, or manifesting a solution to the wrong problem. Balance with other cards is key!
Card Design Process
The choice of Pan as the Magician was seen as a surprise by some reviewers; the Magician is often seen as a noble character that Pan is not.
Pan does however show the relationship between the mind and nature as he is physically half of each. He was also the tutor of the young Apollo, who is often associated with the Magician. Also, like Pan, the Magician lives ‘in the moment’ within a very physical reality.
Pan is much more light-hearted than the Magician on many other decks; laughing rather than serious. This was a conscious choice. In any task, playfulness, creativity, and adaptability are crucial factors in forming a plan that will succeed.
This alternative was also chosen to move the sense of the card away from the solemn rites of occult societies of the 19th century and towards a much earlier and more shamanistic view, showing a character in tune with nature because he lives within it.
Final Words
This card represents resourcefulness and creation through intellect, ideas and resources. It suggests whether or not you have everything you need to succeed.
The Magician does not on its own tell you whether you will succeed, but is a good indication of whether or not you are ready to start.
The Magician does not on its own tell you whether you will succeed but is a good indication of whether or not you are ready to start.
