The Magician

Symbols

• LemniscateThe lemniscate above his head — he is only a brief segment of the endless current.+

  The infinite is not his achievement but the shape he borrows — every craft he performs is a momentary lighting of a current that merely passes through him.

• Four Elements on the TableWand, cup, sword, pentacle — every element present and within reach.+

  Waite says the four suit signs lie 'like counters before the adept, and he adapts them as he wills'. Where the Marseille Bateleur's table holds a juggler's cups and dice, Smith lays out the four suits of the deck itself.

• The Raised WandThe right hand draws power from above; the left directs it into matter.+

  Smith draws the raised wand white and double-ended, a second wand besides the one lying on the table. Waite reads the paired arms as 'the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above and derived to things below'.

• Ouroboros GirdleA serpent biting its own tail clasps his waist — beginning and end already closed on the same circle.+

  Waite grants that the tail-eating serpent is 'familiar to most as a conventional symbol of eternity', then narrows it to 'the eternity of attainment in the spirit'. The lemniscate above his head repeats the closed loop.

• Lilies and RosesPurity and passion blooming at once — what craft serves is never a single thing.+

  Waite names them the flos campi and lilium convallium — the Vulgate's 'flower of the field' and 'lily of the valleys' from the Song of Songs 2:1 — 'changed into garden flowers, to shew the culture of aspiration'.

• Red Robe, White UndershirtOuter robe red — the color of will; the under-shirt white — intention must be clean.+

  Smith carries the two colours across the whole card: red in the robe and the roses, white in the undertunic, the band round his hair, the raised wand and the lilies. Waite simply calls it 'the robe of a magician'.

• Rose Arbour OverheadA hanging canopy of red roses across the top of the card — the garden closes over him as well as beneath him.+

  The arbour runs the full width of the top edge, just above the lemniscate, and its red answers the roses growing at his feet: only the flowers 'beneath' are in Waite's text; the hanging roses overhead are Smith's own.

Story

Everything here is frontal and vertical. The figure faces us squarely across a table, and the picture runs on a single line, from the hand lifted above his head to the finger pointed at the ground. Behind him there is no horizon and no distance, only a flat yellow field, so the space feels enclosed, like a garden with one occupant; flowers close it off at top and bottom. Nothing moves. The gesture is held at full extension, the instant after the arm has risen and before anything answers. The table stands between him and us like a workshop counter.

Correspondences

Shadow

Related Cards

The Fool

The High Priestess

The Hermit

Combinations with this card