Connolly: The Magician

[Sophie-David]

The Connolly Magician well conveys the vibrant assertion of individuality and the masculine creative principle. Very much the showman in his stance, his eyes nonetheless conveys quiet, gentle concentration and compassionate power. The wand in his right hand draws on the energy of divine spirit, and his body becomes a symbolic conduit through which this energy manifests in his left, about to engage in transformative alchemy with the substance of the four elements. Elaine Connolly ascribes Wands to Fire, Cups to Water, Swords to Air and Pentacles to Earth.

The traditional lemniscate or infinity symbol hovers above the Magician's Crown chakra, representing the descent of the divine or spiritual into the incarnate. His red cape displays the fiery individuality and inspiration of wands, and his white robe the spiritual purity of his intent.

The Magician works in a garden of red roses and alchemical white lilies. The red rose symbolizes the alchemical masculine principle of expansive sulfur, as well as expressing the Magician's passionate love for the world. In Christian imagery, the white lily is manifest in the purity of the resurrection. Similarly, the alchemical white lily represents the promise of transformation by the feminine spirit which is inherent in the seeker's journey. But the full power of this white lily is not manifest in the Magician himself who reveals but the first initiation.

 

[MoonMaiden]

Do you notice the challenge in his eyes? His yang nature? He is appealing to our feminine side to flower into more receptivity, as his garden of blossoms reveals the alpha-to-omega, the wholeness of our true being. He is calling us out to adventure, to experience the magic of union and to entice us to the journey.

 

[Sophie-David]

Yes, his eyes are definitely his best feature, aren't they? I agree, he calls us to go beyond, to surpass the archetype which he represents. I understand that the alchemists saw Mercury - who is typically identified with the Magician - as the initiator into the unconscious. He is not himself a dweller there, as is the High Priestess, but when you have learned the lessons of the card, for which he is both gatekeeper and guide, he prepares you to continue to the next stage of the journey.

It might have been logical for Peter Connolly to have shown white roses here, to enter into union with the red. But then the card would go beyond its definition - we could stop our journey here. Each of the Tarot archetypes is unbalanced in itself; it is up to the seeker to absorb their personal meaning, to understand the work of the archetype in oneself, ultimately to harmonize all of the Majors within, and even the whole deck.

 

[MoonMaiden]

Thanks for mentioning unbalance. I wonder if that is what I perceive in the cards that makes me feel sometimes like I can't bring myself to open up to them? I feel the off-balance and, being very kinesthetic, feel moved to retreat.

 

[wandking]

Aside from the fact that the Connolly card portrays a more realistic figure, symbolism on the Magician closely matches the RWS image. Hand positions on RWS derive from a Levi quote: “Above, immensity: Below, immensity still! Immensity equals immensity” Where the Connolly image differs is in the more dynamic pose of the figure and most importantly her image seems to transmit energy through his body with a wand. Notice the symbol of Infinity glows with the same white light as the wand tip and his other hand, which conveys this energy to earth. Like RWS, I suspect the Roses and Lillies on the card are probably Biblical: Song of Solomon 2
1I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
2As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
12The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

Later in Song of Solomon 5:10, we find, "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand."

These quotes seem to confirm the feminine aspect of the Rose/Lily symbolism.

 

[MoonMaiden]

Thanks, wk. That really rounds out the card for me.

 

[Sophie-David]

Aside from the fact that the Connolly card portrays a more realistic figure, symbolism on the Magician closely matches the RWS image. Hand positions on RWS derive from a Levi quote: “Above, immensity: Below, immensity still! Immensity equals immensity” Where the Connolly image differs is in the more dynamic pose of the figure and most importantly her image seems to transmit energy through his body with a wand. Notice the symbol of Infinity glows with the same white light as the wand tip and his other hand, which conveys this energy to earth. Like RWS, I suspect the Roses and Lillies on the card are probably Biblical: Song of Solomon 2
1I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
2As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
12The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

I agree that Peter Connolly's art in this card strongly echoes the RWS version, although I personally find his interpretation more engaging. As I mentioned above, the Magician's body becomes a conduit for divine spirit - but unlike the RWS image, Peter's Magician does not point to the earth with his left hand. His palm is open, numinous with energy, perhaps reaching out to an observer to beckon or to heal.

My personal symbology of the red rose is of the internal feminine, as I use it in my avatar. But it would seem that the red rose is more commonly a masculine symbol in Western iconography, including alchemy. In the Pictoral Key to the Tarot, Arthur Waite refers to the Magician's roses and lilies as symbols of "aspiration", the desire for transcendence. There is no indication whether both genders are represented in the flowers. Some sources have suggested that the RWS Magician's aspirations are both masculine and feminine, as are his cloak and robe. But Robert O'Neill's exploration of Magician symbology connects the flowers to Golden Dawn initiation ceremonies which quote the Song of Solomon passage you mention. In this part of the erotic poetry, the bride is most definitely referring to herself. Even though the roses in the Magician are red, this would indicate that both types of the RWS Magician's flowers are feminine. Convoluted logic, ne c'est pas?

These quotes seem to confirm the feminine aspect of the Rose/Lily symbolism.

We can't be sure whether or not the Connollys used the RWS Magician imagery with the same intention as the Golden Dawn, but Eileen uses this suggestive language in the LWB, page 5:

His love and purpose are seen in the beautiful red roses and white lilies that surround him. The flaring red cloak of individuality protects him as he reaches out and masters the elements that rule himself and others.

I would see the Magician's "love", which is imaged in the red roses, as active and therefore masculine, and the Magician's "purpose", which is imaged in the white lilies, as the object of his desire which is feminine. There is also a strong parallel between the "red cloak of individuality" in the next sentence, which is clearly masculine, and the red roses in the first sentence.

But whatever the Connollys' meaning, what is more important than all else is neither the history nor the artist's intention, but how the card speaks to the reader...

 

[Sophie-David]

Meditation on the Connolly Magician

Oct. 1/04: This night I meditated on The Magician. For each meditation I realize there will be very specific music. For The Magician it was Lights in the Dark by Hector Zazou, a journey in Celtic sacred and mystic music, almost all sung in Irish Gaelic. It was an equally profound experience to the meditation on the Fool, but in quite a different way, an approach to integration which started in the analytical and penetrated to the intuitive. I think I must have had an empty mug of tea with me when I entered the meditation. Incense: Sage.

The Magician had by his power brought me to his world, just as in the picture. "It is your turn", he said. I smelled the implicit beauty of the roses, the heart of love manifest within a world of thorns. "Consider the tools before you". I saw the cup of love and sacrifice, the sword of truth and power, the pentagram of perfect harmony that is the binding matrix of all matter, the still live wand of fresh growth. I picked up each as I studied them, then placed them side by side. I commented, "But this cup has no wine." The Magician replied, "From each of these elements you must make the wine, the blood of life. You cannot make it with conscious thought or logic. Feel each element until it is part of you and you will know what to do. In doing nothing you will do everything."

I picked up the pentagram and felt the yearning, the balance of tension and relaxation in the body, the palpable intensity of life. Drops of sweat formed on my brow. Then in the vision, and physically too, I touched by forehead and placed a drop of sweat in the cup. As I did so I felt all the struggle, all the pain of life, and I bowed my head in quiet distress. A tear formed at the outer corner of my eye. Again both in the vision and physically too, I placed it in the cup. Then I rested for some time, listening to the Gaelic music. Then I breathed the energy of the life spirit into the cup. Lastly I said into the cup, "I want to drink wine." The magic of the four elements, physical, emotional, spirit and word was complete. I quietly drank down all the wine.

The magician removed his red cloak and placed it on my shoulders. As he did so the cloak turned blue and he disappeared. My hands glowed blue as I held the cup. I returned the cup to the table, then I dove into the cup, filling it with blue wine. The meditation ended.

 

[Sophie-David]

Analysis of the Meditation on the Connolly Magician

After my experience of rebirth in the Goddess my hands were flaming in blue. It seems to be the colour or aura of the high self. In the meditation, I see the blue representing both the open blue sky of the intellect and the emotional subconscious of the ocean, the integration I have called intuitive analysis. The magician in blue replaced the magician in red: Aquarian compassion replaced raw spirit. In diving into the cup, I became the message contained by the media.

The Fool applies logic and reason, in this case guided by intuition, to solve a puzzle involving the four elements. This is the first initiation. As in the High Priestess meditation which followed later, the greatest significance is the surrender of the ego, or perhaps the partially integrated self, to the story, denoted by the Fool pouring himself into the chalice as blue wine. In my experiences, blue or purple seems to be a special colour associated transformation and healing.

Incidentally, I found an interesting reference of the Magician archetype as

Enki, like Hermes and Mercurius of mediaeval alchemy, commanded the subterranean sweet waters, a metaphor for the collective unconscious. That civilisation, (which is an advancement of consciousness in a whole culture, not just an individual,) should originate from the unconscious, then be refined and brought to consciousness by the goddess who 'opens the portals of heaven' makes perfectly good sense.

from Dr. Bernard Butler's thesis on Inanna. The goddess who "opens the portals of heaven" can be seen in the High Priestess.

Thus we see the development of the intellect as the first initiation in the Fool's Journey, and the Magician is the teacher and outer gatekeeper. But when the lessons are learned then Magician has outlived his usefulness, the intellect then becomes a temporary hindrance to further growth. The Fool's developed intellect must yield, imaged in this story as the Fool becoming the blue wine of transformation. The Fool is then ready for the second initiation, that of the High Priestess, who is the inner gatekeeper and guide to the Fool's unconscious. The intellect is gradually reintegrated, through Emperor, Hierophant, Hermit and the overall integration of the last five cards of ascent, Star, Moon, Sun, Judgement and World.

There is strong circumstantial evidence that the Tarot originated in Milan during the 1420s and was influenced by Dante's Commedia or Divine Comedy, presented here and here. The Commedia was written and understood not as a work of fiction, but a story of the ascent of the soul. The Fool's Journey shares this meaning and is like a miniature of the Commedia. In the first stages of the Commedia the hero is guided by Virgil, "an allegorical symbol of human reason" through whom he can access the literal. In the next stage the hero is guided by Beatrice the Beloved, proceeding on faith into Paradisio. Lastly, St. Bernard, the "mystical insight" of the Hermit, guides the hero to his completion in heaven.

There is a fascinating reinterpretation of the Magician as the creative matrix of the four elements in this card from Blue Moon Tarot, which depicts a mother and her just birthed child. The remainder of the beautiful cards from Julie Cuccia-Watts' Major Arcana only deck can be accessed here.