You would be amazed just how many individual interpretations have been published defining the meaning and mystical symbolism of THE MAGICIAN. It is the second card within The Major Arcana (the first of the Tarot's two divisions), but is known as Card #1 since The Fool that precedes it has been designated as "0".

Many authors have characterized The Magician as the symbol of one's independent initiative and enthusiastic creativity. Others paint him as the symbolic cornerstone of our willpower and originality. Still others feel he represents the human traits of innovation and inventiveness... the spiritual protagonist. Regardless of how one feels personally about his image and portrayal, one thing is certain, he is the beginning and the genesis of all that unfolds or occurs within the course of our individual lives. Through him flows the Supreme Life-force, the animating principles of The Creator and The Holy Spirit. He is the Divine within us, a Stargate for God's Cosmic Life-force and personal channel/vessel of our energies, our desires, passions and our aspirations. Without him nothing exists or has venue here within the 3rd dimension.

Carl Jung has provided us with a perspective of The Magician's character and purpose that seems to surpass all others. He explains that The Magician is intended to exemplify the Spiritual Person who aspires to reach a state of human and spiritual perfection through conscious living... by working on and refining his body, mind and spirit in compliance with God's rules and laws.

Jung points out that The Magician, as with each of the 22 Major Arcana cards, always portrays the highest objective possible in the particular state of consciousness depicted. By pictorially displaying each of the 22 subjects at their highest perfected level, the cards are able to illustrate the specific goals that each of us must attain.

What do you think of when you see a magician... do you consider him to be a trickster who merely pulls rabbits out of hats? Do you perceive him to be a master of deceptive slight-of-hand or a mystic who can truly levitate, transmute and manipulate matter at will?

In truth, The Magician card was originally intended to show that just as a magician is able to change or virtually transform one object into another, so can we, you and I, be the magician and change/transform our bodies (its trillions of cells) into glowing and beaming crystals of brilliant White Light.

Jung explains that The Magician in the Tarot is actually a future picture of you and I in a higher state of consciousness... a purified and fully transformed state of being. It is a portrait of how we will appear when we have learned the art of discrimination by using our self-conscious (will) to refine and control/balance our subconscious passions and desires. The card is intended to serve as a meditative tool to guide our efforts in erasing, reconstructing and reprogramming our old psychological tapes and reflexive subconscious habit patterns.

According to Jung, the entire Major Arcana is a step-by-step "how-to" guide to reclaiming our spiritual purity while living on Earth in a physical body. It is a do-it-yourself manual illustrating the 22 steps involved in training your self-conscious mind to manage, civilize and refine the emotions and desires of the body. The entire Major Arcana resonates exclusively to this one theme... how to train your will (self-conscious mind) to be the master, overseer and director of your subconscious processes. Your body and its reactive patterns of self-destruction will try to block your every attempt to reconfigure and implant new, healthy whole life patterns; however, you must stand your ground, move forward to overcome and be the final victor. It's a very difficult task, but one that each individual must master in order to evolve spiritually.

In the picture, The Magician is seen pointing a sort of lightning rod toward the Heavens. His left hand is pointing toward the floor (to act as a grounding mechanism). He seems to be in a meditative state, one that displays intense concentration (showing he is employing his conscious force of will).

Jung tells us that The Magician has learned how to attain bodily purification (detoxifying his cells), by calling down the Cosmic Solar White Light so that it may traverse the etheric channels of his body. Jung adds that in order for the Solar Light to strike the lightning rod, a very special bodily transformation had to have first taken place. At the base of our spine there is a powerful etheric energy center. It contains what Jung calls the "sex force" or kundalini. It is our very own personal cosmic energy source and is presently used by the majority of mankind to experience the Divine Energy of the Cosmos during loving sexual union.

When you and I decide to become The Magician, to begin the path to bodily detoxification and transformation, we have to raise this "sex force" from its lower spinal position, up the spinal shaft to its new home at the other end of the spinal column in the Pineal Gland (otherwise known as the third eye). This is done through meditation and a temporary cessation of the physical sex act (for just a short period of time). By abstaining, you enable your body (guided by your meditation) to reroute specific chemicals to the brain to construct the new receptor cells needed to house and facilitate the transformed "sex force" then known as "nerve energy light force". It's this transformed energy that attracts Divine White Light, bringing it down into the body to purify your cells. Note The Magician's rod has a pineal shaped gland on each end. This is to illustrate the dynamic of this transformative process.

You too can be The Magician, but it requires commitment and hard work on the self.

copyright 2003-2004, Joe Ivory, all rights reserved.