The Magician and Orion

Amatafrances

I am studyng yhe Nakshatra, or Birthstars of the vedic indian astrology, and I have found that the drawing of the Magician in the Rider Waite deck was inspired by the constellation of Orion.
What do You know about this? Thanks!!!
 

kwaw

What is your evidence for concluding that the Magician in the Rider Waite deck was inspired by the constellation of Orion? In what way would you say the image bears resemblance to that of Orion? Have you some images we can compare? Does the image of Orion in Nakshatra differ in any way to western depictions?
 

Abrac

I've never really thought about it, but after browsing some images I can see how someone might see a resemblance. A common image of Orion like this one shows the right arm raised and the left lowered slightly as if to shoot and arrow downward. Whether or not Waite & Smith were inspired by Orion, I've never heard that but I wouldn't rule it out. :)
 

Amatafrances

It is not very easy for me to explain some ideas in english, but I will try to do this.
Vedic astrology is a particular form of astrology, and I study it in connection with crystal healing because the roots of this practice and the most ancient written documents of it are in the indian vedic culture; I know this because I’m an archaeologist, and this is an historical evidence, and not my personal opinion.
I cannot be “totally sure” of the connection between the Magician and Orion, that few vedic astrologists consider true, but I have some reasons to suppose that Waite had a very deep and great knowledge of the story of the western and oriental symbols and archetypes.
For example, the Lunar Nakshatra (or Birth Star) Ardra, is the one of the giant red star Betelgeuse (do you remember Tim Burton’s movie Beetle Juice?), that is in the right shoulder of the Orion constellation.
This Birth Star is connected to Rahu, that in the vedic mithology is the “Dragon’s head”, always in connection with Ketu, that is the “Dragon’s tail”; Rahu and Ketu are always opposite each other.
These two astronomic points, marks the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon, but in the vedic astrology they represent the Karmic Axis, that symbolizes our subconscious mind, where the archetypes act and influence our lives.
This happens because our subconscious mind cannot undestand the normal language and the words, but can understand the symbols, and the archetypes are symbols.
The Birth Star Ardra is connected also to the god Shiva, whose dance can symbolize the dance of all the material things, as the scientist Fritjof Capra supposed.
Finally the same Birth Star is connected to the Gemini constellation, that is very close to the Orion constellation.
In the vedic astrology Ardra and Betelgeuse natives have the features of Rahu, and Shiva and the Gemini, and if they reach the top ot the self awareness and are very spiritually evolved, they can express special powers, close to the powers of a “magician”, that can destroy and create material things, and they can as well overcome the fear of the death, like the god Shiva, the destroyer, can do, because the death is simply part of the life cicle.
For example Tim Burton’s movies express this concept, because his art always shows that death is part of life; this is a typical shivaitic point of view, with some of the humor that Gemini natives have, but a “dark” humor. Maybe that Tim Burton know some of these things, because of his movie Beetle Juice, whose name is so similar to Betelgeuse…
Moreover (but the followings are my personal suppositions only), over the Magician’s head is the infinity symbol, that is similar to the number eight.
Eight is Rahu’s number, because the ancient indian astronomy knew only seven planets in the solar system, so Rahu was considered the eighth element and Ketu the ninth.
In the Rider Waite deck, this infinity symbol is also placed over the head of the eighth of the Major Arcana, the Force, and the woman that represent it is with a lion, that is always with Rahu in the indian statues and paintings.
The same infinity symbol is in the hands of the two of Pentacles; two can symbolize the duality that Rahu and Ketu express, the duality of our souls, that can be overcomed with the so called “illumination”, when we can be no longer “eclipsed” by Rahu and Ketu.
Rahu and Ketu are dragons, and snakes also; and, the symbol of medical profession is the caduceus, with two snakes, that was always in the hands of the god Mercury, that is the ruler of Gemini.
The caduceus is very similar to the Nadi, the energy channels in our body in the indian ayurvedic medicine.
The caduceus in the Rider Waite deck is in the two of cups; cups, like pentacles, are generally the symbols of healty and fruitful things and thoughts.
I suppose that Waite in the two of cups and pentacles wanted to express the positive side of the soul duality, or the self awareness, and that in the two of swords and wands he wanted to symbolize the negative side of duality, mundane things in the two of wands and blindness in the two of swords: a woman that cannot see the moon over her head (the Lunar Nakshatra?).
Perhaps all these can be coincidences, or they can be not simple coincidences, and Waite intended to express similar concepts in his Pictorial key.
I’m new in the study of tarots, and I can be wrong, but I’m trying to study similar things.
One thing is historically sure: the language of symbols and archetypes is eternal and universal, and I’m sure that Waite knew this wonderfully well.
Ciao!