Mary El Tarot - The Magician

RunningWild

Ah, thank you - metatron cube (will go google).

The trees in the background, one twists right, the other left. In nature, trees twist to follow the sun so does that mean that the Magician who stands between them is the focus of that energy? I'm not sure, I haven't worked that 'twisted' meaning out yet. :)


You may be onto something here. The trees are twisting in the direction of the Magician.
 

Bat Chicken

Penthasila raised some interesting points about the ancients and geometry. Those with that knowledge would have seemed like 'magicians'.

Further to Penthasilla's idea that the life/ death element might seem odd in a Magician card, but it really isn't when we return to the idea that once we enter the manifest world, we are in a dual world as well. This is very much the traditional Magician.

It is my understanding that Enoch, an ancestor of Noah from the first 5 books of the Bible, was 'taken by God' and became Metatron, the angel closest to God. Metatron's cube, the five Platonic solids can be derived from the circular geometry of the Flower of Life, a symbol of creation, as can the Tree of Life pattern.

Once we start dealing in the geometry of the Magician, we are also dealing with the rational and all of the advantages and limits associated with it.

I am beginning to agree that this is an incredibly layered card!
 

Requiella

A few thoughts on the trees

Maybe these are birch trees? I did a little research* on tree symbolism, and the birch tree symbolizes new beginnings and renewal. Could White have deliberately chosen the birch for the card of the Magician, who begins the Tarot and uses life force to create? Also, the Beithe, or Celtic birch tree, is the first tree of the Ogham, or Celtic tree alphabet--a fitting choice for the Magician, Card 1.

Also, the birch tree is apparently linked to Beltane, beginning of summer, which ushers in the light or "male" half of the Celtic year. This tree would be an obvious choice for the Magician, who embodies the stereotypically male qualities of agency and action--(or male lightness rather than female darkness).

Finally, "the word birch is thought to have derived from the Sanskrit word 'bhurga' meaning a 'tree whose bark is used to write upon" (from treesforlife.org). Wouldn't this be fitting, given that the Magician in a sense makes his mark (i.e., "writes upon" reality) through active direction of his will to create?

*Most of my info on trees comes from http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/mythfolk/birch.html
 

Debra

I don't think so. Birches have straight trunks. Google "birches trunks" for pictures.

It's a nice thought, though :)
 

Requiella

I don't think so. Birches have straight trunks. Google "birches trunks" for pictures.

It's a nice thought, though :)

Ha! I was editing as you were writing, apparently. :) Yeah, I realize that... and you're right in that it doesn't quite fit. Artistic license, maybe? :)
 

Requiella

You may be onto something here. The trees are twisting in the direction of the Magician.

Yes! And this fits with the idea of birch trees as trees to be written on (manipulated). Viewed this way, the twisting of the trees is indicative of the Magician's bending or manipulation of the natural world based on the focused direction of his will power.
 

Requiella

It seems to me the figure and its environment represent pure potential: it hasn't even created identity yet, merely existence. Or, identity is beginning to coalesce - there is a figure, an outline, something defined, not merely inchoate energy - but it hasn't done more than collect itself together.... An eerie magician, existing primarily in potential. It's the shadow of a thing, but the most important shadow there is.

Yeah, this is what I'm seeing. The empty blackness where the figure should be underscores the idea of infinite potential.
 

Bat Chicken

It is difficult to identify a tree this way, so I suppose there are many possibilities. I wonder if Marie had a particular one in mind?

I agree that the sycamore fig is the strongest possibility for the reasons highlighted by laura_borealis, but I think laura, you added an image of the american sycamore not the ficus that is the one I believe you intended? The one below can be surrounded in water as the trees in the card appear:
http://www.gregvogl.net/photos/?size=large&pic=sycamore-fig

Although less likely, the bald cypress has a similar shape and can live in water as well. I just picked this one because of the shape (this one a a bonsai cypress):
http://bonsaibark.com/2012/02/16/we...nsai-with-rebar-sleepless-nights/baldcypress/
or this:
http://www.treepicturesonline.com/bald-cypress-tree-1.jpg
 

Laura Borealis

I'm an Amurrican, I was thinking of an Amurrican Sycamore. The ones with the funny bark that peels away and leaves the trunk and branches white. They like their feet wet. I've seen 'em all my life, they're one of my favorite trees.

I've never heard of a sycamore fig that is also a ficus. Is that the one the Egyptians mythed about? (ETA: I looked it up and it is. Learn something new every day.) :)