The Magician
Major arcanumAlso: The Magus · The Juggler · Major Arcanum 1
Upright
The resources are already there. What's missing is a decision, not an opportunity
Resources, will, beginning, skill, focus
Reversed
The ability is there; nothing is being done with it
Wasted ability, manipulation, inaction, bluff
What the card means
Upright
Everything needed is already on the table - four suits, which is to say all four kinds of means. What is missing is not the opportunity but the decision to use it. The card is about somebody who can, and about the moment when being able is enough.
Reversed
The ability is there and nothing is being done with it: a talent discussed more often than used. Sometimes the reverse - the skill is spent on making an impression rather than on making anything.
Love and relationships
Upright
The first move is yours and it will work. Speak, ask, say it plainly. A relationship in which one person leads, and for now that suits them both.
Reversed
Words with nothing behind them. Charm instead of attention. Sometimes a partner who explains extremely well why everything is exactly as it is.
Work and business
Upright
Everything needed to start is here: the skill, the tool, the access. A good time to ask, to propose, to launch. The task is within you even if it looks larger than you.
Reversed
Preparing instead of doing. Or selling something that does not exist yet.
Money
Upright
Money comes for skill rather than for attendance. Backing yourself pays. A good time to name a higher price than last time.
Reversed
Promises of earnings with nothing under them. Or money put into somebody else's eloquence.
The card's advice
Begin. Do not take one more course and one more consultation: what is missing is not knowledge. Name a price and name a date.
As the card of the day
A day on which a great deal works if you start it. Good for calls, letters and first moves. Empty if it is spent preparing.
What is depicted
A man stands at a table holding a wand, a cup, a sword and a pentacle - all four suits at once. One hand points up, the other down. Above his head a lemniscate: not infinity in general, but the fact that the flow does not stop while somebody is directing it.
Zodiac sign and correspondences
Mercury - skill, speech, quickness of hand.
Yes or no
Yes
Provided you are the one doing it, rather than waiting for it to be done.
With other cards
- The Magician + The Fool — the idea and the means have met: a rare moment when there is no reason to wait.
- The Magician + Ace of Pentacles — a skill somebody is finally paying for.
- The Magician + Seven of Swords — cleverness pointed the wrong way; deft, and not honest.
- Arcana
- Major arcanum
- Number
- I
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