Haindl Tarot - Magician

I was posting on the Haindl for awhile in the 78 Weeks study. So at the kind invitation of prk001 to rejoin it, I went back to find what I'd posted then on the Magician.

First reactions to the card:
1. All the eyes! Two pairs looking in opposite directions, plus 4 separate eyes looking left. The eyes on the center face (the Magician) are wise and expert and kind. The upper pair--are they part of the same person--his "inner eyes"? They look the opposite way--seeing alternatives.

1a. And whose are those 4 individual eyes? I had the thought that they might represent other senses--we can also "see" with touch, smell, hearing and taste.

2. The sword goes through the stone (this deck's representation of pentacles). This situation immediately makes me think of the Arthur story, where he seemed like a magician to be able to pull the sword out of the stone.

3. The wand, which looks like a lance, goes through the glass goblet, without breaking it--this is magic, indeed. The wand tip has a fiery haze--passion and action vibrate off its tip.

4. I had to read the Pollack description to know that the white pointed area are crystals. This is a hugely significant part of the card to me. Ice crystals are natural, growing things that form in the right conditions of moisture and temperature. The Magician is looking right at them--creating them with a look? He has creativity, knowledge, and skill in making them appear. The card says: look what a magician or querent can do when s/he has the right conditions and acts.

One definition of magic is "technology we don't understand yet." Perhaps the magician knows how to use it before all the rest of us do--directly related to tarot reading!

5. Each Haindl card has a stripe denoting its relation to an element. The Magician has a white stripe for air--bringing things into being from air/knowledge?

6. The warm red sun and the crescent moon in cool starry field--day and night, the Magician is capable and aware.

7. The black/white striped fabric--what is that? A material for making . . . ? The mix of dark and light that is in all of us for creating our surroundings?

8. The muted/dark colors and worn/faded canvas look of the painting--very old, found in someone's attic. Ancient knowledge brought to light.

The Magician:
The looks like the magician is all over the universe. He knows every place in the universe like the back of his hand. He has eyes everywhere and knows what is happenng in any corner.The Magician is old and wise. He looks like a person who is living eternally and his eyes are filled with knowledge, wisdom and kindness. He travels through the whole universe (including the mountains, roads, stars, planets, the sun and the moon) with ease and has everything under control. Its rather compelling to say that everything obeys him instead of him controlling them.

Its rather compelling to say that everything obeys him instead of him controlling them

Click to expand...

Like they dance to his directions instead of needing to be pushed

The Haindl Magician

First and foremost in this card is the melding of a man with what appears to be a gorilla head. Question, which has the higher knowledge? I think the reference to our relatives suggests that the magician is linked to all of the human facets, from trees, ants, and the Great Apes. He has complete knowledge of the world.

It appears that a ray emmanates from his right eye, showing crystals or steep mountain peeks. This feels to me like he incorporates all of nature, biology, geology, the universe, etc. He controls the sun in its eliptic, the moon in its wanderings, and the stars.

The eyes. He is all seeing and all knowing. His path leads to the universe of seeing, knowing, and being, as shown by the striped path to the middle right.

Regarding the sword in the stone. It take this to mean that the intellect of the swords finally comes to ground in the earth, while the action and energy of the wands is grounded in the emotional calm and intuition of the cups.

As was said above, the nature of the sword in the stone reaches back to a powerful archetype of the purity, the power, and valor of the Arthurian legends. However, here, it is the Magician, who with his "universal" abilities, who can unlock the sword, pierce the cup without losing its contents, and indeed, stop time.

The card is very comforting, because this magician becons to that essential humaness which we, as relatives of the Great Apes, as relatives of all flora and fauna on the planet can summon from within. If we use this power we can become great. We can indeed become Magicians in the truest sense.

I had never thought of the dark head rising from his head as a gorilla head, but rather as a shadow side of his personality, or dark elements of himself. (It is looking off to his left, the "sinister" side, where the eyes and moon on the card are. On his right, where his outer face looks, is the sun, and the peaks and crystals of the "rational" heights of the conscious mind.)

I really like the gorilla head idea, though. It goes well with the way that the deck seems to go back to natural forces and things which are primal.

The black and white striped material on his left I have associated with the Jewish tradition, and I am not sure why- it may be that I saw some Jewish religious or decorative object with stripes like that. (Also, the hierophant of this deck appears to be Jewish.) That interpretation of the striped material may be valid or not. I don't know.

Haindl magician

I like your interpretation of the striped road. It kind of reminds me of the clothing worn by Holocaust victims... the striped clothing they wore.

As to the gorilla head. That's what it looks like to me. I hate to say gorilla, cause by just saying the word, we create our own reality about it. I mean the head in the largest sense. That ape is really a wonderful animal, and there is a tie between us.

I didn't mean to imply that the left facing head actually is sinister, but rather that the left side and things which are dark and the nonrational are generally viewed in that way. The word sinister in latin meant "left" and the word dexter meant "right".

I certainly agree about the dignity of the great apes, and our tie with them.

The striped material on the left I've always been puzzled about. I tend to view it not as a road, but as some kind of object over which material has been stretched. The road idea is interesting.

Welcome, shandar and The Dreamer, to the Haindl Study group! Delighted to see you here! As Imagemaker commented, it's not the liveliest group, but we make up in depth what we lack in volume.

Feeling guilty that I'd only posted female court cards so far, I've added Brahma, Father of Wands, to the roster this morning. Feel free to continue with the majors (you'll need to start a thread for the High Priestess), or jump into the commentary on the court cards. If you add any threads, PM me and I'll include them in the Study Group Index.

I hope you enjoy exploring this strange and deep deck as much as I do. So far, I've found it very challenging, and haven't had much luck reading with it, but the mythology is so fascinating I appreciate it as a study project. Maybe together we will come to a greater familiarity with and understanding of his complex ideas. Here goes!

Thinking about the crystals forming, and the element of air present in the card, I came up with 'Look what you can do when you put your mind to it'.

The eyes feel mysterious to me. I see there are many more in the distance than the main four. Floating around the moon, I wonder if these are elements of the trickster, with regards to The Magician - keeping an eye open, watching your back, having eyes in the back of your head when the darker side of this guy's talents are in full force.

LB

The Magician

I think the stripes to the right of the card refer to the 2 of Stones...Harmony,The Magician can..'conjure up' harmony,bring love,after all love is..magic.
Robin