Tarot has been a part of Barbara Moore's personal and professional lives for nearly twenty years. Right from the start, tarot intrigued her with its marvelous blending of mythology, psychology, art, history, mystery, and magic. She has studied under...
The Magician functions by a fundamental belief: as above, so below. This means that the higher plane of existence is reflected in the lower plane. It implies a connection with the Divine. If he is in line with the Divine, he becomes a channel that can effect change in the world. His knowledge and understanding of the laws of the universe allow him to use what is at hand to achieve his goals. Combining base elements with the spirit of the Divine allows for a result that is worth far more than the sum of its parts. This card says that in this situation we can do the same. We have the necessary knowledge and resources to achieve our goals.
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In the Universal Waite card, there is a strong representation of the connection between the Divine and personal will. One hand reaches toward heaven, indicating the Divine, but it holds a wand, a symbol of will. His other hand directs the channeled energy. The white lilies represent the purity of his relationship with the Divine; the red roses, his passion or intent. The lemniscate shows that all possibilities exist within the infinite universe. The chalice, sword, and pentacle symbolize his resources.
Core meaning:Using knowledge, resources, and will to create change in the world.
In the landscape of The Magician, red roses hang in garlands from the top of the card above The Magician's head. The top of his double-tipped wand points directly at the roses above him. There are also a number of roses at the bottom of the card. The lilies can be found only at the bottom of the card, where they are large and distinct.
Here, the rose and the lily refer mainly to the esoteric function of The Magician, which is the double function of life and death. He brings things to life by paying attention to them and allows them to die by ignoring them.
Part of the symbolism of the rose is the heat and passion of life. Roses are the traditional flowers of betrothals, weddings, and declarations of love. Roses are edible and are an ingredient in magical, culinary, and healing herbal ingestible. Lilies, especially the lily of the valley, are funeral flowers. They are poisonous and associated with death, but they are also associated with purity and redemption, which are religious funerary themes.
In the picture on the card, the blood-red flowering rose is a symbol of the feminine path of emergence,of embodiment in life. The white, trumpet-shaped lily, with its prominent phallic pistils, is a symbol of the masculine path of return to the world of spirit. Although it can be disturbing to realize, the path of return is a journey to disembodiment and at least a spiritual death. Sometimes this journey can involve martyrdom and actual death in the service of a divinity.
The rose and the lily in tarot are the symbols of the Qabalistic drop of red and drop of white that create the world in all its bewildering multiplicity. Simultaneously, they are the alchemical red and white, whose marriage is a token of ultimate unity and the resolution of all disharmonies.
These two themes of creating and dissolving the complexities of existence are the life and death functions of The Magician, and the symbol of the rose and the lily illustrates both themes equally and simultaneously.
In a practical application of this idea, if The Magician comes up in a reading, you could say that positive things come alive for you when you pay attention to them and work at them. But they wither and perish if you ignore them long enough. On the other hand, you could say that you aggravate and energize a difficult situation by obsessing about it, but you can purify and heal negativity by denying it importance and attention.
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It also appears as one of the suit symbols on the table of The Magician, showing his power over all the elements.
