The first card the fool meets on his journey is the magician. This powerful figure knows what he wants and what he’s doing. He is about willpower, committing to a goal and using all your talents and resources to create your reality. The magician tells you that you have all that you need, just tap into your creative energy and make this happen!
The Thoth Tarot interpretation of the Magician was painted by Frieda Harris in collaboration with the occultist Aleister Crowley. Their card is about occult wisdom or power in the form of messages or a brainwave, a quick impulse of knowledge. The figure appears to float between two realms, however the feet are firmly grounded on the earth below, whilst the hands reach up to the heavens above. The motions are fluid and elastic, the activity flowing easily between the two. Floating in the space alongside the magician are the symbols of the four suits of the Tarot’s minor arcana, symbolic of the having all the elements and tools you need to craft what you visualise using the power of your will.
Arguable the most famous artist to have created a Tarot deck, Salvador Dalí has painted himself as the Magician. He stands at an alter, on which lay representations of the four suits or elements, in the form of his own works. The bread and wine represents the divine act of creation, the soft melting clock shows the elasticity of your own personal time, the planning of which is depicted as the scroll. This image is about your own personal magic and using your own experiences and unique skills to design your own future and become one with yourself and the divine. It is not supernatural magic, despite the church style arched background and the blue heavens, the fire for manifesting your dreams must come from within.
Another Magician card with a heavenly background in-between two realms was created by artist Chris-Anne in her Muse Tarot deck. The figure in the middle is flexing her manifesting abilities, stretching into the cosmos, drawing down the energy needed to make dreams become reality, give them form and colour and pattern, like the woven dress she wears that sinks into the earth below her. The four elements are represented and spheres atop a solid stone floating in front of her. This Magician is about feeling and knowing your goals, and tapping into your creative energy to make it happen. Everything you need is there in front of you.
The Magician card gives the Tarot a magical supernatural touch, however, look inside, the magic, the wisdom and the skills you need to manifest your desires is within you, if you can tap into the energy of your willpower.
