The Magician is the next card within the major arcana in the tarot and it is the first step into a new world for The Fool. He is someone who is extremely skilled, in a way in which others may see it as otherworldly or impossible. This card is closely associated with magic due to the magician’s ability to create something from seemingly nothing.
The Magician often symbolises that first step out on our own, where we realise just how many possibilities there are in the world. Think about when you left school and you got a job and finally had your own money, the world was your oyster and that is the same energy we see with The Magician.
Upright
The Magician in the upright position is a great indication that it’s finally time to get stuck in creating a new path for yourself or make a start on that new project you’ve been considering. The Magician is the first time The Fool feels his feet touch the ground and signals that the race is now on to get started with the dreams and fantasies The Fool was dreaming of in the previous card.
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Creation
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Magic
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The Conscious Mind
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Action
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Skills
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Manifestation
Depending on its position in the spread, The Magician is a good indication that it’s time to start manifesting those desires and dreams. Instead of living off the high of just imagining what you could achieve, now is the time to put plans into place to actually make it a reality.
You may need to flex some of your skill in order to create your reality. Embrace your creativity and don’t be afraid to try things you haven’t tried before in order to reach your goals. Never be afraid of experimentation as you may find a new path undiscovered.
Reversed
Reversed, The Magician can be seen as something of a conman or a trickster. He can trick others into thinking he is more skilled and capable than he actually is, which can have negative repercussions for others or even himself.
The Magician reversed can also symbolise that you are using your skills and expertise with negative intentions, such as to undermine or sabotage someone else’s progress or achievements. He can also be a little bit too egotistical, believing himself a master before he is ready. This can blow up in his face and cause chaos, so it’s important to check whether The Magician’s ego needs to be taken down a few pegs.
The main properties of The Magician reversed are:
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Trickery
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Dishonesty
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Narcissism
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Manipulation
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Over Confidence
The reversed Magician card is all about making sure you’re keeping yourself grounded and realistic. Self-awareness is a big requirement for a reversed Magician, so make sure when this card appears, you are practising more mindfulness and you are fully aware of your, or others, true intentions.
Reading The Magician in a spread
The Magician works with all four elements, this we can see in the card illustration on the Rider-Waite Smith deck. On the table in front of him he has the four suits from the Tarot, which correspond with those four elements:
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Air = Swords
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Fire = Wands
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Water = Cups
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Earth = Pentacles
This shows us that The Magician card is all about learning to use the tools we have been gifted by nature and the universe, in order to create something that is uniquely our own. It symbolises the power we have as humans and the possibilities that we have available to us in our physical world. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the different ways we can read The Magician.
As an invitation
All the tarot cards can be seen as an invitation to explore a certain type of energy. For The Magician, this invitation may centre around exploring what we are capable of and what opportunities are in front of us. There is a strong feeling of exploration with The Magician and opening up to trial and error and the risk of failure. This invitation can help us learn a lot about ourselves, so let’s have a deeper look into this invitation below.
For The Magician, this invitation could be the following:
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An invitation to try something new, this could be a hobby or a new class
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An invitation to test your limits and see how far you can push yourself out of your comfort zone
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An invitation to explore what paths forward are available to you
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An invitation to explore your current skills and assess where you could build upon them
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An invitation to explore any feelings of imposter syndrome
As sage advice
It may be that your Magician card has popped up in a place that is more around guidance and suggestion. The Magician has a great deal of creative energy and a lot of what he has to say may revolve around pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and freeing yourself to find more creative solutions and ways of living.
Some advice The Magician may offer is:
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Assess the materials you have available to you and see what you can create with them
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You are capable of so much more, push yourself and see what you can manifest
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You need to put the action into the law of attraction, what you want will not just appear to you without you putting in the work
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You need to learn or develop skills in order to reach that next stage in your growth
As a lesson
Sometimes The Magician may appear to offer up a lesson that you need to dive into. These lessons that he offers can help you to reach that next level in your spiritual or emotional development. They can help you level up in your physical worlds, such as your job, relationship or other conscious goals you may be working towards.
Some lessons that The Magician may offer you are:
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A lesson on pushing yourself out of your comfort zone
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A lesson about the power of experimentation and trial and error
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A lesson on goal setting and achieving those goals
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A lesson on how to successfully manifest your deepest desires
As a redirection
You may not see how The Magician could be a redirection right away, but if you’ve been slogging away at something for a while, The Magician can be a sign that a new approach is needed. It may also be a sign that you’re not being truly authentic to what you want or need in your life and so redirection is needed in order to put you back on the right path.
As a redirection, The Magician could symbolise a need to:
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Try a new approach to getting what you want
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Altar your behaviour or belief around what you are capable of
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Re-focus your goals to make them more attainable or more aligned with what you need right now
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Re-assess what you are trying to manifest and see if you’re asking for too much too soon
In summary…
The Magician is a card that we have to be open to and allow the room for the energy to be flexible. It’s a card that requires us to question a lot of what we thought we knew already and take new approaches to things that are not performing as well as they could be. All of us have the power to create, but it takes inner work and an openness to being uncomfortable to be successful at it.
