Bean Feasa
The ToP magician is a wonderfully decorative figure. He wears a gold headdress so elaborate that it seems gold foliage is sprouting from his head - signifying his fertile and creative mind perhaps. In front of him is a small table - a games table, the book tells us. The table-top has sweeping curves to its edges, and evocative-looking faces carved between swirls on its legs. Do these faces hint that the Magician may wear many masks?
In traditional pose, he points a red and gold wand heavenwards and a gold flower springs from his left hand, which reaches down towards the earth. His skin is a healthy shade of gold - somehow I could imagine this guy lolling on a beach in some exclusive resort, carefully watching his fellow holidaymakers from behind mirror shades. His robes are a dramatic shade of scarlet and look very carefully arranged.
The ToP Magician encompasses both the trickster and the genuine elements of the archetype. His magnificent clothes, carefully-chosen tools and props and his slightly histrionic version of the pose suggest that he is well aware of the powers of illusion and sleight-of-hand. And yet the extraordinary, looming impression of the god Mercury in the crystalline backdrop seems to say that he really has the ability to evoke spirit and channel energy in truly wizard-like fashion.
The book mentions the Magician's associations with the alchemists of whom there were so many in Prague, but goes on to say that while they 'laboured for years' to reach their goal, the Magician does his thing 'effortlessly in a moment of energy and inspiration'. Funnily enough though when I was making my notes for this, before I read the piece in the book, I had the opposite impression - I thought his eyebrows looked drawn together in a frown of concentration, and that there was a certain degree of tension in his stance, making me think that perhaps he's under some stress to sustain the focus of his magic. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
In traditional pose, he points a red and gold wand heavenwards and a gold flower springs from his left hand, which reaches down towards the earth. His skin is a healthy shade of gold - somehow I could imagine this guy lolling on a beach in some exclusive resort, carefully watching his fellow holidaymakers from behind mirror shades. His robes are a dramatic shade of scarlet and look very carefully arranged.
The ToP Magician encompasses both the trickster and the genuine elements of the archetype. His magnificent clothes, carefully-chosen tools and props and his slightly histrionic version of the pose suggest that he is well aware of the powers of illusion and sleight-of-hand. And yet the extraordinary, looming impression of the god Mercury in the crystalline backdrop seems to say that he really has the ability to evoke spirit and channel energy in truly wizard-like fashion.
The book mentions the Magician's associations with the alchemists of whom there were so many in Prague, but goes on to say that while they 'laboured for years' to reach their goal, the Magician does his thing 'effortlessly in a moment of energy and inspiration'. Funnily enough though when I was making my notes for this, before I read the piece in the book, I had the opposite impression - I thought his eyebrows looked drawn together in a frown of concentration, and that there was a certain degree of tension in his stance, making me think that perhaps he's under some stress to sustain the focus of his magic. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?