This is the second installment of the Weekly Tarot Card. You can read the first installment, ‘Observation and Description’ here.
On Monday we looked at the different descriptions of the Magician within my own decks, but I hope you took up my invitation to examine the Magician in your deck(s), and took note of what stood out to you.
Today we will step into the shoes of the Magician, and experience the card’s energy and hopefully develop a connection between our current self and the card.
To ready yourself, find a comfortable seat, preferably sitting up. Pull the Magician from one of your decks, the one you use the most and identify with the most. This mediation of course can be done with each deck, but try to at least space them out a few days at a time between each card to really allow connection to sink in.
Be sure to have a journal and pen or pencil, or a recording device handy for when you’ve finished.
Meditation
Close your eyes and take a slow, comfortable breath inward. As you breathe in, feel the different places in your body that are tense. Breathe out, and relax those tensed parts. Focus on your neck relaxing, your jaw, your hands, your toes.
Breathe in and out, releasing tightness and tension.
Now, breathe in, pull white light from the earth below. If you can’t feel it, envision it, know it’s there, coming up, to your root chakra, which glows a brighter red. Coming up through your sacral chakra, that glows a brighter orange. Coming up through your solar plexus, that glows a brighter yellow. Exhale and feel the energy in your lower chakras rotating with the movement of your breath.
Inhale, pulling white light through your lower chakras and up to your heart chakra, which glows a brighter green. Through your throat chakra, that glows a brighter blue. To your third eye, with glows a brighter indigo. Exhale and feel the rotation of your chakras as you do so.
Inhale again, pulling white light through all your chakras, up to your crown chakra, which radiates purple, lighting the energy around you, white, pure, and peaceful.
Breathe like this for as long as you are comfortable, knowing you are surrounded by the white light.
Inhale, and now you’ll focus on pushing the energy downward. Push this energy down, through your legs, through the soles of your feet and to the ground, beyond the floor boards, the apartment downstairs, through the basement and concrete, and into the earth. There your roots begin, stretching deeper and deeper. With each breath, your roots wrap around rocks, dip into underground pools, and into the molten pit of the earth.
When your roots are established, draw the energy of each of the elements, the fire of the center of the earth, the stability of the rocks and soil, the love and intuition from the underground pools, the openness to higher communication from the air pockets between it all. Draw them into you, knowing that they are your tools. You have connection with each element, and they to you, and thus, they are your instruments.
When you are ready, open your eyes to look at your Magician. See the card in its fullness, the details of the card, the environment, the figure, the table. Spend a few moments taking in the image before closing your eyes, and reconnecting with the elements.
Now, in your minds eye, pick up the card, and find yourself the same size as it. Imagine yourself standing, and turning so your back is to the card, before you step backward, lifting your feet so as not to trip over the frame (if your card is bordered), and allow yourself access into the realm of the Magician.
You find that there is a table in front of you, your shoulders are heavy with robes. Hair brushes the back of your neck, and your forehead perspires against the band around it.
You are the Magician.
Look beside you, behind you, above you, below you. What do you see? Are you outside? Are you inside? Is it cool? Warm? Is there a breeze? What do you smell? What do you see? Taste?
Take a moment to examine how you feel, your posture. Your arm is raised in the air, wand in hand, while your other hand points down to the ground. Do you feel the energy running through you? In which direction is it running?
Examine the objects before you on the table, and examine them. Put down your wand and pick up the objects on the table, or around you, one by one. Run your fingers over each one, examine it. Is it wood? A mineral? Is it smooth? Rough? Rusted? Tarnished? Are there dents from use? Do they radiate with energy from use?
As the Magician, examine why they are there. What does that mean to you? How do they serve you? What have you done with them? Consider their potential.
After you have placed the last object down, take another moment or two, however long you need, to absorb the experience, to feel the flowers around you, to smell them, touch them. Take in their importance to you as the Magician. What do they feel like to you? Energetically? Physically? Emotionally.
When you are ready, take a deep breath and gently bring yours awareness to your body outside the Magician, and step around the table, over the roses. Take another deep breath and step out of the frame. Exhale. Take another deep breath and feel the space you’re in, feel the body you’re in. Remember your youness. Take a final deep breath, and open your eyes.
Record
Take this time to journal or record your experience. Record with as much detail as you can recall, and don’t edit yourself. Let yourself talk, let yourself write, pages, minutes, dozens of minutes, as long as it takes to fully record your experience.
Conclusion
In the following days, consider your experience and how it relates to your life. Where does the Magician resonate in your daily world, in your ideology, in your mental and emotional states? What lessons did you learn from your meditation that you carry with you?
Spend the week really challenging yourself to identify with the Magician, and see where this card serves you. Record freely, often, and in as much detail as you can.
If you’d like to read more card meditations, you can visit the meditation page here.
The Decks Used
The Aquarian Tarot in a Tin by Italian-born, American-raised David Palladini, was published originally in 1970 by U.S. Games Systems Inc, and then republished again in 2016 in a smaller size. Named after the Age of Aquarius, the Aquarian Tarot is a midieval depiction of the Rider-Waite Tarot system. The images are closer, and thus might give the impression of being more character-based rather than relying on symbolism. This intimate deck provides a stark reflection of the human condition in it’s journey through the tarot.
Faerie Tarot by Nathalie Hertz, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc, 2008. Hertz is a French artist, and the creator of several other beautiful tarot decks. The Faerie Tarot was ‘inspired by the flora and fauna of the French countryside,’ and ‘invites you to see the world in a delightful new way…blending fantasy, whimsy, and nature.’
Impressionist Tarot by Arturo Picca (artist) and Corrine Kenner (author), published by Lo Scarabeo in 2015. This deck takes works of classic impressionist paintings and recreates them to fit the meanings of the tarot. It pulls from works of Edonard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gough, and Paul Gauguin. A truly beautiful deck, especially for those who have interest in the art world.
Prisma Visions Tarot by James R. Eads, 3rd ed., published in 2016. The deck itself is beautiful, though perhaps not for the beginning tarot reader. The suits all fit together to create a master picture displaying the energy and progression of the suits. The figures and images flow from one card to the next, showing movement within the stationary cards.
Rider-Waite by A. E. Waite. The deck used in these photos is currently out of print. I won’t say much about this deck, as it is fairly standard and probably one of the most produced decks. It serves as a standard for many tarot readers and artists, depicting classic images relating in part to the original playing cards that tarot developed from.
The Spiral Tarot by Kay Steventon. With turn-of-the-20th-century style art, this deck takes from the classic Rider-Waite deck and brings it up to the late 1800-early 1900’s, a time of industry and contemplation for the western world as it moved forward into a more technological era. I am a little biased toward this deck as it’s been my main deck for 15 years. The cards are thick with additional symbolism that can be tricky to pick out of the traditional Rider-Waite, and adds layers of Greek myth throughout the Major Arcana.
Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley (designer and author) and Lady Frieda Harris (artist), published by U. S. Games Systems, Inc., in 1978. This deck takes from most esoteric imagery, and requires the reader of the deck to have deep, initiate knowledge of the symbolism used. There is nothing within the cards that is without meaning. However, on a more surface level, the deck draws from Egyptian symbolism and from the style of the Marseille Tarot (mostly seen within the Minor Arcana). For those looking for deeper understandings of the universe, I recommend this deck. I would caution that this deck is highly advanced, and might be avoided for the budding reader.
Vampire Tarot – by Nathalie Hertz, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. in 2000. As mentioned above in reference to the Faerie Tarot, Hertze is a French artist who gained her notability through the publication of her tarot decks. The Vampire Tarot was a bestselling deck upon its release, and plays on more gothic symbolism, providing more jarring interpretations to allow for the accepting of negative forces within the world to compliment the positive forces. The deck brings together myths and legends in the form of vampires, which ‘gives tarot readers a macabre passport’ into the world of divination.
