Being a Conduit | Bringing Potential to Reality | Manifestation | Creative Action
The Magician stands poised to draw down the lightning, his right hand and wand raised to the heavens, his left index finger pointing to the earth. The lemniscate above his head represents infinity, eternity, balance and cosmic order.
Card Number 1 is about using special knowledge and skills to direct energy toward a desired outcome.The Magician channels energy. The energy does not “belong” to him. It belongs to the cosmos. He directs the energy to make things manifest. He is conscious intentional action personified.
Note the white lilies and red roses at his feet. We’ll see these again and again throughout our tour of Rider-Waite-Smith deck images. They always represent the intersection of spirit and flesh, potential and material.
You can also see all four suits of the Minor Arcana on the Magician’s table. These symbols would have been important to Waite in his ceremonial practices. In fact, Waite renamed the fourth suit to pentacles for his deck. In older decks, like the Tarot de Marseilles, the fourth suit is “coins.”
I think of this card as a prompt or affirmation to bring our own unique perspectives, talents and powers to bear in shaping our lives or creative endeavors. It is also about alignment with the universal order. We don’t struggle against the essential nature of the universe. We bring ourselves into alignment with it, and call down the lightning.
Let’s make some magic, shall we?