The Magician has all the power tools you could ever want. From the metaphysical perspective, the Wand, Coin, Sword and Cup provide four essential magical elements for any kind of work. Jung’s view of psychology suggests that all four functions—thinking, feeling, intuition and sensation are equally important in human life, and that balancing them within your psyche is a reasonable focus of your mind’s work.
For the Magician’s work to proceed well, he must have a high degree of ego-consciousness. Because the ego complex is rarely perceived to be conscious, at least not in the beginning, we all have to put effort into defining and refining our approach to conscious life and work. Your ego has its unique personal style. You respond and react in ways hat no one else matches completely. One goal of spiritual work is to figure out how to work with and within your own style, instead f trying to answer to other people.
In addition to the four magical implements, the Magician reflects the power of eternity in the lemniscate incorporated into the design of his hat (or situated above his head) and the rope or snake tied around his waist. The colors of his clothing—red, blue, yellow and green, along with the white shirt, indicate the many ways he apprehends and deals with the material world. His table or altar provides the ritual space for his work. And his hand gestures acknowledge the heavenly and earthly spheres in which his mind and body exist.
Right Action provides a foundation for all your work. The best Magicians cheerfully accept the nature of the Universe and work within its perceived realities. Your best effort will reap great rewards when you identify the benefits and limitations of your situation and work to make the most of the benefits while minimizing the limitations. Both serious and hopeful, you move forward into your unique future, alert to all of its possibilities.
About the Magician
"His power is not a result of intellect
and training but is rather a natural, unconscious gift. Often
magicians use the forefinger itself as a wand to direct attention
and to concentrate energy. One of the most beautiful pictorial
representations of this is Michelangelo's well-known Creation
on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
"On the one hand he can put us in
touch with the Great Round of unity. On the other hand he
can help us to separate out its elements for examination.
"The ego alone cannot effect ... magic.
Only our inner Magician can master the intricate choreography
of revelation. Only he can demonstrate the correspondence
between the central core and its outer wrappings; only he
can reveal that they are made of the same stuff."
- Sallie Nichols
"When truth is pressed against a thing, its eternal principles
are revealed. Truth is correct knowledge, and this correct
knowledge, if comprehensive, embraces the proper relation
of things. Thus truth is a freeing and transmuting power,
a feeling as well as an intellectual perception."
- C. C. Zain
"One, and One only, am I in essence,
Changeless and indivisible;
Concealing within my being
The Ten Lights of divine emanation.
"In this, mine unalterable unity,
Am I supreme,
And none is equal unto me.
Yet though I myself remain unchanged
Throughout eternity,
My power doth manifest itself in ceaseless change."
- Paul Foster Case
We all know that the oak tree comes from the tiny acorn. Yet
the difference between the two is enormous. We all experience
the difference between the logical mind that using trained
reasoning techniques and the feeling component of the personality
that simply says, "I like it," or "I don't like it." Yet as
much as the acorn is the oak tree, the intellect and
feeling components of personality are manifestations of the
same being.
Sources
Zain, C. C., The Sacred Tarot. Los Angeles, The Church of
Light, 1936.
Nichols, Sallie, Jung and Tarot:
An Archetypal Journey. York Beach, Maine, Samuel Weiser, 1980.
Case, Paul Foster, The Book of Tokens: 22 Meditations on the Ageless Wisdom. Los Angeles, Builder of the Adytum, 1968. Quoted with permission from Builders of the Adytum, 5101 North Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA. 90042; http://www.bota.org/. Permission to use Builders of the Adytum images in no way constitutes endorsement of the material on this site.
De Angelis, Roberto, Universal Tarot Deck. Torino, Italy: Lo Scarabeo, 2003. Lo Scarabeo has graciously granted permission for the use of the Tarot images on this site. Copying the images without their permission wuld be a violation of copyright law.
