78 Weeks: Bateleur / Magician

Anna

THOTH

Card name ~ The Magus

Keyword ~ none
Element ~ Air
Tree of Life attributions ~ none
Astrological / other attributions ~ Hebrew letter Beth, meaning house. The planet Mercury

First impressions
So if the Fool represents potential, an the raw materials needed to create life, then the Magus must represent what has been “birthed”. Lots of blue and gold – feels very masculine. The Magus looks more like a beautiful golden statue than an actual person. The 4 elements surrounding him are as I would of expected, but who is that weird monkey creature? And why does he look like he’s been impaled on a blue pole?

From the Book of Thoth
The French title of this card is “Le Bateleur”, the bearer of the baton. (I would take issue with this interpretation, as my Marseille studies found that this name cannot be properly interpreted into English, and was the name of a medieval figure, who travelled from village to village performing).
Mercury is the bearer of the wan: Energy sent forth. This card therefore represents Wisdom, the Will, the Word, the Logos by who the worlds were created.
He is the son, the manifestation in act of the idea of the Father.
He is the male correlative of the High Priestess
Mercury represents action in all forms and phases. He is thus continuous creation.
Being the Word, he is the law of reason, or of necessity or chance, which is the secret meaning of the Word. Because he is duality, he represents both truth and falsehood, wisdom and folly.
Being the unexpected, he unsettles the unsettles any established idea and therefore appears tricky.
He has no conscience, being creative. If he cannot achieve his ends by fair means, he does it by foul.
In the traditional card the disguise is that of a Juggler. This representation is one of the crudest and least satisfactory of the medieval pack. He is usually represented with a headdress shaped like the sign of infinity. He bears a wand with a knob at each end, which was probably connected with the dual polarity of electricity, but it is also the hollow wand of Prometheus that brings fire down from heaven. On the table below where he is standing are the 3 other elemental weapons.

Images and Symbolism
The principal characteristic of Tahuti or Thoth, the Egyptian Mercury, is firstly, he has the head of Ibis. The Ibis is the symbol of concentration, because it was supposed that this bird stood continuously on one leg motionless.
The phoenix wand, symbolising resurrection through the generative process.
The style and the papyrus – mercury is the messenger of the Gods, he transmits their will by hieroglyphs and records their acts. But, it was seen from very early times that the use of speech or writing meant the introduction of ambiguity at best, and falsehood at worst

Crowley’s divinatory meaning
The meanings are implied through the chapter: wisdom and the will. Continuous creation.
Truth and falsehood, wisdom and folly

Traditional meanings (Marseille/RWS)

In the Marseille decks, Le Bateleur is the first of the Major Arcana. He is depicted as a young man, standing behind a 3 legged table, performing what appears to be magic tricks, however, if you look closely you can see all of the 4 elements represented on the table. Usually in his left hand, he holds a double ended baton. His hat often appears to represent the mathematical symbol of infinity.

From Tarotpedia: “The following definition is given by the ‘Dictionnaire de L’Académie Française’ (1762):Bateleur, euse. One who does conjuring tricks. "This Bateleur is very skilful, very sharp-witted." People who join the theatre in public places, like charlatans, cord dancers, jokers, are also called that way. "He enjoys watching the Bateleurs." It is said of a man who enjoys doing small flexible movements (tours de souplesse) that "He does the Bateleur".

The Bateleur is not a magician. There is no English equivalent for this word, and these characters are specific to France in the Middle Ages. The Bateleur was a musician, an entertainer, a singer, a dancer, a juggler and and magician (as in pulling rabbits out of hats, NOT doing magic). He travelled all the time, from town to town, and he was someone who brought news about far away places. He knew and learned all of the myths, stories and legends, both old and new, and this is what his songs would have been about. Royalty would invite the Bateleurs to come to entertain them, however, they were not approved of by the Church.

In the RWS, I have come to read this card as willpower and daring. As absolutely setting your mind to something and KNOWING it will come to pass as you want it too.

From Thirteen’s meanings: “the Magician is the male power of creation by willpower and desire. The lemniscate (infinity symbol) over his head indicates the energy of thought. Thus, he draws divine power down from the heavens into his white wand, molds it with that energy of thought, and makes it manifest on Earth (his finger pointing to the ground). This is that most ancient magic to make real whatever he imagines in his head merely by saying it aloud. He's the only card in the major arcana that refers to the minors with the "trumps" displayed upon his table. One way to look at them is as ideas that the Magician is offering you. Thus, the card is about getting an idea and finding a way to verbalize it. This is the first step toward making it a reality. Which is why the Magician can indicate a time when one is eloquent and charismatic, clever, witty, inventive and persuasive. Keep in mind, however, that the Magician could be a trickster.

My take on the card

In my old notes, I’ve written that Le Bateleur is taking a huge risk: that by starting out on his journey through the arcana, he has everything to loose. I used to have a poster on my wall that read “What if your fears and dreams existed in the same place. What if to get to Heaven, you had to brave hell? What if everything you ever wanted cost you everything you’ve ever achieved? Would you still go there?” That’s how this card makes me feel. It’s making the first mark on a piece of white paper. What if you do it wrong? Once you start, there’s no going back.

The work of the Bateleur and the work of the Magician is dangerous. That’s what they have in common. It was dangerous to travel medieval France alone, outside from society, visiting everywhere but never really belonging anywhere. It’s also dangerous to magically bring new ideas into being. That also places you outside from society. I think that these opposing images of this arcana are more similar than I’d thought. They are almost two different representations of the same thing. They can be read at one level as representing taboo, doing the opposite of what is socially required. To do this is to take the first steps down the Left Hand Path which ultimately leads to the full liberation of The Devil… or perhaps the World.

The Magician is masculine, and active, and so he represents the Male way. The Male way is active. It is to rush in and do, no to stand back and think. It is to apply strength, not cunning. Wisdom and knowledge, not intuition and instinct.

There is an arrogance about this card that I do not like. This beautiful golden statue is almost too perfect, too beautiful. It reminds me of a beautiful looking young man, who underneath has a heart that is cold and even cruel. It’s all surface level, there is no substance. And I think this relates to the fact that Magician is the new. He is the idea just born, without experience, without learning… just the sheer arrogance and naivety of youth. The energy has been sent forth, but it has not learned anything. It has not grown, adapted or changed. So, I would read an element of folly into this card. And also of a need to looking beneath the surface to find if there is any real depth there, or if it is just a beautiful illusion. Conversely, I might read it as a need for boldness, of making your mark, taking action, and taking on some of that arrogance; knowing what you want to do, and then doing it without deliberating and worrying about it.
 

gregory

Card name - Magus
First impressions

Something of a relief after the Fool :) It looks like Mercury, and I note the four suits are represented among the things flying around him. There is also a staff, something that looks like a bag of money, an arrow (?) and a parchment. He is in front of a caduceus which makes him look as though there are snakes coiling around his head – or coming from it. He stands in a balletic pose (en pointe !) on the tip of a strange split oval – which apparently represents the mountain of the unconscious. From his heels are massive wings. To his left (our right) an angry looking ape, Hanuman, I think, behind the wings. I have to say the wings are very – unwinglike, to me. They are just too massive and I feel like the figure would not be able to balance when using them ! I don't like the look of the guy. He LOOKS like one of those very superior doctors you run up against, the kind who tells you that he knows your knee hurts, but you actually have a nosebleed.
He also looks very childlike, in a way. Or - more - like an opinionated teenager. HE KNOWS and you can do the other thing !
I know he represents Hermes Trismegistus, but this is about what I SAW !

Frieda says in the essays:
The Magician or Juggler.’ Mercury. who is Wisdom. Will and Word, by whom the world is created. symbolises the fluidic basis of all transmission of activity. Behind him and through him is the Ape, Hanuman. which is a Hindu conception. The Egyptian counterpart, Thoth, is also always followed by the Cynocephalus Ape.

Meaning (from Wasserman):
Skill. Wisdom. Adroitness. Elasticity, craft Cunning, Deceit, Theft. Sometimes occult wisdom or power. Messages. Business transactions.Ill-dignified: learning or intelligence interfering with the matter at hand.

Images and Symbolism
From the Book of Thoth:


In brief, he is the Son, the manifestation in act of the idea of the Father. He is the male correlative of the High Priestess. Let there be no confusion here on account of the fundamental doctrine of the Sun and Moon as the Second Harmonics to the Lingam and the Yoni; for, as will be seen in the citation from The Paris Working, (see Appendix) the creative Mercury is of the nature of the Sun. But Mercury is the Path leading from Kether to Binah, the Understanding; and thus He is the messenger of the gods, represents precisely that Lingam, the Word of creation whose speech is silence.

This card is referred to the letter Beth, which means a house, and is attributed to the planet Mercury. The ideas connected with this symbol are so complex and so multifarious that it seems better to attach to this general description certain documents which bear upon different aspects of this card. The whole will then form an adequate basis for the full interpretation of the card through study, meditation, and use.
<snip>
From the above it will appear that this card is the second emanation from the Crown, and therefore, in a sense, the adult form of the first emanation, the Fool, whose letter is Aleph, the Unity. These ideas are so subtle and so tenuous, on these exalted planes of thought, that definition is impossible. It is not even desirable, because it is the nature of these ideas to flow one into the other. One cannot do more than say that any given hieroglyph represents a slight insistence upon some particular form of a pantomorphous idea. In this card, the emphasis is upon the creative and dualistic character of the path of Beth.

In the traditional card the disguise is that of a Juggler.
This representation of the Juggler is one of the crudest and least satisfactory in the medieval pack. He is usually represented with a headdress shaped like the sign of infinity in mathematics (this is shown in detail in the card called the Two of Disks). He bears a wand with a knob at each end, which was probably connected with the dual polarity of electricity; but it is also the hollow wand of Prometheus that brings down fire from Heaven. On a table or altar, behind which he is standing, are the three other elemental weapons.
“With the Wand createth He.
With the Cup preserveth He.
With the Dagger destroyeth He.
With the Coin redeemeth He.”
Liber Magi vv. 7-10.”
The present card has been designed principally upon the Graeco-Egyptian tradition; for the understanding of this idea was certainly further advanced when these philosophies modified each other, than elsewhere at any time.

I saw the card first as showing Mercury – which figures, as in BoT, Crowley says:
To continue the identification, compare Christ’s descent into hell with the function of Hermes as guide of the dead. Also Hermes leading up Eurydice, and Christ raising up Jairus’ daughter.
There are 8 magical objects floating around him – the disk, censer, wand, pen, scroll, winged egg, cup and dagger. They are the four elements – as represented by the four suits - and the fifth – spirit - and three more tools – the wand of double power (Horus), Stylus and Scroll (Thoth). Everyone writing this up seems to see the Magus as androgynous. I can’t buy into that, and the “swastika” posed card that was rejected is very definitely male. The book of Thoth refers to the Magus as male, too.

On further reading:
Extraordinarily, Banzhaf has one of the alternative Magus cards as his illustration, and much of what he says kind of falls as you can’t help wondering what he was looking at when he wrote the book ! – the words match the card Crowley selected, but still…. Sloppy !
But following that up, Duquette quotes the “original design” (from Crowley 777) as saying: “His attitude suggests the shape of the Swastika or thunderbolt, the message of God.” – and THAT fits the third magus card we all know and love. Here they all are together.
The Magician represents the second highest level of spiritual illumination. The figure represents the glyph of Mercury as shown here. The ape of Thoth mocks him and distorts his words (I think here of Cassandra, who spoke truth and was mocked and disbelieved !) And the winged egg is the pre-existent Zero, the source of all positive manifestation. There is also a blue dove on the head of the caduceus, indicating the feminine principle ?

My take (what I make of it/what I might see in a reading where I drew it)

It looks very freeing, liberating. I guess I would have to say causing change by sheer determination and using everything at your disposal – which is a very liberating thing to do. But - for some reason it also looks very dangerous. I think I would also counsel caution !
 

jackdaw*

I The Magician (Rider Waite Tarot)

First Impressions
The Magician in the Rider Waite Tarot is much more ceremonial a figure than the Fool who came before him. He wears a long white robe belted by a silver snake around his waist, and covered by a red cloak. He is dark haired, youthful and, as far as I can see, androgynous. One hand holds up a carved wand of some kind, the other points to the ground. Over his head floats a lemniscate – ∞ – the symbol for infinity. He stands just behind a sturdy wooden table with elaborately carved edges and legs; it holds the suit symbols of the Tarot: a plain wooden staff or Wand, a tall gold Cup, an unsheathed Sword and a gold Pentacle the size of a dinner plate. However, the Magician is not looking at these treasures, but straight out at his unseen audience with an assertive and confident expression. So perhaps they’re not actual treasures, but props or tools. The table and Magician stand knee-deep in a tangle of white Easter lilies and red roses. Overhead dangles a hanging bower of more red roses. So clearly they are outside.

I see this Magician as facing an unseen audience. Not a street performer or trickster like the Bateleur of the Tarot de Marseille, but more like a priest or acolyte performing a rite. He is confident because he has the power, and he knows it, and he’s got his audience (congregation?) eating out of the palm of his hand.

When reading, this is a card that to me always should be so all-encompassing that I have trouble putting a finger on exactly what I think it should mean. What conclusions have I reached, then: Power, resourcefulness, obviously. Having the tools for the job. Confidence in his own abilities.

But I don’t get that from this rendition. What do I see instead? A wimpy androgynous figure in his nightshirt, posing before a big old table. And yellow, lots of yellow.

The Magician Versus le Bateleur
I didn’t know why this Magician doesn’t resonate with me. But reading through this thread, for others’ findings in their own 78-week studies, and back in 2003, Mimers asked:
Why did Arthur Waite go out of his way to make his Magician so goody goody.

She put into words what I was thinking but couldn’t quite articulate. Because I much prefer the down-to-earth Bateleur – the trickster, the mountebank getting by on his wits, his loaded dice, his sleight of hand and his sharp eye out for the authorities – to the Rider Waite’s wispy and esoteric Magician.

Le Bateleur makes me think of a street busker, a travelling salesman or a carnie in a seedy travelling show. You would quite easily find yourself dazzled and charmed by him, and find out after he’d packed up his show and left town that your wallet is missing and your credit card is maxed out, or you are the proud owner of ten boxes of snake oil. Not a character you’d trust, but you have to grudgingly admire his wits and showmanship.

Does the Magician have anything in common with his ancestor? Well, I can see a vague resemblance. The table, the tools of the trade. The hint of a lemniscate in le Bateleur’s hat brim. But while in the Tarot de Marseille these are very literal objects (the tools, I mean), they are symbolic in the Rider Waite Tarot. See the whole “as above, so below” thing: it’s as if Waite was so focused on making this the key theme of the card that he emphasized it to the exclusion of all else.

I guess I prefer le Bateleur because he seems more in control. Of his surroundings, of himself, of his destiny. Rather than just channeling spirits or divine energies, things you can’t see or feel, he is actually taking charge and doing it for himself. It’s as if the Magician’s power is all in his mind. I think such an active and masculine archetype should have a more tangible control, and I don’t get that impression from Waite’s card. But I do from other decks that are supposedly based on the Rider Waite: take the Robin Wood Tarot’s Magician card. This is a man (and what a man!) who channels energy, who is clearly master of his own domain without being shady. Sexy, confident, with years of experience behind him, he holds power literally in the palm of his hand. So it’s just Waite’s rendition that lacks that vital essence?

Creator’s Notes
Waite says in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot:
Waite said:
A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the countenance of divine Apollo, with smile of confidence and shining eyes.
Apollo was usually shown as young and beautiful. This would explain the youth and beauty of this Magician which seems to me to be unfitting the archetype; I wonder why the youth was so important to Waite, aside from the comparison to Apollo. I prefer the ones that show him as aged and experienced, like the Robin Wood (yes, I’ve got a bit of a thing for that card :laugh:). This version shows him to be young and somewhat useless. You just know his hands must be lily-white, soft and uncallused.

Waite said:
Above his head is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming the figure 8 in a horizontal position. About his waist is a serpent-cincture, the serpent appearing to devour its own tail. This is familiar to most as a conventional symbol of eternity, but here it indicates more especially the eternity of attainment in the spirit.
So, two symbols of infinity and endlessness. Obviously a key symbol, a key element, in this card.

Waite said:
In the Magician's right hand is a wand raised towards heaven, while the left hand is pointing to the earth. This dual sign is known in very high grades of the Instituted Mysteries; it shews the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above and derived to things below. The suggestion throughout is therefore the possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit.
That being the case, I assume I am to read the Magician as a conduit or middle man, the one who receives the light, grace and virtue and channels it further down to us mere mortals.

Waite said:
On the table in front of the Magician are the symbols of the four Tarot suits, signifying the elements of natural life, which lie like counters before the adept, and he adapts them as he wills.
After the spiritual aspect of the Magician’s posture, the four suit elements tie him to the material world, and to willpower; the tools needed in that world.

Waite said:
Beneath are roses and lilies, the flos campi and lilium convallium, changed into garden flowers, to shew the culture of aspiration. This card signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting God, the will in the liberation of its union with that which is above. It is also the unity of individual being on all planes, and in a very high sense it is thought, in the fixation thereof.
Waite is essentially saying, as I see it, that the entire card can be summed up by the positions of the Magician’s hands: the reconciliation of the higher spiritual and lower earthly planes. As above, so below.

Waite said:
With further reference to what I have called the sign of life and its connexion with the number 8, it may be remembered that Christian Gnosticism speaks of rebirth in Christ as a change "unto the Ogdoad." The mystic number is termed Jerusalem above, the Land flowing with Milk and Honey, the Holy Spirit and the Land of the Lord. According to Martinism, 8 is the number of Christ.
The number 8 refers to the Ogdoad, a cult of eight deities that included Hathor, Ra, Thoth, etc., and big in Gnostic systems. Makes sense, as the Golden Dawn was big into Thoth.

Others’ Interpretations
Waite says in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot:
Waite said:
1. THE MAGICIAN.--Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety; sickness, pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will; the Querent, if male. Reversed: Physician, Magus, mental disease, disgrace, disquiet.

Symbols and Attributes
Astrologically the Magician is connected to the planet Mercury. As the planet closest to the sun, it has a short orbit and moves fast. It represents communication and delivery of messages (as per the god Mercury or Hermes); the Magician is thus very capable at delivering the processes of his internal thoughts, feelings and workings to the outside world.

Key symbols in this card are the position of the Magician’s hands, the infinity symbols, the table and its contents and the roses and lilies.

One of the Magician’s hands points the wand heavenward as his arm is fully extended. The other points with his index finger to the earth. This relates to the principle of “as above, so below” – one of the seven principles of Western Hermeticism. According to The Emerald Tablet: “That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above, corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Thing”. In other words, as far as I can make out, what happens on one level happens on all others. What is happening on the spiritual or divine plane will be reflected on the earthly plane. I guess this reinforces Waite’s image of the Magician as a creature of spirit, a conduit from the spiritual to the mundane. What happens in the divine, in the unseen worlds, the Magician pulls down to earth for application here. Pretty powerful stuff, I suppose, but hard to draw unless you were a Frieda Harris. I guess that’s why this Magician falls flat and seems to be doing nothing. I mean, no disrespect to Pixie or anything, but her style doesn’t seem to lend itself to drawing a concept as abstract as that.

There are two symbols on this card that represent infinity. The first and most obvious is the lemniscate, the ∞ shape above the Magician’s head. It is both a mystical and a mathematical symbol (it is used in calculus to represent any number so big as to be infinite, or close enough to infinite to make no real difference, and is the context in which I knew this symbol long before I knew what a lemniscate was or even what Tarot was), which I think nicely connects the spiritual and rational world of this card. The second symbol is the ouroboros, the circular symbol of the snake eating his own tail which the Magician wears around his waist as a girdle. Being circular, it has no beginning and no end. Both of these symbols relate the Magician to timelessness, being both outside of time and endless.

Given the Magician’s appearance to me as a priest or initiate of some sacred tradition, I see the table as an altar. The elaborate carving on the sides and legs would support this theory. But it is also a throwback to the older tradition in Tarot, showing the Magician as le Bateleur or il Bagatto – a craftsman or performer, standing with his work table. The four tools on the table – the wand, cup, sword and pentacle – represent the four suits in the Minor Arcana. They could be simply to tie this archetype to the workaday world of the Minor Arcana, or more symbolically they might tie him to the four elements they represent: Fire (Wands), Water (Cups), Air (Swords) and Earth (Pentacles). This represents his power, his mastery of the elements, and his control of them as his tools.

If the suit emblems on the table can be seen as tools, there might be something to the fact that only half of the table seems to be shown in the card. So the four suit symbols of the Minor Arcana are only the visible tools and even the Wand and Sword are not fully shown. Given his mystical nature I see this as relating to the mysteries to which he has been initiated, that not all of his tools, not all of his sacred symbols, are for the eyes of the uninitiated.

The Magician, table and all, stands beneath an arbour of overhanging red roses. More red roses, and white lilies, grow on the ground around the Magician and the legs of the table. Clearly, roses are important to Waite in the symbolism of this card. When red, roses are said to represent desire and passion – something needed to harness the great energy this Magician is supposed to channel. White lilies could represent truth. Or, as seen from its prevalence as a symbol of Easter, also stands for the resurrected Christ. Another symbol of eternity, infinity.

My Interpretation
To me, this card should represent masculine, active, positive energy. It is a powerful archetype, with great creative energy and ability. It is about harnessing the power of the four elements, the aspects of everyday life, and bringing them under one’s own control. At least it should be. I think I have a problem with this card because it’s too steeped in secret traditions and initiations and such for my liking. Hence my preference for le Bateleur.

Waite’s version is about accessing the mental, the spiritual, the mystical, the divine, the infinite, and bringing them down to the everyday physical realm. He’s more of a conduit or a pipeline than one who actually brings it all about. He holds the four suit emblems of the Minor Arcana before him; he also acts as a go-between, bringing the mundane of the minors to the bigger-picture trumps.

He is privy to secrets, hence his status as an initiate. But he is more occupied with bringing these mysteries into the physical world than he is with guarding them. So he appears to be performing for an audience. He has all his cards (or at least his tools) on the table. Or does he? He certainly gives that impression, although it’s also possible he has a few select things hidden away from prying eyes.

As a person, I believe it represents teachers, leaders and guides of a spiritual nature. A far cry from the artisan of le Bateleur. But also a card of showmen, of keepers of knowledge. He has the tools to achieve much, in his own way. I just wish this was better implied by the card’s illustration.

Recolouring
I think this card should be more dramatically coloured, make this guy more showy, more flashy. So I’ve decided on a bolder background (red? Gold?) and starker black robes with red and gold/silver accents. Very bold and powerful, because I think that as it is he’s very wispy. If he’s tapped into such power as Waite hints at, I think he should show it more. And less yellow. It fits some cards (like the Fool, the Sun; to me, yellow is a happy colour), but not here.
 

Attachments

  • 1-at.JPG
    1-at.JPG
    36.7 KB · Views: 389

arya ishtar

new kid Q about archived RWS magician discussion...

hello. am excited to be here. found this - http://www.tarotforum.net/archive/index.php/f-58.html - and decided to start at post #1. (there are 888!) i have some questions and comments. is archived stuff dead to the discussion or am i just not looking in the right place. (did searches for RWS-1 magician like the title, spelled it out, and tried a few others to no avail.) anyway, glad to be here and will read up on this thread and the archived stuff and come back and grill you all unmercifully. (remember the kid who asked "why?" all the time? that's me!) :)
 

gregory

hello. am excited to be here. found this - http://www.tarotforum.net/archive/index.php/f-58.html - and decided to start at post #1. (there are 888!) i have some questions and comments. is archived stuff dead to the discussion or am i just not looking in the right place. (did searches for RWS-1 magician like the title, spelled it out, and tried a few others to no avail.) anyway, glad to be here and will read up on this thread and the archived stuff and come back and grill you all unmercifully. (remember the kid who asked "why?" all the time? that's me!) :)
You aren't really in the right place - no. These threads are for people doing the 78 card study. We have each spent a week studying each card, in various decks, and then we write it up. Read the threads by all means but no-one's likely to come back and answer questions.

Here are the threads explaining it:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=20021
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=73120

If you want to discuss the Waite cards with people your best bet is the Rider Waite forum area:

http://www.tarotforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=58

And no - one cannot add to archive threads.