Cosmic Tribe - The Magician

http://www.stevee.com/images/t.mjr.01.jpg

Another happy and free character~! I always think of the Cosmic Tribe Magician as a card of communication. Like the Thoth Magus, he is juggling the elements which swirl around him, just outside his grasp with a big grin on his face. He is enjoying himself so much!

Eyes of perception (a very common symbol with the Cosmic Tribe) are found on each of the elements, representing viewing the world through various means.

The wings, snakes and rod of Mercury can all be found in various forms in this card...

The magician in this deck is a much happier character than other decks I've used. I like that alot!!!! He seems to be having so much fun controlling and manifesting things. It's not such a serious thing with him.
Like the fool he's carefree and having fun, but in a more directed manner. Whenever I get this card I feel he's telling me to not be too serious - to have fun while I go for what I want.

Compared to most other decks, the Cosmic Tribe Magician seems to be more active. In this card, I am given the impression he is really doing something, not just standing there for a photo shoot like the Rider Waite! This fits in with the meaning of the card, cuz the Magician is the active principle, the first spark of energy an creativity....

Kiama

I like how Eric Ganther (the author of the accompanying book) points out that while the Fool is playful and >undirected<, this Magician is playful and >directed<. I love the idea of being focused on a goal, yet still being able to be good humored about it! ;D

Peace,

Melvis

WHAT DO YOU SEE? I see the Magician happily squirming about in delight as he manifests all sorts of neat things (flower, mushroom, butterfly, and fish) The eye of perception is on each created element, eyes in different colors. There is a large golden wand infront of the Magician, there are a couple of snakes biting on each others' tails forming the infinity symbol at thigh height, and he has wings on the back of his legs. The background of the card looks partly set in the sky and partly in water but with the colors reversed.

WHAT COLORS DO YOU SEE? Yellow, gold, orange, red, purple, indigo, black, gray, seafoam, and white.

WHAT HUMAN FIGURES OR ANIMALS DO YOU SEE? A man, a butterfly, a fish and two snakes.

WHAT SYMBOLS ARE THERE? The magician appears to control the wand with his mind making it swirl around creating the concentric circles that surround the magicians creations. He has manfisted elements of fire (sun flower), earth (mushroom), air (butterfly), and water (fish). He controls them with his will, with his focus. He has also defied gravity with the wings on his heals.

DESCRIBE THE CARD IN TERMS OF AN EMOTION. HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU LOOK AT IT? Pleasure. He looks so pleased in his abilities and happy with his creations ... it is contagious. Makes me want to go create something ... awakens the hidden artist in me.

Love & Light,

For me, the Magician in this deck shows the right way to handle power - carefrree and lighthearted. Everything around him is bright and bursting with energy - his creations float on their own in the vastness of space. The "sunburst" effect below him indicates that he takes his power from the Source while the blueness above around him is the Universe, so I see him as a creation projecting from the Sun taking its power out into the Cosmos.

Cosmic Dancer

The Magician dances. He has wings on his calves and his thighs are surrounded by a lemniscate formed by a pair of winged serpents. With his arms he levitates a magic staff or wand. Four additional hands surround him, each hand is linked to a different symbol: a flower (disks), a fish, balancing a ball (cups), a butterfly (swords), and a mushroom (wands). Each of the symbols includes the cosmic eye. Kayne is right that he appears to be juggling the elements like the Thoth Magus. I like Kayne’s interpretation of the eyes more than Ganther’s- Ganther says that they are there to remind us that things are not always what they seem. Kayne’s idea that they suggest different ways of looking at things is very cool.

The figure is slightly out of focus. His expression seems ecstatic, out of control- I agree with Faunabot that this playful quality is different from other Magicians I’ve seem.. His power seems Dionysian. His magic might be mischievous. Unlike the simple Fool, he is mysterious. Although both are nude, the Magician’s genitals are obscured by the phallic wand- the symbolic replacing, extending, or masking the actual. Two sets of concentric rings, one behind the Magicain and the other at his feet, mirror the Hopi labyrinth that appears on the Fool’s card, suggesting that the journey foretold there has begun.

In the text, Ganther says that the Magican links the physical and the cosmic world. In Seventy- Eight Degress of Wisdom, Pollock compares the Smith Magican to a lightning rod, an image which works very well for this conception.

Re: Cosmic Dancer

Landon said:

Two sets of concentric rings, one behind the Magicain and the other at his feet, mirror the Hopi labyrinth that appears on the Fool’s card, suggesting that the journey foretold there has begun.

Click to expand...

I had not caught that! thanks! I will have to check this out and compare the two cards more closely.

I see this mage as a really ecstatic guy who is thrilled by the realisation that he has finally getting the hang of this thing...magick. It's supposed to be fun! And here we see that it is!

Hi folks!

I have a question:

Can anyone explain to me what a mushroom has to do with the element Fire...? I don't get it... I would have connected it to Earth, but never Fire. Duh...?

OK, here's my analysis, not as much as for the Fool, this one was trickier...!

Cosmic Tribe Tarot, 1 The Magician
The next couple of cards turned out to be not as easy to come up with interpretations for as The Fool was. It could be a simple thing like The Fool being one of those cards that I usually think most about, The Fool is the one Tarot-character I carry with me at all times, because I truely believe in my heart he is the key.

Anyways, even though the analysis isn't half as extensive for the Magician as it was for the Fool, here goes:

The image: The Magician floats or hovers on a background of a glowing heaven. By his left foot, there are rings, as if the foot touched water and sent rings spreading on the water surface. His hands moves and circles around him, like a ritual dance. He looks unaffected by what he is doing, holding 4 items hovering in the air around him. The items are: a fish, a flower, a mushroom and a butterfly. He looks like he's enjoying himself, thinking already of what trick to pull on us next. The wand before him seems to be loaded with energies and magic, but he seems to direct very little attention to it. Around his legs two winged snakes form a lemniscate (eternity symbol), just above the wings on the Magicians own ancles.

The symbols:
The background: Glowing sky - air and fire. Both are active elements, and action is central to the Magician's character. His element is in movement, action, change. The two elements in one could also suggest that he is on the edge, or the border, of his environment. He combines elements to create, manifest what he wants, he takes what he needs from his surroundings, and that is his true magic. Ability to create from where he is. The Magician will never complain about bad luck but always land on his feet and make something magical out of any situation. The glowing sky could also be a sky in dawn, which could suggest new beginnings - which is also what the Magician can stand for. When the Fool embarks on his Journey, the Magician is the one who tells him there is actually a Journey to be made. In debates at the AT many have said (and I agree) that the Magician is the one who shows the Fool what tools he has in his backpack, what resources he has to draw from on his journey. The Magician is very much about seeing a first step of something, taking control and breaking out of old habits.

The dancing hands around the Magician: Omnipotence - he can do anything, he is limitless, his spectrum of potential is endless. He juggles all elements naturally, none of them is out of his league, they are all following his will. The magic of creation/manifestation. Making real with one's hands.

The Magician's posture and face: He looks playful, like a child playing his favourite game, the game where nobody can beat him, where he knows just the tricks to win. He also has an artistic air about him, like his every move is a piece of art...! He has a natural talent for attracting people, spellbinding then with his words, his art, his magic. He is mystery and power in one, a combination nobody can resist.

The Wand: It's a physical symbol for the power that runs through him. It's like an extension of himself, like an antenna for magical powers of the universe, but the power is channeled mainly through himself. He doesn't really need any props. It symbolises his mental and spiritual strength and power.

The items in the air around him: OK, I confess. I had cheated and read the book before I started to really work with this card, and read that the items were symbols for the elements. Now I would probably have figured this out anyway, with one exception that I STILL, cheating or no cheating, haven't figured out: The fish stands for the Water-element, the flower is for Earth and the butterfly is Air. But what does the mushroom have to do with Fire?

The four elements, anyway, is another way to show how easily he toys with and manipulates the world around him, bends it and shapes it and creates from it what he visions, manifesting his will into matter.

The lemniscate: This symbol refers to his firm connection to the divine forces of the Universe. Also his limitless capacities and potential.