Magician - Previously unseen symbols?

starhermit

The Magician is one of those cards I really don't 'get'. I always have a bit of an uncomfortable feeling when I look at him, and I don't really understand why either.

My RWS deck lives in its box, and the box is often propped on a piece of obsidian on my desk, next to my computer. It's at an angle so the Magician on the box cover looks at me. Maybe that's why I don't like him - he perves at me constantly LOL :)

Anyway... I just happened to notice that there seems to be a blue fish-looking belt around his waist. Closer examination leads me to think that it's a snake? Snakes are quite earthy, maybe it's another way for him to be grounded?

Which of course led me to examine the rest of the card. Has anyone noticed the carvings on the table holding the magickal items?

From left to right, there are panels on the table (just above the table leg) which show waves (water), what looks to be a lion crouching (I know there's a proper heraldic name for this position, couchant perhaps?), and a bird (air).

If the lion symbolises fire, then the carvings along with the snake seem to represent the four elements.

I haven't figured out a theory for the existence of these symbols, got too exicted with the discovery itself! :) What are your thoughts on this?
 

Rusty Neon

starhermit said:
Anyway... I just happened to notice that there seems to be a blue fish-looking belt around his waist. Closer examination leads me to think that it's a snake? Snakes are quite earthy, maybe it's another way for him to be grounded?

I'd say it's an ouroboros. Waite's book, PKT, expressly supports this interpretation. He suggests that, while the ouroboros generally symbolizes eternity, it symbolizes, in the case of this card, "eternity of attainment in the spirit".
 

starhermit

Rusty Neon said:
I'd say it's an ouroboros.
Rusty, that's awfully similar to the salamanders on the Wands court cards then isn't it? Especially the full-circle salamanders on the King's robes.
 

Fulgour

Pixie's peek-a-boo

If your look at the symbols on the table edge as a rebus,
they spell out the initials for artist's name:

Mountains+Plateau+Cat+Spirit = Miss Pamela Colman Smith


also for fun:

Did you ever notice what look very like the letters D I N
just below the image of the bird/spirit on the table leg?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/img/ar01.jpg
 

Fulgour

Aleph means "I Will!"

The Magician as Aleph
(Image of Aleph)

Tarot's first archetype for Aleph was originally The Magician.
No matter what your particular interpretation, this archetype
sets up its own particular vibration. Here the corresponding
Hebrew letter means Ox and represents the original motive
force of the universe. The "divine spark" of consciousness.

On one level The Magician represents the very beginning of things,
on another level it means the first point of consciousness, which is
also, in its way, the very beginning of things ~ first things first!

Waite's placement of The Magician first signifies him as Aleph.
In his book on the subject, The Fool is positioned much later,
between "The Last" (per Waite) Judgement and The World.

:)
 

blackadder

I've never noticed all these little things in the Magician card. Thanks for bring them to my attention. I guess I will sitting down and check out the cards more closely tonight.