Tarot of the Silicon Dawn - The Magician

Just some initial musings...

The art of misdirection and distraction mastered. So intent are we on what the right hand is doing that we are completely unaware of what the left hand ('off screen) is up to. Trickster indeed!

Why are there two swords (one upright and one inverted) when there is only one representation each of the other suit markers (a wand, a coffee cup, a disc featuring a pentagram)?

Mercury - quicksilver - a liquid that masquerades as a 'solid'.

I like the modern take on the Magician image! Just think a few years ago computers and the internet would have been seen as magic and completely unbelievable! And it is a great way to learn things, accumulate knowledge, teach yourself new skills and communicate (all of which are things I associate with the magician)

I love the details in this card if you look closely...the two daggers/swords/athames...one is black handled and pointing up, and one is white handled and pointing down. Kinda makes me think of, "as above so below" and the uniting of opposites etc.

Also love the tiny lemnicate pin on the magician's hat! What are the others? Can anyone tell?

Why doesn't the wand float with the rest of the tools? Is it too earthy and grounded? Though aren't wands fire in this deck?

And another thing...does the animal mask make you think of the fool's fox? Has the mask of playing the fool been removed? The mask of innocence gone, to be replaced with the cynacism of knowledge? Or is it to tie in with Coyote who was a trickster God and another aspect of the Magician card traditionally.



Is the symbol on the necklace the one for Mercury?

I like what you say about misdirection Elendil, and the low cleavage + ample boobies certainly would prove quite distracting for some!

Her fingers appear crossed as though she is swearing to you she is not up to mischief...I solemnly swear I am up to no good (for any Harry Potter fans out there lol)

I also like the wavy swirls in the background. Is the mystical magical energy she is creating? Or perhaps a magical vortex or something? It seems to fit for this magician! Maybe she is summoning something!

Are the 3 brown blobs and little yellow dot alluding to the famous game street magicians play where the nut is hidden under a shell or cup? This is a nice link back to the marseilles style magician card of old.

I seemed to have wittered on quite a lot here and not really said much!!!

Eyebright said:

...the two daggers/swords/athames...one is black handled and pointing up, and one is white handled and pointing down. Kinda makes me think of, "as above so below" ...

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Absolutely!

The other tiny symbols are outlined by Egypt as follows:
* Earrings in the shape of the electrical symbol for transformers.
* An infinity sign (The lemniscate you spotted, Eyebright).
* A Hebrew 'Beth' (the Hebrew letter traditionally associated with this card)
* The planetary symbol for Mercury (between those huge breasts!)
* An Ibis Head pin (connection with Thoth)
* A monkey pin

The monkey pin is not fully explained - but I am certain that it establishes a link with the 'Ape of Thoth' which appears on Crowley's Magus card (The alignment of the 'cynocephalus ape' was antagonistic to that of Thoth and its intent/aim was to subvert the word of Thoth - so there's another link here to misdirection).

The three 'brown blobs and the dot' - (Don't you wish the images were bigger?) are indeed shells and a ball - in honour of the trickster/con-artist's game favoured by the traditional 'Bateleur'.

I like the link between the firefoxes and the fox mask - a bridging of these first two Majors. (There's also a fox mask on the Queen of Swords card...)

What does anyone make of the UV feature 'block' object?

I love all of the inter-relationships between the cards that I am spotting as I look through the cards. This deck really has depth and substance. Lots of links to the traditional decks, yet blazing it's own path with unique twists and the additional cards! OK gushing over!!

I was thinking of one or two things regarding the uv block...one was a deck of tarot cards, or the other was maybe a book of hidden "occult" knowledge, like a book of shadows or a grimoire. Sacred, magickal texts that are hidden, like the hidden mysteries of occult societies, sects and old religions....

ETA: or maybe it is more of Egypt's secrets hidden in the deck

Mystery block: look close. Note that it's frame is slightly wider on one side, and that there's something circular in the center of that side. Does that look like anything you might have in your purse or your pocket?

There's something else in the varnish, too.

She definitely has a shell game up there.

I kept on feeling like there was a symbol I encoded in the drawing, then forgot about in the time between that and writing the book. If there is, it's appropriate - what magician reveals all her secrets?

Egypt Urnash said:

Mystery block: look close. Note that it's frame is slightly wider on one side, and that there's something circular in the center of that side. Does that look like anything you might have in your purse or your pocket?

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I wondered if it was a chequebook - but still can't make it out clearly enough...

Egypt Urnash said:

There's something else in the varnish, too.

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Do you mean the partial 'motto' which curves over the image? Again I cannot work out what it says - if anything meaningful...

Yes I had noticed the segement of arc of whatever it is, though I don't know what it means! The Magician just tantalising us with tid bits of her knowledge?

Ahhh myabe the mystery block is a chequebook! Though why would that be there?

I guess I'll have to touch that mystery object up if there's ever a second printing and make it more obvious it's intended to be a smartphone! Now and then in dreams I find myself saying "where is my wand" while looking for my phone, so it felt pretty natural to have it be one of her tools.

As to the hidden text, all I can really say is that it came to me while i was, ah, "consulting with the holy herb of the Arabs" as Crowley put it at one point in his book for the Thoth. It was IMMENSELY IMPORTANT but (a) didn't seem to make a lick of sense when I came back to earth and (b) was honestly not an accurate rendering of the syllables ringing repeatedly in the back of my head. I figured that a bit of text completely incomprehensible to anyone but TEH INITIATED, which evidently does not include me, was an important part of the Magician!