The Magician (I), also referred as to as The Magus or The Magus of Power in the Golden Dawn tradition, is the first trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional tarot decks. Historically known as The Juggler (from the French Le Bateleur), it is used in game playing and divination. Within the card game context, the equivalent is the Pagat which is the lowest trump card, also known as the atouts or honours. In the occult context, the trump cards are recontextualized as the Major Arcana and granted complex esoteric meaning. The Magician in such context is interpreted as the first numbered and second total card of the Major Arcana, succeeding the Fool, which is unnumbered or marked 0. The Magician as an object of occult study is interpreted as symbolic of power, potential, and the unification of the physical and spiritual worlds.
Iconography
In French Le Bateleur, "the mountebank" or the "sleight of hand artist", is a practitioner of stage magic. The Italian tradition calls him Il Bagatto or Il Bagatello. The most ancient painted version of this card come from the Visconti-Sfoza Tarot (1460 ca), attributed to Bonifacio Bembo; here, the Magician appears to be playing with cups and balls. The Mantegna Tarocchi image that would seem to correspond with the Magician is labeled Artixano, the Artisan; he is the second lowest in the series, outranking only the Beggar. Visually the 18th-century woodcuts reflect earlier iconic representations, and can be compared to the free artistic renditions in the 15th-century hand-painted tarots made for the Visconti and Sforza families. In esoteric decks, occultists, starting with Oswald Wirth, turned Le Bateleur from a mountebank into a magus. The curves of the magician's hat brim in the Marseilles image are similar to the esoteric deck's mathematical sign of infinity. Similarly, other symbols were added. The essentials are that the magician has set up a temporary table outdoors, to display items that represent the suits of the Minor Arcana: Cups, Coins, Swords (as knives). The fourth, the baton (Clubs) he holds in his hand. The baton was later changed to represent a literal magician's wand. The illustration of the tarot card "The Magician" from the Rider–Waite tarot deck was developed by A. E. Waite for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1910. Waite's magician features the infinity symbol over his head, and an ouroboros belt, both symbolizing eternity. The figure stands among a garden of flowers, to imply the manifestation and cultivation of desires. The illustration also shows each of the suits in the Minor Arcana on the table in front of him.
In the tarot game In most tarot games, the Bagatto is the lowest ranking trump card but worth a lot of points. Therefore, many players want to take a trick when it is played. In most games played out of Italy, winning the last trick with it awards bonus points. In tarocchini, the Bégato still serves as the lowest trump, but it has an added ability. During score counting, it and the Fool can function as limited wild cards known as counters (contatori). They can be used separately or together to fill missing gaps in combinations, though not to fill in two consecutive gaps in sequential combinations, or to replace the highest trump or kings. Both cards can be used in every sequence, but as the Fool cannot be captured while the Magician is vulnerable to capture, the player holding the Magician would want to use it only judiciously. In Sicilian tarocchi, the Bagatto is the second lowest trump, outranking an unnumbered trump called Miseria of no significance.
Symbolism
Rider–Waite The Magician is depicted with one hand pointing upwards towards the sky and the other pointing down to the earth, interpreted widely as an "as above, so below" reference to the spiritual and physical realms. On the table before him are a wand, a pentacle, a sword, and a cup, representing the four suits of the Minor Arcana. Such symbols signify the classical elements of fire, earth, air, and water, "which lie like counters before the adept, and he adapts them as he wills". The Magician's right hand, pointed upwards, holds a double-ended white wand; the ends are interpreted much like the hand gestures, in that they represent the Magician's status as conduit between the spiritual and the physical. His robe is similarly also white, a symbol of purity yet also of inexperience, while his red mantle is understood through the lens of red's wildly polarised colour symbolism—both a representative of willpower and passion, and one of egotism, rage, and revenge. In front of the Magician is a garden of Rose of Sharon and lily of the valley demonstrating the "culture of aspiration", or the Magician's ability to cultivate and fulfill potential.
Crowley-Thoth The Magician is associated with the planet Mercury, and hence the signs of Gemini and Virgo in astrology.
Golden Dawn In The Hermetic Tarot, The Magician poses dynamically on one side of the card, pointing his wand angled towards another man, who appears to be Hermes, floating in the air. The cup, sword, and pentacle are all on the ground around him, as well as a candle, dagger, and a wilted vase of flowers. On each end of the circle he stands in is all four Alchemical symbols of the basic elements.
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