The Magician as the "conduit for the divine"

Could someone explain what it means when I see that the Magician is a conduit for the divine? I've always seen this in descriptions of him, but I'm confused why he's the divine conduit, rather than the Hanged Man (the one close to the heavens). Or is my interpretation of the Hanged Man incorrect?

Hi TSZ

[ I just noticed your apparition here ... welcome ... I am very interested in the psychology Tarot interface as well. I notice you are deciding about a deck ... maybe the mythical tarot would suit your focus ? ]

Anyway, to get on to your question, I see many facets here:

Magician is Mercury ; ruled by that planet and he (the Magician) is the God Mercury and the 'function' Mercurius

http://www.dominantstar.com/tmerc.htm

In his role as Psychopomp he can traverse the 3 worlds; heaven , earth and the underworld. He is also a messenger - fleet of foot carrying a message scroll, he delivers the instructions of the Gods. As a planet Mercury is closest to the Sun ( a symbol of Godhead and the divine) and can be seen as a mediator between the other planets and the Sun. In its association with Gemini - the twins; one was mortal, the other immortal; so in a way he represents our two natures - the separation , the finding and the the joining together ( both twins eventually end up in the heavens).

Mercury 'rules' the joining of heaven and earth, and the conscious with the unconscious and . perhaps, has a role in regulating the ego between the Super-ego and Id. - The 'Great Work' of marrying or 'co-joining' the Sun and the Moon

In my system ( based on a blend of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and asto/psychology ) the basis is the Sun Moon relationship ; The Moon (unconscious) is seen as the centre of the lower triangle surrounded by the three inner and personal planets, Venus and Mars (in a polarised base line) with Mercury at the apex ; here, surrounding the Moon are the basic inner astrological forces and base drives of psychology, the primary triad.

The Moon links up with Sol through Mercury (the Tree is rooted in the socio-cultural environment via persona which provides regulating feedback to pass up the tree to the higher triad.

The higher triad is a reflection of the lower consisting of the 3 outer and transpersonal planets - Here I see Neptune (as a higher vibration and function of Venus). Its connection with the worlds below, and the link it makes with the 'mystical' for me , is more of the nature and function as depicted in the Hanged Man.

So, In a way, yes, they are similar but have IMO a different function. Perhaps we could say that the Magician regulates the forces of 'intelligence' and The Hanged Man regulates connection to the mystical or that realm of 'mind' where consciousness is non-local ?

I was trying to be brief .... and relate mostly to Magician and Hanged Man so I only outlined the basics and left a lot of the system out.

ThusSpokeZarathustra said:

Could someone explain what it means when I see that the Magician is a conduit for the divine?

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Simple. The Magician has divine power. It's his energy-source for all of his abilities.

And even more, in RWS-based decks, he has one hand pointing to the sky and the other pointing to the ground - energy flows through him from the Gods to the material world and back again.

but I'm confused why he's the divine conduit, rather than the Hanged Man (the one close to the heavens). Or is my interpretation of the Hanged Man incorrect?

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Conduits have moving energy. The Hanged man is less like a conduit and more like a storage battery, with still energy.

nisaba said:

Simple. The Magician has divine power. It's his energy-source for all of his abilities.

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IMHO - The Magician is the CHANNEL for the power but not the SOURCE of the power. However, to get into those really nit-picky shades of meaning is best reserved for the Magician in context to a particular reading and with the other cards in the spread.

Hi, nisaba! (TB waves)

<waves back> Hi, TB!

I didn't necessarily say he was the source of the power, just that he has it. My recyclable batteries have power, but they source it from a plug in the wall, which sources it from a power station, which sources it from 25%/75% (according to my plan) solar power and coal. Which both ultimately track to the sun as the source of the power in my batteries. But the batteries undeniably have power.

I notice you didn't mention my description of his posture and how that moves power around - that implies that the power he has doesn't originate with him.

(So the Magician is probably the power lines feeding power to the house, and the Hanged Man my batteries, if I am going to be internally consistent.)

I call the Magician 'will in action'. Even 'God' cannot interfere with our will. In effect we create our own lives with the choices we make and the way we apply our will to our ends. So we are our own God, we are divine. We have the tools/elements necessary to create our world. We are a lifeforce that brings creative power 'down to earth', we manipulate the elements and energies. We have the power, it does not rest in anyone else's hands. The snake around his waist is the ouroboros, a representative of our coming in and out of lives to create whatever we're creating. Ancient eternal life, passion and purity and control of the elements. You can't blame God for anything, you are your own God (but also a part of the collective consciousness). All in one, one in all.

ETA, not sure if this means anything, but the hanged man is still linked to the divine, as an aspect of the trinity, sacrifice, waiting, discovery. Perhaps it is the giving up of the individual self through these activities/discoveries. I just had an image of him hanging from a silver cord, like in astral travelling type thing. Hanging around on earth to go through the things required to reach his full potential. Learning to look at things a different way while he's here - we all get caught up in physical life and the reality of our true nature is obscured. JC had to come down here and he was pretty 'with it' when it came to right action - and necessary sacrifices for the good of all. The father the son and the holy ghost perhaps means Father - us as the penetrating force, dare I say (even though there wasn't any actual penetrating going on in the bible - so force of will); Son- the product penetrating force produces; holy ghost, our essence and true nature, our soul.

I have no idea if this means anything of value. Take it or leave it.

The Magician in the Rider-Waite deck is giving the sign of "As above, so below" (from the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus). (The mythological archetype of the Magician is Hermes/Mercury/Thoth.) The Christian version is "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." People used to think of the gods as living in the sky, hence the references to "above" or "heaven." Now it is more common to think of the Divine Will as issuing from the Self (C. G. Jung), aka the Christ (P. F. Case, C. G. Jung) or the Holy Guardian Angel (Golden Dawn, A. Crowley, etc.).

The Magician does Magic(k). Crowley's definition of Magick is "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will." Thus the Magician causes change to occur in the world in conformity with the Divine Will (or True Will of the individual, whose source is the Self). We are all potential Magicians.

ETA. I just noticed that JoyousGirl has pretty much the same idea regarding the Magician.

I see. So, the major difference is in The Magician's innate activity, despite both cards containing divine energies. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

ThusSpokeZarathustra said:

I see. So, the major difference is in The Magician's innate activity, despite both cards containing divine energies. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

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Magician active, Hanged Man passive. I sort of think of them as the same dude in different modes: Yang and Yin.

I see all the major arcana as divine conduits . Maybe just different methods and aspects .