The Magician

✦ Title

1. The Magician

✦ Associations

Mercury / Air

✦ Keywords

Manifestation, willpower, creativity, independence, intellect, transmitting potential into material.

✦ Quote

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all. — Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist

✦ Meaning

✦ Overview

If the Fool is the madman, then the Magician is the mad scientist, which is to say they are the alchemist, the creator, the artist, the witch. Filled with the Fool's wild imaginings and infinite potential, the Magician gathers their tools, summons their resources, and transmutes the dream into reality.

✦ Wand and Tools

The Magician's wand is an antenna buzzing with signals, a lightning rod raised to the storm. They capture the electric current of potential and bring it bubbling into their alchemical vessel. Their tools are the four suits of the Tarot, which are also the four classical elements and the building blocks of all creation: Pentacles for earth, Swords for air, Cups for water, Wands for fire. With these tools and the application of will and intention, the Magician mixes their potion and molds reality. From divine inspiration to physical matter, the Magician creates the world.

✦ Patron and Temperament

In addition to alchemists and creators, the Magician is the patron saint of tricksters, gamblers, and writers — which aren't so different, if you think about it. With their quick tongue and razor wit, the Magician flirts the line between brilliance and madness. Eccentric enough to imagine the impossible, and absurd enough to chase it down, the Magician possesses the quicksilver spirit of curiosity and willpower that is required to bring anything new into the world. With that, along with some skill, discipline, and the right resources, the Magician can truly make magic.

✦ Invitation

When the Magician appears, they invite us into our own brilliance, our unique creative agency. So you're not an artist, not an engineer, not a fill-in-the-blank, so what? The Magician says if it excites you, do it anyway. Be curious, be weird, be original, be individual. When you're the Magician, there is no other, there is only the number 1, singular as an upraised wand.

✦ Guidance

So gather your tools, hone your skills, be smart and be experimental, but above all else follow that tingling of inspiration. That static electric field plucking your arm hairs, sparking your fingertips, the speeding thoughts that won't let you rest—that's how you know you're onto the magic.

✦ Closing

The lightning comes and you are the rod.