Mary El Tarot - The Magician

Bat Chicken

I love the bark on the american sycamore too. They are a gorgeous tree! They were a rarity where I am from originally, but they are all over the place where I am living now. I wonder what people think when I walk up to one and start stroking the bark? :laugh:

Hopefully in less than a week shipping notices will give us the chance to see if Marie had a particular tree in mind!
 

Eyebright

I love this card! to me the landscape isn't dead, it's just a blank canvas that the Magician is in the process of creating, fashioning it how he wants.

I also like that the Magicians face is obscured by his hood, that means that anyone could be the magician, we all have at our fingertips the ability to fashion the world around us how we ourselves want it to be, and this by extension applies also to our lives.

Has anyone else commented on how the ripples in the water The Magician have risen out of resemble vulva? It's like he has been birthed into the blank canvas world, from the primordial waters at the beginning of creation. I feel like he exists at the beginning of everything, he's the great creator that created everything around us. And the two trees seem to form a gateway to pass through, that leads you further into the world being created.
 

Bat Chicken

I am really enjoying your insights, Eyebright!

I love this card! to me the landscape isn't dead, it's just a blank canvas that the Magician is in the process of creating, fashioning it how he wants.
Yes! Barren, rather than dead...

I also like that the Magicians face is obscured by his hood, that means that anyone could be the magician, we all have at our fingertips the ability to fashion the world around us how we ourselves want it to be, and this by extension applies also to our lives.
Very true and this idea is of great use for interpreting this card in a reading.

Has anyone else commented on how the ripples in the water The Magician have risen out of resemble vulva? It's like he has been birthed into the blank canvas world, from the primordial waters at the beginning of creation. I feel like he exists at the beginning of everything, he's the great creator that created everything around us. And the two trees seem to form a gateway to pass through, that leads you further into the world being created.
It does!, doesn't it? This is a wonderful observation and it ties in nicely with the high priestess - her waters are brackish and primordial. This is the Architect. Thanks, EB!
 

danaimina

Hi there

I hope you do not mind a rockie like me is jumping in after so many good ideas.
I was struck by the drawings of this Tarot, but the magician shoke me in a special way: it has nothing to do with the rest of Magicians out there.

The idea which came to my mind was this one: pure potentiality, raw power, THE chance to become whatever you may WANT to be. I can see a chysalis. All about the card fits the image: the trees from which caterpillars perch to become a pupa; the liquid that softens the old skins which forms the chrysalis and lets the new animal come out: the car represents THE MOMENT in which the being is STARTING to EMERGE. About the barren/dead stuff: the future Butterfly (the Fool????) leaves her old/unuseful/dead skin behind and takes off to a new life. Moreover the colors fit perfectly with the idea: unpretentious colors: everything is plain for it is going to be left behind: the great colors will be shown by the future butterfly to display for all to see: pure magic!!!!

And I can see a lot of WILL (the Willpower to endure such strenuous changes to become a new and better ME), which, for me, is one of the main traits of the Magician.

But another idea comes to my mind: all this idea about transformation, does not fit better with the Death card???
 

ivanna

For me the waves by the magician are the same, or similar to the ones a ship makes when moving foward, so is like he was walking over the water right to the reader.
Also the trees seemx to be turned in the direction the magician is walking, as if with her movement he turned the threes
 

zeldajones

Random note... The landscape reminds me of the lake near Mount St. Helens (volcano that erupted in 1980) when I visited it several years ago. There were so many dead trees in the water.

However, I remember my dad telling me that life would grow back and be even more beautiful than before.

Good metaphor for The Tower and then The Star.

(Yes, I'm aware this is The Magician... I just thought I would share. I love all the ideas presented here! This card has really thrown a gear in the deck for me.)
 

cSpaceDiva

At first The Magician card appears lifeless and gray, but there is actually a pale golden hue, a warmth. The Magician exists between the source and infinity. His form resembles the Tree of Life, which like Metatron’s Cube, derives from Sacred Geometry. The cube contains the blueprints for the physical universe – the shapes and solids as well as the elements. From nothing arises the as yet unformed potential for everything. I am reminded of the William Blake quote, "Hold infinity in the palm of your hand". Knowing that Marie is a fan of Blake, I checked the book to see which quote she used with the Magician and was surprised to find there wasn't one.

With the two trees in the background, I can’t help but imagine them as the precursors to the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, seen later in the 2 of Wands/6 of Disks/5 of Cups, though they are not yet bearing fruit.

I do prefer this version of The Magician to the one included in the Limited Edition set, which was much simpler overall.