This week’s Tarot card is ‘The Magician’. It is the second card of the Major Arcana after ‘The Fool’ even though it has the number one attached to it. When looking at the Rider Waite image, it is of a magician dressed in a red and white robe. His right hand extended vertically to the sky holding his wand while his left arm and finger points downwards to the earth. A hint than that he has the desire to turn inspiration from Spirit into physical manifestation. In front of him is his altar and it features a sword, a pentacle, a cup and a wand. All symbols of each suit of the minor arcana. He also has the infinity symbol above him, and it further highlights this when you look at his waist and see a snake eating his own tail. You could write a mini essay on the symbolism of this card and the deeper meanings hidden within (maybe another time…) but ultimately this is a man of action. He has before him all the tools to succeed and the will to act upon it.
Traditionally than, when this card appears, he points to the talents and capabilities at the persons disposal to succeed. They have all they need to get something going. The time is right to move forward and to fulfil their potential.
Yet I find when this card comes out in a client’s readings it also brings up another more complex dynamic to the table. This card always comes up when the person is full of self-doubt and has a deep insecurity. It as if once the desire comes to fulfil a dream, to create that project, to maybe act on their inspiration, another force rises at the same time to counter it. This force comes from the egoic mind, bringing with him a sense of unworthiness, an insecurity that the risk of failure is too great. A sense you have not the will or power to go against the grain, to branch out away from the crowd, to create something that others may even disagree with, or at worst hate.
This meeting of internal forces is not a coincidence. It is the archetype of the knight rescuing the princess from the tower. The positive aspect of the masculine will, helping the creative energy of the feminine be free to express itself. However, as we all know in these stories, a monster stands in the hero’s way. A monster that has slain many who have tried before, a powerful force that mocks the hero and shows him the bones of all the Divine inspiration that has not been acted on before. This is a monster that must now be tamed.
If you think the mind being a monster is an exaggeration, I present that it is indeed this until it has merged into your heart. Before that It will forever be your nemesis. ‘The Magician’ then is the card reminding you of your own power and what can lie in wait if we tame the monster.
So how does the hero do it? How does he reunite the masculine and feminine? How does he overcome the creature before him? The one mocking him, daring him to come closer.
The hero looks at the others who were slain before him. Perhaps there is a different strategy? Perhaps fighting it is not the answer. As a slow realisation creeps across the face of the hero, the monster stops laughing. It instead becomes aggressive, baring its teeth, rising as big as it can.
The hero drops his shield and sword. Such is his certainty now, he even removes his armour and stands naked before the beast. He will not fight this monster. He will take his attention away from it. The monster roars, threatens his death, calls him a failure, reminds him of past hurt, desperate to steer the attention back to him. The hero walks past him ignoring everything he sees and hears. The monster realising his illusion has been shattered skulks off to his hole, defeated.
The hero walks towards the princess. The monster’s last words come to him then. ‘I will be back, I will test you again when you are weaker. When you are tired, worn out, I will come again. For I too am an aspect of Spirit, for without me how will you get stronger?’
As the hero embraces the princess, he whispers words he knows the monster can hear. ‘I will be ready’.