← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 2/121
The Magician
The Magician is the card of focused will: knowing what you want and having the tools to make it happen. Where The Fool steps out with nothing planned, the Magician gathers everything to hand and acts. It is often read as skill, initiative, concentration and the confidence to begin.
The image
A young man in a white tunic and red robe stands behind a table. One hand raises a wand to the sky, the other points to the ground — "as above, so below", the idea of drawing power from one level and bringing it into the world. Above his head floats the sign of infinity, and a snake biting its own tail serves as his belt. On the table lie a cup, a pentacle, a sword and a wand, the symbols of the four suits and of the four elements, ready for use. Roses and lilies grow in front of him.
Upright
Skill, resourcefulness, willpower, communication, a project ready to start. Waite gives "skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety" and also "self-confidence, will". The card can point to a time when talent and opportunity meet, or to the advice that everything needed is already on the table: it only has to be used with intent.
Reversed
Waite's reversed list is odd to modern eyes: a physician or magus, disgrace and disquiet. Modern readers more often take the reversal as talent unused, scattered energy, a lack of focus — or as skill put to manipulative use, the trickster rather than the maker. Some readers do not use reversals at all.
Correspondences
Major Arcana, card I. In the Golden Dawn system, which most English-language decks follow, it carries the Hebrew letter Beth ("house"), the 12th path on the Tree of Life, joining Kether and Binah, and the planet Mercury — the messenger, the planet of skill, speech and dexterity. In the French tradition (Papus, the Marseille deck, where the card is the Juggler or Bateleur) the Magician takes the letter Aleph instead.
In a reading
In the past, it can show the moment someone took the initiative. As advice, it asks for focus and action rather than waiting. As an outcome, it tends to be read as a plan successfully put into practice. Beside The High Priestess it is often read as a balance to find between doing and listening.
In astrology
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow (French, Marseille-based tradition differs for some Major Arcana).
Planet: Mercury