Mythic Study - The Magician

wizzle

I don't know about everybody else, but I got SO many innovative and interesting insights from the postings about the Fool. You guys are better than any book and I appreciate hearing your thoughts.

I'm raring to go on a new card - The Magician
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How I see the card and what it means to me

I see a figure at a crossroad who is using a natural stone as an altar for his magical implements. His left hand is raised to receive energy from the heavens while his right hand directs this energy toward the earth. His bright read cloak stands out against the barren landscape.

To me, this set of images denotes the ability to select the right path (from the crossroad) by using our natural, intuitive magic (the rough stone altar). The well known magical implements (cup, etc.) help us deal with a choice that must be made. The raised and lowered hands indicate our empowerment to choose and to ground the energies we deal with. I see the red cloak as happy, forceful and protective. The flame on the staff will light the way when it gets dark.

After looking at this card, I realized that the majors in this deck are not numbered. I wonder why. Does anyone know?

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Book meaning - this is the god Hermes, son of Zeus and Maia. He is the guide and trickster. He taught mankind divination.

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I'm continuing in the tradition of Daizy, who gave us his personal meaning first. So cool. I can't wait to hear from ya'll!!
 

Emeraldgirl

I really like this card as the magicial. I think his red coat and white tunic says a lot about him as red and white is a very powerful colour combination. White is pure and inncocent while red is firey and passionate. Sometimes I feel that the Magician doesn't think through his actions any more than The Fool.

Hermes is also appears on the Judgement card in this deck so I am not sure if there is a link.

I also think that the wand entwined with the two snakes is very important (sorry can't remember what the symbol is called) it is a symbol of healing and medicine also apocrathey. All our ambulances have this sign on them.
 

theredfox

Its called the caduceus, associated with the yogic chakras, kundalini, and Hermes. Kundalini is related to sex energy, which is why people like Crowley wrote about sex + magic.

And of course this guy's the Magician.

I like the idea that he's 'unthinking' like the Fool: that makes sense, because essentially the Magician is a channel rather than a wilful force or potency. In that respect I think he concerns a kind of dynamic balance between opposites, like you see with the two pillars on the kaballistic Tree of Life: the creative tension between energy and form.
 

Daizdy

I love this card! :) The Magician reminds me of a character who walks in a room and his presence demands attention. Witty, charming, clever, bold, he’ll give you a choice and say, “should you or should you not” with a mischievous grin and a sly look in his eye.

You don’t know whether to trust him or not but you sense underneath, his intentions are sincere. That’s the impression his garments leave me with. The red outer garment – fiery, passionate, powerful…and underneath, the white garment, pure and innocent. The white tames the red so that it's not overbearing.

The Fool to me doesn’t know what he’s doing or where he’s going but the Magician knows very well where he’s headed. I love the way the book describes how we encounter the Magician. Always unexpected, that spark of an idea, or making a decision not on past experience but on intuition, like, “something just tells me I should do this” type thinking.

This is a great card…. :)
 

aja

Remember also that the caducus was passed on to Hermes from the seer Tiresias. The story goes that the saw 2 snakes copulating (entertwined) and with his staff he tried to separate them. Mortally wounding the female snake, he was immediately turned into a woman and lived as such for 7 years. He then saw another pair of snakes mating, repeated his action and this time wounded the male and was turned back into a man. (making him the only person then to have lived as a man and a woman). The symbol of the caducus thus brings together the totemic power of the snake and the properties and energies of opposites uniting or balancing each other.
 

wizzle

caduceus

Great story aga. Gives me a new appreciation of the caduceus, hermes and snakes.

I forgot about the trickster aspect of the M until Daizy reminded.

Question: is there an association via the caduceus of M that should be explored in terms of kundalini energy? Maybe the "thrust into being" that I associate with a staff of any kind. (ponder ponder)
 

Daizdy

Just wanted to add a few more thoughts...

I thought it odd that the image of him is so young looking but I was reading, "The Complete World of Greek Mythology" written by Richard Buxton and on two occassions he disguised himself as a young man to Priam, king of Troy and to Kalypso, a goddess. I wonder if that is why he is portrayed as a young man on the card?

The same book also says he lacks the capacity for brute force, he resorts to guile, craft and that his trademark symbol is a staff, a non-aggressive weapon which he uses to beguile mortals.

With the same barren landscape as in the Fool's card, I can just see the Fool in my mind's eye, blindly going down his path, coming to a crossroads not knowing which direction to take and a fiery, passionate young man appears to him showing him mischievously the way to go...

I understand even more how the Magician works in us. It's that intuitive feeling we have when we are faced with a decision as to which way to go. It's sudden, unexpected, a solution that hits us out of the blue...it's that gut feeling we have when the answers are unclear but we just sense that this or that direction is the one....

I really liked the way Wizzle put it, "thrust into being", and Theredfox, "tension between energy and form". I think that really sums up what the Magician is....
 

aja

Thanks!!!

Looks like a great website in general - thanks for sharing!
 

annik

An perfect combination! Hermes is a jack of all trade and I always saw magician like that. And performing would perfectly suit that particuliar god!