Manifestation vs Trickery: the Magician
The Magician
What does this card mean to you?
So, this one is for those of you who read Tarot, or for those interested in learning about the nuances of different decks, representations, interpretations, philosophies, and just straight up intuition. I recently started a study of the traditional Rider Waite Smith Tarot deck, and was on my second card when I got lost in my thoughts about the Magician. This card traditionally informs us that we have every tool within us to bring anything we envision into fruition. But, like every card in the deck, there are nuances developed through representation, translation, and meaning since the deck’s inception. Waite himself, in “The Key to the Tarot,” expressed the opposing notions that “this card signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting God,” and yet referred to “the Magus, Magician, or Juggler, the caster of the dice and mountebank, in the world of vulgar trickery.” Which is it then, is the Magician that divine within us that can accomplish any task through determination and thoughtful use of our own abilities? Or, is he the man behind the curtain, unveiled as the not-so-wonderful wizard after all?
I decided to pull some Magician cards out of a random sample of my decks with two exceptions- I purposely pulled The Light Seer’s Tarot and The Unveiled Tarot; I chose the former because it was in using this deck that I arrived upon my personal keyword for the Magician (Bad-A** Manifester), and the latter was picked because it has a Magician card that gnaws at me and that gnawing has a timely reference.
If you’re unfamiliar with The Unveiled Tarot, each card has a box, a window, by which we are afforded an ‘inside view’, an x-ray, a glance behind the veil of that which is really happening at the heart of the card. In this depiction, there is an astronaut on what appears to be our moon, and through the window we see a hustler playing the shell game, the proverbial bait-and-switch you-lose sham. Because I’m always disheartened to hear the old ‘the moon landings were faked’ ridiculousness, and especially because there are brave souls currently risking their lives on what, for me, is an enviable lunar mission, this card is personally hard to manage. I can’t say that I know the creator’s intentions with this imagery, but I feel like the guidebook seems to save it from this most nefarious interpretation by discussing how the astronaut “unifies heaven and earth” but then ruins it for me by saying “or at least makes people believe he has.” (Lonergan 13) Socio-political intentions and questionable choice of imagery aside, the scheister meaning is within the traditional realm of tarot. Most RWS style decks do not outwardly represent this aspect.
Which are we to believe then? Are we manifesting anything we set out to? Can we, like JFK, make something like a moon landing happen through sheer willpower, determination, and giving it everything we’ve got? If we dig deep, set our intentions, and use every resource in our arsenal, are we all bad-a** manifesters? Or are we just fooling ourselves, or others? Is it all just smoke and mirrors?
The Pulp Tarot gives us somewhat of a P.T. Barnum ‘there’s a sucker born every minute’ kind of vibe, with a showman and a traditional magic wand, the elements floating around him. Are there wires, or do we have magical abilities that we only need to believe in to make them manifest? The Mystical Melodies tarot deck reminds us, cartoonishly, that magic, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It doesn’t matter if magic happens- it only matters that you believe it to be so. Or, by contrast, is he using the old magician’s trick of controlling our gaze so that we do not focus on what is actually happening?
Ultimately, any deck can be interpreted any of these ways, and, as readers, we must use our intuition to determine which meaning is appearing in that moment for our querent. Tarot readers intimately understand what it’s like to be accused of fakery and showmanship. We need to remember that this shadowy interpretation of the card is legitimate. It is our responsibility to delve into every one of the 78 cards, to know them intimately and fully, so that we can be the most thorough readers, allowing our intuition to tap into any of the possible meanings of a card in any reading.
Decks:
The Light Seers Tarot by Chris-Anne
The Unveiled Tarot by Jesse Lonergan
The Pulp Tarot by Todd Alcott
Mystical Medleys A Vintage Cartoon Tarot by Gary Hall
Smoke, Ash, and Embers by Stephanie Burrows and Adam Oehlers
Tarot of the Enchanted Garden by Rossana Pala
Dang Olsen Dream Tarot by Dang Wayne Olsen
Classic RWS Taschen Tarot by Pamela Colman Smith and AE Waite
Ritual Tarot by Tiera May