1. The Magician: The Spark of Life
Above: The Magician from the Waite-Smith Tarot (left) and the powerful Zen interpretation from the Osho Zen Tarot (right).
Number one in the Major Arcana of the Tarot is The Magician. He is the perfect card to open up this blog; in the context of Nature, he brings the spark of life itself.
In the Waite-Smith version of The Magician, the four elements of Nature (according to ancient wisdom) are represented on his table. Water is represented by the Cup; Earth by the Coin; Fire by the Wand and Air by the Sword. Cups, Coins, Wands and Swords are, in case you didn’t know already, the four Minor Arcana suits of the Tarot. They are, in and of themselves, representations of Nature.
What happens when Water, Earth, Fire and Air come together in harmony? Life. The gnarly oak tree grows at a leisurely pace, sap flowing beneath its bark. A jackdaw’s wings flap above you; a mysterious feathered dinosaur, right here, right now, alive and inexplicably animate. A honey bee disappears into the bell petals of a foxglove flower, pulled by her beauty and scent. Something in her design wants species to continue.
What is this, really? This gift that we take for granted with each breath? What kind of wild spark called to life the very first form of life on Earth?
It is the Magician. The one of Magic. Water, Earth, Fire and Air – zap, pow, here you are! You exist.
My favourite Magician is represented in the older Tarot de Marseille decks – the classic French tradition of Tarot, which predates the Waite-Smith Tarot by hundreds of years. Here we can see The Magician’s trickster energy. See how he has set up table, performing for his audience. He glances to the side of the card, perhaps to make you wonder what he is looking at, inviting you to follow his gaze. As you do, he hides the ball beneath the cup to create an illusion of the impossible.
Above: two classic Magicians from old Tarot decks. The left card is from the Gerard Bodet Tarot of 1693 (restored by Tarot Sheet Revival), and right is the restored Tarot de Marseille by Jodorowsky and Camoin (1997). Both are missing a leg on their tables: a mysterious and common symbol with Marseille-style Magicians.
All is not as it seems. Have you ever seen a face in a tree? A cloud that looked like an sea animal? Have you ever heard a wild animal rustling in the bushes only to look and find nothing there? The Magician creates life, but life also confuses us. Our minds need to work hard to see things clearly, to practice mindfulness, in order see things as they really area. And yet, from another perspective, we can turn our delusions into creativity, imagination; we can play with our imaginings, tapping into other worlds.
Many people place The Fool – who is assigned the mysterious ‘number’ (no-number) zero – at the start of the Tarot’s journey. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. After all, zero doesn’t come before one, does it? The truth is that The Fool is everywhere and nowhere in the Tarot. He could travel the journey of the Major Arcana like the Hero on the Hero’s journey, or he could just sit outside of the cards altogether, looking in, like the narrator of a play, wondering who on earth all those mad characters are.
The Fool will appear in my blog in his own time. He hasn’t told me when yet. For now, we begin with Number One: it feels right. We start this blog reflecting on the miracle of life itself, and The Magician is the spark that causes it.
Above: two modern interpretations of the ancient Tarot de Marseille Magician. Left is from the Metanoia Marseille, right is from the Marseille-Waite Tarot.
Some people assign the term ‘As Above, So Below’ to the Waite-Smith Magician. See how he rises one hand to the sky, and the other is pointed towards the ground. You are stardust, moving about on a gorgeous, multicoloured planet that spins around a Star. Everything out in the forest is waving at you, telling you to wake up to its beauty, if only you can snap your mind out of your to-do lists. What goes on in outer space reflects who we are, because outer space is where we live, and what we are made of. Let’s not take the gifts of the Magician for granted. Let us know connection with the vast universe that has created us.
That’s all for now, friends. Thank you for being here – and please check out my Tarot Therapy Sessions if you’d like us to work together. You can also sign up for Green Tarot Blog newsletter (different to my main newsletter) below to receive email updates on every new post.
Smiles from Scotland,
Stephen
