78 Weeks: Bateleur / Magician

From the Witches Tarot

The Magician of the Witches Tarot pictures a man standing over a simple, black, square alter where he has placed his tools that help his shift in consciousness: pentacle, chalace, atheme, wand, one in each corner of the alter. He wears a simple white robe, with a flowing purple cape.
He looks above at a figure eight on it's side, the sign of infinity. He motions with his hands, one above his head, one below his wast line, as if to say: As above so Below
It is night and the moon rises on the top right of the card, a slight wind blows.

Keywords: Conjouring, changes, free will

Marseilles-- Le Bateleur, or The Conjuror (thank you Major Tom)


12/27/03
Notes from the past few days:
I am still here at the fair or marketplace, performing amazing feats of prestidigitation, doing and doing without stopping. Infinity is weighing heavy on my head. I am good at what I do, but that is all I do. Do I want to do this for ever? There is something missing, missing like the leg of my table.

Instability (missing table leg, four legs would be stable) lots of wordy, flashy energy. Lots of doing.

Two ideas from reading about this card: the idea that he is ignorant and doesn't know the potential of the objects he is playing with, which is why he holds the objects the way he does (Gettings) and the idea that he represents the first cause, the creator of the visible universe (Wirth) and that is why he is an illusionist, juggler, conjurer. (Wirth changed the picture quite a bit for his deck but it is still interesting to read his view)

Wirth talks about Le Bateleur charging a "coin-amulet", maybe this projecting of "the fire of heaven" into the coin, symbol of the earth suit, is a way of fixing things, of making this life at the fair more than monkey tricks.

12/22/03
I am standing at my table at the fair like I do most days, it is a day like any other and I am doing the same thing I always do, making these little objects appear and disappear...

My arm sure is tired from holding this little stick up. Why am I holding it in my left hand rather than my right? It would feel more natural to make this gesture with my right hand. I am not paying attention to what I am doing because I am doing rote tasks, things I have done hundreds of times before. I just do them, without really paying attention.

What is all this trash I am playing with anyway? I can do certain tricks with these objects. Am I a monkey of some kind? I am wearing a monkey suit. I feel very irritated all of a sudden. That little plant expresses the way I feel, prickly, uncomfortable. I need to make a change, create something, start something, make a begining, do something different from what I have been doing all this time.

12/21/03
(Notes from my journal last night) This card is very energetic. I feel like sleeping with it next to my head is a bad idea and is keeping me awake. This is the first card, it is a card about beginnings. It makes sense to start here.

--Myrrha

Today the Bateleur reminded me not to forget that all is Illusion.

Diana said:

Today the Bateleur reminded me not to forget that all is Illusion.

Click to expand...

Diana,

Please go check out my updated post on page 1. I copied from my journal what I had written when I first began studying Tarot and thought it very interesting compared to your thought for today. Pay particular attention to the last line.

Blessings,
Mimi

23 December 03

The Ancient Egyptian tarot

The Magician here is very different, although a RSW clone deck. It represents the God Thoth. There is no table with the symbols of the suit but on each side of him are attendents holding ankhs and one has the Wand, another the Sword, the Cup and the Disk. The attendents are walking down the side of a pyramid while Thoth is striding down the front. He holds two wands with snakes wrapped round them and at his feet is the world.

The colouring of this card is very attractive, very vibrant.

I was going to try and get into this deck without reading the companion book but I know nothing of Egyptology so I'll read the book then I'll know what I am looking at and hopefully understand the cards more.

I'll be adding to this in the week.

I Magician/Magus/Druid

I'm using the following decks to explore the Magician this week:

Universal de Angelis
Thoth
Old Path
Faery Wicca
Goddess
Aquarian
Voyager

Yesterday (22/12/2003) I was away from home and didn't get a chance to work on this until evening, when I sat with each card for a few minutes, emptying my mind and absorbing what the card had to say to me. What I got was vague, not in words so much as impressions. (I was tired.)

This morning (23/12/2003) I worked on putting my impressions into words: Invoked personal will combined with spiritual or earth power, controlled or uncontrolled. The answer to a need or a project, which involves gathering tools, preparing a space, and focusing one's will (or passion). Sometimes a tendency to use one's power in an uncontrolled way, thus a need for self-discipline. Can also mean someone else is exerting their will, and this is affecting the querent.

24/12/2003

Goddess Tarot--I Magic (Isis)
Isis stands tall with her arms crossed in front of her and a hawk perched on one hand. Her headdress is a full moon cradled between two curved horns. Her focus is firm. "I will."

Universal de Angelis--I The Magician
He stands before an altar on which symbols of the four elements are arranged--a large wand or staff, a cup, a sword, and a pentacle. He raises a wand (of crystal?) in his right hand. Behind him is an orange-yellow sky, like a sunset. Above him is a rose bower. Behind him are trees. Before the altar are more flowers. An infinity symbol hovers above his head. His cloak is deep orange, a color of courage and will. He draws energy, and focuses it on some purpose. A ritual? A spell?

Faery Wicca--1 The Druid
A man stands before a stone altar, raising a wand in his right hand. A sword leans against the altar, with its point down, inside a cauldron on the ground. The man wears a large round shield on his right arm, a red tunic, and a cloak made of black feathers. Raven feathers? Behind him is a great full moon and two trees, their branches crossing in front of the moon, as well as standing stones. His eyes are closed in concentration as he draws power for use in his ritual. There's a passion and focus to this card that is quite beautiful.

More Possible Meanings: Self-interest, self-esteem. Doing what it takes to make a project succeed. Communicating one's needs. Sales, telemarketing. Productivity. Craftsmanship. Going through the motions. Self-absorption. Manipulation. Work for pay. Sleight of hand. Fraud.

Nevada

Mythic Magician

My only Deck at current is the Mythic Tarot.

*Link to a Picture of my magician*
www.geocities.com/gempro4u/02.htm


My Humble attempt to understand this card w/out the book, just mt thoughts really,

Here he stands (it appears) above the landscape of the earth (trees? hills maybe, w/ 2 paths woven in. At his feet are his tools a cup, a sword, a pentacle, a lit wand, and 2 serpant looking staffs.

I say tools as it seems as though they would be his aides.
Why would they be at his feet though?

He is pointing upward and downward seems as though he is saying let the heavens guide you and use these tools in your journey.

Seems he is pointing at the ground really though,
not his tools?

I will have give this more thought before I understand what this card means when I see it. I am a very new so bear with me.

If anyone has this deck your wisdom would be appreciated.

26/12/03

I have spent a lot of time with the Magicians from the Crystal and the Haindl over the last few days. The Hadar has not arrived so when it does it will join me.

I read somewhere of one representing the self, the ego - and in the Crysal this is so evident. This magician is working alone, he has his tools and is confident in what he does. There are trees in the background of this card and beyond is a mass of swirling orangy/red/yellow which I see as potential energy. The light is all then focused on his table and the four elemental representations. The energy focuses in. The sword points to some seeds and a plant which is beginning to grow - cultivation, manifestation. A great card, I see this card when I wake at night. Its the first thing which pops into my mind. Not dreamwork as such but he is definately having an impact.

The Magician from the Haindl has some similarities to the Crystal. There is a tree, representing life force, manifestation, order and maturity and also the dark/light striped material in the Haindl is also seen in the garb of the Magician of the Crystal. In the Haindl I see more maturity.

J

In the Scapini Tarot the magician is standing before a 3 legged table and on it is a cup filled with wine, a sword and 3 coins, in his left hand there is a wand and under him there is a rose that is blossoming. He stares at all the things on the table, it seems he has them put there in a specific order. Emotions, intellect and material things, all of them are possible because he has creativity and spirituality in his left hand.

In my meditiation the magician arranges the different articles in order and bends down to grab the flower, beauty. I guess there has to be pleasure and beauty in everything you plan to create, on what you are about to begin.

Magician: The conjouring of ideas, ideas coming together through will, not force. If reversed, blockage of ideas, projects not coming together as planned. (my own words) Blocked energy.