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The Magician

MAJOR ARCANA · I

The Magician is card I of the major arcana. It shows a figure standing at a table, one hand pointing to the sky and the other to the earth. Upright, it stands for will, creation and having what you need; reversed, for wasted effort, trickery and lack of preparation.

Name and number

Upright meaning

Keywords: will, creation, skill, focus, taking action

If the Fool is "someone setting out with nothing," the Magician is "someone laying out tools and getting to work." On his table lie a cup, a wand, a sword and a pentacle (a coin): the emblems of all four suits of the minor arcana.

The upright Magician says that the materials and skills you need to make something real are already in your hands. All that is left is to begin, with will. It is a reassuring card for active moments: putting ideas into words, turning plans into action, reaching out to others. It can also stand for talent, dexterity and a way with words.

Reversed meaning

Keywords: wasted effort, trickery, lack of preparation, indecision

Reversed, the Magician is read as power that is not working well.

The tools are there, but you have not settled how to use them, and enthusiasm runs ahead and spins its wheels. Or you start before you are ready. Another reading recalls the Magician's original form, the conjurer, at his worst: using a smooth tongue or clever presentation to hide a lack of substance, or trying to manipulate people. Consider both sides: whether you are doing this, and whether someone else is.

What the picture shows

• One hand to the sky, one to the earth: said to show his role of receiving power from above and giving it form below. It is linked with the old saying "As above, so below."
• The infinity sign (∞) above his head: unending power and possibility.
• The four tools on the table: cup (feeling), wand (will and passion), sword (thought) and pentacle (matter, money). The four elements that make up the world are all within reach.
• Roses and lilies: in the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, red roses and white lilies, said to stand for passion and purity. The Magician's red cloak over a white robe repeats the pair.
• The belt: in the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, a snake biting its own tail (the ouroboros), a sign of eternity.

History

The Magician began as a card of the town conjurer or street performer, with nothing to do with "magic."

In the fifteenth-century Italian Visconti–Sforza deck, a man in a large hat sits at a table laid with small objects such as a cup and a knife. His Italian name, Bagatto, is thought to refer to a conjurer or a seller of trinkets.

In the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Tarot of Marseille he is called Le Bateleur, the street performer. He stands behind a table with cups, dice, a knife and a small bag, holding a short wand: the props of the cups-and-balls trick. Some say the shape of his broad-brimmed hat inspired the later infinity sign.

When nineteenth-century esoteric writers reinterpreted tarot, this conjurer came to be read as a "magician" who acts on the world through the power of will. The Rider–Waite–Smith deck followed this view, replacing the props on the table with the emblems of the four suits and redrawing him pointing to heaven and earth. His English name, "the Magician," also comes from this tradition.

Correspondences

Mercury is the planet of wit, words, trade and dexterity, and it is linked with the Magician's skill and his way with words.

Previous and next cards

• Previous: 0 The Fool
• Next: 2 The High Priestess
• The major arcana

Lucky colors for The Magician