The Magician Tarot Card - Major Arcana Meaning

Discover the meaning of The Magician Tarot card, the indications it gives when it comes upright or reversed and its possible application to the various facets of your life and everyday issues.

The Magician is the first card of the Major Arcana in occult Tarot decks. The figure on this card has a magic wand that allows him to open all the doors of the unconscious. The dagger at his disposal allows him to fight the shadows and conquer the light of universal wisdom. Discover the meaning of The Magician Tarot card, the indications it gives when it is drawns upright, reversed or combined with other cards, and its possible application to the various facets of life and everyday issues.

The Major Arcana number tells you what stage you are in for a particular situation or problem. Ask the Tarot your question and interpret the Arcana according to its number and its position in the deck. These cards follow a storyline that tells of the spiritual travels taken from the innocent wonder of The Fool to the oneness and fulfillment of The World. In other words, these cards tell the story of humanity's spiritual evolution into enlightenment and individuation - when his life experiences are complete, he returns to zero, The Fool. Despite the divinatory meaning of the cards, think of the Tarot as a journey. If you look at the cards that come out in this way, with each question you ask, it becomes easier to intuitively interpret the cards and see their messages as a life story.

The Magician Tarot Card Description

  • Major Arcana I
  • Zodiacal Affinity - Mercury
  • Keywords - Initiative, persuasion, action, entrepreneurship, energy, intuition, potential, vitality, beginnings, dynamism, visionary.
  • Key Expressions - Ability to achieve; self-awareness of one's potential; concentration on objectives and goals; high hopes for the future; use of willpower.
  • Advice - Manifest your dreams. Materialize your ideas now.
  • Reversed Meaning - Deception; being captivated by a disloyal person; communication failure and delay of plans.

The Illustration

The Magician shows an illustration of a young man standing behind a table, on which some objects are arranged. In his right hand, he holds a ball and with his left, he raises a wand. The shape of his hat evokes the "8", the shape of the mathematical symbol of "infinity", establishing a relationship with the indivisible and eternal spirit, Fire. Together with the elements arranged on the table, the symbology of the magician 's hat suggests the potential of the four primordial elements or psychic functions.

The Symbology

This archetype is related to illusion and chance, with a playful and elusive spirit. It symbolizes the bridge between the inner self and the material world and the way unconscious desires creep into consciousness, making things happen.

This card also represents the ability to make choices and confidently use skills and competences to achieve goals and purposes. However, it also alerts to the need to know how to recognize that, despite the knowledge already acquired, it still represents a learning phase.

This card also presents an element of uncertainty since new beginnings may imply initial difficulties and obstacles to be overcome. However, the wizard's abilities make it so the probability of being successful is high. When you intend to start a new project or activity, the presence of this card ascertains the potential of the plans and challenges the person to carry them out.

Should a person face any opposition, the shrewd and lively nature of The Magician ensures that nothing and no one will have the capacity or strength to resist him.

Skilled and educated, astute, intelligent and mastering the art of negotiation, the figure of The Magician can be recognized in the stereotype of the lawyer, the merchant, the politician or the actor. It represents all people who sell illusions, in both the positive and negative sense of the term.

The Magician represents the beginning of the journey that will lead a person to self-knowledge. It bears the number 1, which in Numerology means beginning, origin and initiative. In Kabbalah, it corresponds to path number 12 on the Tree of Life: the crown of understanding.

The Magician Tarot Card Meaning

Upright Magician Tarot Card Meaning

  • Upright Love Meaning - Creating opportunities for love; being proactive in love.
  • Upright Career Meaning - Harnessing career opportunities; determination and drive.
  • Upright Finances Meaning - Pursuing financial opportunity; making use of skills.

The most important message of this card is that the power is within each of us. Only we have at our fingertips everything we need to make significant changes in our life and the ability to make happen whatever we want.

Everyone has the intelligence and the skills needed to change their life, even if they feel they haven't manifested yet. The Magician in the Tarot symbolizes the person who is at the helm of his own life.

On the emotional plane, The Magician represents maturity both in love and in friendships. Your emotional connections are stable and happy. On a material level, this is a good time to make investments, relying on instincts and skills to assess situations and related risks.

Reversed Magician Tarot Card Meaning

  • Reversed Love Meaning - Romantic illusion, romantic trickery, low willpower for love.
  • Reversed Career Meaning - Wasted talent, unwillingness to take chances, workplace deception.
  • Reversed Finances Meaning - Missed financial opportunity, not using skills for financial gain.

Some events may have reversed the normal order of things and created some chaos in the person's life, which can manifest itself in a feeling of frustration, indecision and lack of confidence.

On the sentimental level, the person may feel some uneasiness. This is a time to take a break and consider what kind of relationship you want in the future. Conflicts may appear in family life and intimacy, which require patience and understanding to overcome.

On the material plane, a series of obstacles can arise. Analyze your habits and lifestyle and the way you work. You can try to rearrange your behaviors and make some improvements. This is not a good time to make big investments.

Reading Combinations of The Magician with Other Tarot Cards

The concepts of new and unusual apply to all cards combined with The Magician. The positive connections are with the aces of the Minor Arcana, and with the cards The Sun, The Chariot and The Wheel of Fortune from the Major Arcana group. Even when combined with relatively negative cards like The Tower, The Magician card suggests that obstacles and difficulties will be overcome.

The Major Arcana Tarot

The Major Arcana, or Great Mysteries, are seen as symbols of great issues, moments or people. Each card represents a human archetype, evoking the most varied feelings, moral positions and behaviors.

Reading, Meanings and Interpretation of the Tarot Major Arcana

Tarot is used as a tool for self-discovery and self-knowledge. In this sense, more than guessing the future, it serves to read and interpret all the elements of our life: it describes the current moment, clarifies the motives, desires and intentions, pointing out the path and the energies present in our life.

The possible readings for each Tarot card are practically infinite. There is no unique interpretation for each card, for each layout of cards or for each reading method. Tarot is based on intuition. Each person who reads the message of a card, or a set of cards, intuitively unravels the meaning of the card's message and how it connects with their own reality and circumstances of life.

The word "arcana" comes from Latin and means "secret" and, in the Tarot, the Major Arcana are considered universal, symbolic and figurative: they are considered symbolic of great issues, moments or people. They are archetypes, that is, they represent the most diverse feelings, moral positions and human behaviors. When they appear in a reading, it indicates an important event or decision, whether practical, spiritual, or emotional. They also establish correspondence with the astrological signs and planets.