Tarot Meditations – The Magician

The wild ride through the tarot has begun. This week the book club started chapter one of “The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic” by Eliphas Levi. Which means we are diving into the depths of the tarot.

Most people know the tarot as a divining tool. But there is so much more to the Tarot. Levi treats tarot as a book which can help is discover the secrets of magic and self knowledge. He wrote his book as a guide for using the tarot for anyone wanting to take up the ancient path of initiation.

Tarot decks of the French style fit with the book. The deck I am using which is where the card pictured is from is the Golden Tarot of Marselle published by Lo Scarabeo. Artwork is originally by Claude Burdel dated 1751.

Doing a chapter a month means I’ve a whole month of meditating ahead for this card. While I will probably keep gaining insight as I progress through the month I will share what I have so far from meditations, book club conversations I resonate with, and studying the card.

With that said, some thoughts on the image of tarot Trump I - Le Batelevr or The Magician.

The magician stands at the three legged table supporting the tools of his craft. The legs are Intellect, Will, and Imagination. The pillars support the magicians workings.

Dressed in alternating blue, yellow, and red the magician is clothed in the polarity of fire, red, and water, blue, and yellow of unity between the two elements. The Magician’s right hand is lowered towards Earth, a fertile green, and left hand is raised into the Air which is buzzing with the ether. Standing between Sky and earth unifying the elements of Fire and Water the magician tools are set out on the table.

The green satchel for carrying the tools is the green of nature. Nature is the context we exist in while incarnate. The knife of intellect is drawn ready for discernment of the project at hand. Pentacles are thrown like dice from a cup? There is the cup and they may in fact be dice! Some are red and others blue. The magician holds one uncolored for the final throw to determine the direction of the work. Creative energy of the red pentacle and balancing aspect of the blue pentacles are already on the table. The majority of the pentacles are indeterminate or maybe balancing, having no color. What is in the cup?

The magician’s wand, a tool for directing energy, is suspended mid-air at the apex of flight. The force of the red and blue tips are held in place by the yellow shaft. Silent in it’s work.

Behind the magician at the horizon were Earth and Air meet light is beginning to burst and shine. The glimmer of a manifestation coming into being. Beneath his feet the plants grow. In the sky above the atmosphere is charged with energy. His wand suspended for a moment is getting charged for later use.

Taking the card as a whole we see a scene a man working with Intellect, Will, and Imagination to harness elements and forces for making the invisible visible.