Book of Thoth Study Group: The Magus

The Magus ideas and knowledge mastering difficulties.

Looking at the extra Magus card with the juggling arms, what's that dark creature behind him... a baboon?

Yeah. Magicans, apes, baboons, monkeys tricksters ... watch out for them.

They are traditionally known as Magical creatures (In Egyptology) as they worship the Sun at dawn ... even with their arms in the correct worshipping posture.

(They are just warming themselves up really )

I agree with what RedMaple said, that the magician is somewhat of a con-man. Keeping in line with the fool's journey and how closrapexa explained it in everyday terms, I think that it's during time you're making the coffee that you really start to think about your day.

Lots of times it seems, people have very set notions of what they want accomplished in the day, and that a good portion of those notions are thought of an inflexible and powerful way. For example, listing things you want done one after, in that pushing forward optimistic manner that makes it seem like you will get those things done, whether anyone likes them or not. I think this is where the con-man part comes in.

Now you don't really think of mowing someone down to get your way, but you'd rather coax them and use your skills (also to sort of keep up with the optimistic feeling from this card) to win them over.

So the magician is sly, because he seeks to get all his goals accomplished by using any means necessary within his skill level.

My IDS!

Magus

Everything is blue and yellow. Blue in the background (mysterious infinity?) and every THING in the card is yellow for mind/thought/swords.

A huge (world-spanning) caduceus is in the back. It has smallish wings at the top and a disk with a descending dove. It is laced by two snakes.

The Magus stands en pointe, showing off his sandal strap that looks like an ankh. “To go.” He also has huge wings on his feet. They sure don’t look like wings, but that’s what they are. The light/air from them streams off the sides of the card. They must be very powerful wings.

He smiles (a kind of goofy smile) and looks to the upper right, and raises his right hand up palm up and his left hand to the side palm up like he’s juggling. Surrounding him in midair are a coin with an 8-pointed star, a censer (according to Snuffin), a small phoenix wand, a stylus, a scroll, a small winged egg (without a snake), a cup with water swirling in it, and a small sword.

At the bottom left is an ape/baboon shaking his fist up at the Magus.

The background is crisscrossed with yellow lines, suggesting lots of energy radiating out from the Magus’s feet and legs. I have heard it said that the caduceus has stretched and punctured the fabric of space. It is infinite. The Magus looks like he is standing right on the line where infinity and space-time meet. And this is where all the energy is coming from.

I am struck by the fact that there are more than just the suit symbols here. Extras are censer, stylus and scroll, and egg. Censer obviously is fire tool, more literally fiery than a wand, but airy, too for the smoke. Stylus and scroll are similarly more literally thought/mind/ communication than a sword. The egg is small and light. It’s young and just beginning its flight. It hasn’t been approached (let alone fertilized) by the snake yet. (But there ARE two snakes on the caduceus. Hmmm.) All the tools are small, so it seems that they, and the Magus, are at the beginning of their journeys.

I really resonate with the symbolism of the ape. Language necessarily distorts its message. The map is not the territory. If I type “cat,” I can assume you get a certain idea (of claws and tails and whiskers), since I assume you can read English, but there’s always a chance we are not thinking the same thing when using the same word! Crowley says the ape follows the magus around to make fun of him and his words so he doesn’t get too confident that his messages (from the gods) are making sense. Kind of like a court fool, constantly making fun of the ruler and courtiers so they don’t get too caught up in their own self-importance. The magus is only one step from the Fool, and he already needs to be taken down a peg once in a while! (Why is it called “cynocephalous”? I thought “cyno” meant swan. It sure doesn’t have a swan’s head!)

I don’t really understand the “To Go” thing. I know it is part of a set of infinitives, “to will, to dare, to keep silent,” but what are they? What are they used for? It is still helpful in readings, though. Big wings and “to go” is quite an encouragement to do something! And an ankh. To live is to be going somewhere. Life is a journey.

The other thing catching my eye is the dove descending on the caduceus. “This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.” The Holy Spirit descended as a dove on Jesus at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry, the first open acknowledgement of his mission, just as the Magus is the first major in which someone is conscious of having a task to do for the gods. A glance at Snuffin shows I’m on the right track here. The caduceus symbolizes the straight path (Priestess path) from Kether to Tiphareth, father to son. (Crowley does say “the creative Mercury is of the nature of the Sun.” But the path of the Magus is Kether to Binah. That would be CREATIVE Mercury, but, another hmmm…) Oh, and Crowley says the Magus is the Word/Logos, as in the Gospel of John, the idea of organization through which the world/universe was created. The idea of form that Binah has as the blueprint of the universe? I’m in over my head here, but I’m getting ideas! Crowley has a whole list of other correspondences between Mercury and Christ: Both descend into hell; both healers; Christ comes as a thief in the night; Christ related to money-changers and tax collectors; Mercury saved Prometheus; fish and fishermen are sacred to both; both are mediators to God/gods. (There are more that seem more tenuous, like the caduceus with two snakes is like the cross between two thieves.)

“With the wand createth He.
“With the Cup preserveth He.
“With the Dagger destroyeth He.
“With the Coin redeemeth He.”

Every time I’ve read this, until I typed it today, I thought it said “he createth THEE,” etc. Well, the original isn’t quite so personal, or so God-like, but it still gets the idea across.

Ok, I think that’s enough theology for me.

In a reading: This is a card of action, mastery, and communication. If you are the magus, you are beginning to get a sense that you are able to create things and make things happen. You have the tools to do that. And you are eager to get your ideas across. Now is the time to go do something, especially if it entails bringing ideas into reality.

Great post, R.

"To Go" is Crowley's modification of the Powers of the Sphinx... He does it in Magick without Tears:

Aleister Crowley said:

"Air is to Know, Scire; Fire is to Will, Velle; Water is to Dare, Audere; and Earth is to Keep Silence, Tacere. But now that a fifth Element, Spirit, is generally recognized in the Qabalah, I have deemed it proper to add a Fifth Power corresponding: to Go, Ire."

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Well, the Powers of the Sphinx come to the GD from Eliphas Lévi... Not surprisingly, Lévi associates these 4 infinitives with the 4 elements, the 4 Qabalistic worlds, the 4 cherubim, and the 4 animals that make up the Sphinx:

Eliphas Lévi said:

“To attain the SANCTUM REGNUM, in other words, the knowledge and power of the Magi, there are four indispensable conditions--an intelligence illuminated by study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which cannot be broken, and a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate. TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL, TO KEEP SILENCE--such are the four words of the Magus, inscribed upon the four symbolical forms of the sphinx...”

“You are called to be king of air, water, earth and fire; but to reign over these four living creatures of symbolism, it is necessary to conquer and enchain them. He who aspires to be a sage and to know the Great Enigma of Nature must be the heir and despoiler of the sphinx: his the human head, in order to possess speech; his the eagle’s wings, in order to scale the heights; his the bull’s flanks, in order to furrow the depths; his the lion’s talons, to make a way on the right and the left, before and behind."

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In Levi's last book The Great Secret he's very matter of fact practical about it:

Eliphas Lévi said:

“The great secret of magic, the unique and incommunicable Arcana, has for its purpose the placing of supernatural power at the service of the human will in some way.

To attain such an achievement it is necessary to KNOW what has to be done, to WILL what is required, to DARE what must be attempted and to KEEP SILENT with discernment."

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Like any self-described reincarnation would, Crowley takes this to the Thelemic next step: “...the True Will has no goal; its nature being To Go.” From the Commentaries To The Book Of The Law, “The Egyptian Gods are usually represented as bearing an Ankh, or sandal-strap, in the left hand, the wand being in the right. This ankh signifies the power to Go, characteristic of a god.”

In Liber ABA: “In the Egyptian hieroglyphic system, this faculty of Going was represented by a sandal strap, which represents by its hieroglyphic form the crux ansata, the Rose and the Cross, which in turn gives the formula of Love under Will, the secret of attainment.”

Which is another way of saying that the power to Go, the power of a God, is attained by mastery of the other 4 powers.

Do What thou Wilt...

Or as it says in the Spanish proverb, "Take what you want, God said, and pay for it."

Oh, thanks very much for the info. Just what I was looking for. There's always more and more to learn. Isn't that the fun of it?!

I'll remember to pay for it by passing it on, as you so generously do all the time!