Legacy of the Divine Tarot: The Magician

Noir

Image:
A well-dress man of advancing years, a sun pendant sitting on his chest, is seen positioned in front of a bookcase filled with book. His left hand draws a metal sphere into the air as energy discharges down toward a metallic object sitting on a desk or bench. Test tubes marked with alchemical symbols, other instruments, and an unrolled scroll also appear on the desk.

Commentary:
A uniquely rendered card, the imagery here moves away from the traditional representation of the Magician as a priest or wizard that we have seen in the Rider, Gilded, Tarot of Dreams, and many other decks. The inclusion of cups, wands, coins, and swords is replaced with a scene that looks more like a laboratory and the central figure more like an alchemist. His lined face and library of great tomes suggest years of study and practice – practice that has evidently paid off given his proven ability to manipulate matter. The more primal force of fire here is replaced with a more refined, lightening-like energy.

The subject of alchemy is enormous and far beyond the scope of this small treatise. However, a few points mentioned in relation to this card may contribute to an ongoing dialogue about the deeply symbolic offering that Ciro has created.

One of the books on the shelf is titled, “Magnum Opus” or the Great Work, which is a term related to the successful creation of the Philosopher’s Stone – the ultimate goal of the alchemical process. There are three stages to this work: the nigredo (putrefaction, decomposition), albedo (whitening), and rubedo (reddening). Further reinforcing the connection to alchemy are the three test tubes marked with alchemical symbols that sit on the desk or workbench in front of the central figure of the card. In order, the alchemical symbols are: Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt.

According to author Dennis William Hauck, “It was Paracelsus who first organized the Three Essentials of Sulfur, Mercury, and Salt into powerful universal tools that gave alchemists great insight into the nature of reality. Sometimes called the Three Universals, the Three Supernals, the Tria Prima, or simply the Trinity, they are the three fundamental forces that are present on all levels of reality. These three principles emerge from a common source, The First Matter… They also appear at the end of the Great Work as principles integrally bound up in the Philosopher’s Stone, which is often symbolized by a three-headed serpent.”

Hauck goes on to give these attributes to the three substances:
Sulfur (also known as brimstone) is fiery, solar, active, yang, masculine, sun, energy, emotions, Soul
Mercury is watery, lunar, passive, yin, moon, feminine, light or consciousness, Spirit
Salt represents matter or mass and the materialization of spiritual principles; it mediates between Sulfur and Mercury; Body

The central dynamic of the card – the manipulation of matter illustrated by the lightning imagery – speaks to a core quality of the Magician that has to do with being a channel for power. In the Rider deck, this is graphically illustrated with the Magician literally standing with hands pointed up to heaven and down to the earth. Here, while the imagery is more subtle, the intention is similar and it also speaks to the alchemical precept that the alchemist needs to practice a certain type of spiritual hygiene in order to ensure a pure and fully functional channel. Interestingly, this principle continues to linger in contemporary consciousness, surfacing in surprising venues. For example, in the PC computer game The Witcher, the main character Geralt has to engage in a regular practice of meditation in order to detoxify himself from the effects of using alchemical potions.

The traditional meaning of the Magician has to do with power, will, creation, and mastery. The use of the number three (three test tubes, three alchemical symbols) also speaks to the process of manifestation – the fruit of the union of the numbers 1 and 2 – thus linking this card to trump 3, the Empress. But in contemplating this card, I believe that Ciro has tapped into something perhaps even more exciting: understanding the formula for transformation.

It is not widely known that the subject of alchemy was relegated to the brackish backwater of human thought until it was “redeemed” by the enormous work of Carl Jung. It was Jung, through scrupulous, relentless research, who pieced together that alchemy was the link between the ancient Gnostic traditions and the modern world. Further, working with famed sinologist Richard Wilhelm (I still consider his translation of the I Ching to be the best), Jung was able to show that the ancient Taoist quest for the “Golden Flower” was substantially no different from the European search for the Philosopher’s Stone. This discovery buttressed his argument that the images and goals of alchemy tapped into an archetypal process, which was no different in the East than in the West. Jung’s work restored interest in the field of alchemy and made it once again an area of legitimate investigation.

Jung believed that the field of alchemy was not just the mundane search to turn lead into gold, but was actually a psycho-spiritual process wherein the alchemist was attempting to transform not only matter but also their own consciousness. Using a variety of inner tools, such as projection, imagination, and meditation, the alchemist attempt to free the soul (“light”) from the web of material reality it was trapped within. The agent of change used to effect this transformation was fire, and according to Hauck there were four grades: Elementary fire (the normal kind), Central fire hidden within matter at its very center, Secret fire that could be described as the primary inner fire of the true alchemist that was not unlike the psycho-erotic kundalini, and Celestial Fire – the highest grade – a white fire that the alchemists considered the burning brilliance of God’s mind and will.

Taroist and psychotherapist Art Rosengarten writes that Polly Young-Eisendrath and James A. Hall have created a constructivist perspective to Jung’s views that isolates four “invariant principles,” which they believe are present in all psychic processes. These are:

Agency (Intention): the experience of personal causation, authorship, or intentionality.
Coherence (Organization): the experience of unity or integration within the core of the person’s being.
Continuity (Process): the sense of “self” moving through time that allows for insight via the agency of linking the experiences of past, present, and future to one’s identity.
Emotional arousal (Motivation): instinctual pattern of arousal, expression, and motivational readiness related to interactions between beings – human or otherwise.

Using this schema, Rosengarten notes that the Magician has the following qualities (the Fool’s qualities are noted in parentheses to provide contrast):
Agency: Will (Possibility)
Coherence: Power (Openness)
Continuity: Transformation (Discovery)
Emotional Arousal: Mastery (Play)

Moving in the direction of reverse reading of this card, it will be noted that the Magician in the Legacy deck is steeped in the materialistic, reductionistic Newtonian universe, In this dimension, the world has been stripped to its mathematical essence, and the connection to Nature is minimal. This is in contrast with the depiction of the Magician in other decks such as the Artist's Inner Vision Tarot, where the Magician is depicted as a shaman. I see this as a warning that one can get too far removed from the grounded, organic essence of life, leaving the person open to abuse of power, alienation, madness… or worse. The visage of the Magician in this card also reminds me of the Hermit and the difficulties and dangers of treading a lonely, solitary path.

Finally, I wanted to comment on the delightful nuance that the Magician in this card has six fingers, the medical term for this being polydactyly. Six-fingered people have been held to be special by various cultures, sometimes in a good way and sometimes not. Count Rugen of the novel and movie The Princess Bride, had six fingers on his right hand, which allowed Inigo Montoya to identify him as the man who had killed his father. Hannibal Lecter of the Silence of the Lamb fame also had six fingers. Other cultures like those of Eastern Europe and Africa held that six-fingered children where associated with witches and witchcraft. On the other hand, six fingers are also said to a sign of good fortune, luck, or prosperity. For example, sailors believed six-toed cats brought good luck.

Other Thoughts:
Because of the subtly, clever details, and power of this card, I found it to be not only memorable, but a worthy evolution of the Magician cards in the Gilded and Tarot of Dreams decks.
 

PAMUYA

Very well done! Bravo...

You answered my question about the test tubes..I drew this card just yesterday and was going to do some research.

Thank you for this wonderful write up.

I have attached a copy of my the card for those who do not have it.
 

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Noir

Hi Sassyjackal,
Thank you for providing a copy of the card - that is very helpful. Please feel free to add your own thoughts about the Magician, if you feel so inclined.
 

PAMUYA

You have done such a splended job and enjoyed reading your thread, I really have nothing to add. Thank you!
 

prettywicked

I was going to look up the book with the title "Magnum Opus" on it when I first noticed it, thank you for the definition!

When reading the beginning chapters of the book "Gateway to the Divine Tarot" I kept thinking of the Magician & his packed library when Luca was being talked about, the guy Ciro went to visit in Italy. I don't know why I have this association, but it has stuck with me every since.
 

colinmcq

magician

bravo noir you have said it all, but the thing that I was thinking the card show a man that has been well lived see the world a bit and is a man that studys hard could be a know it all that's evident with the way that ciro has depicted the card as a cunning not evil but clever person that has his whitts about him.... bearing in mind I'm only new to this.....
 

Water Lady

thank you Noir for such detail, I had noticed the 6 fingers but did not have a clue what it meant.
 

cirom

Someone brought this thread to my attention.

And I must admit noir's post was extremely satisfying and a perfect example of what i hope from my images. Namely that the sprinkling of little details can either just be taken as an overall visual ambience, or two they can be checked out for what they might mean, or thirdly, that conclusions or connections can be reached that might add to an additional take on the card even if (as in many cases) I didn't intentionally plan them.

Noir's post is comprehensive and insightful, I have learned more from it than i put in :) and have little to add other than to point out that the other book, below the Magnum Opus is titled "CHRYSOPEIA" and is a another nod to Alchemy within this card. Its a term that is derived from Greek and means transmutation into gold.
 

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bluecaffeine

The person of the magician is very big here on the card. In the foreground we see, what he creates, the books are in the background. So trial and error seems to be more important to him than the knowledge from the books.
 

Practicing Human

Okay, I admit... before reading the LWB, while going through each card a second time, I noticed the oddity of his right hand. I remember saying out loud "does this guy have six fingers?" Then I looked at the other hand and confirmed it.

That aside, I first really missed the incorporation of the four elements into the card as it is in other decks. But in the key for this particular deck I've found an interesting take on the Magician. He has an obviously well developed array of knowledge and skill in manipulating his environment like a true alchemist, which still maintains the traditional meaning of this key for me. But the perspective the card in this deck brings that I find unique is the Magician's intense focus in his manipulation. It creates a direct contrast to the High Priestess as his perspective is so laser precise, sometimes leaving little room for the intuition to be at play. The Magician isn't "letting go and letting God" as the saying goes, he is not allowing the Universe to unfold as it will. He is playing God in a sense, he is confident in his ability to manipulate and control his environment. But in doing so, does he become myopic? Does his intuitive peripheral vision get lost to his intense focus that he loses sight of what else may be happening around him?

I'd be curious as to how anyone else might take my interpretation of this specific card in this deck.