The Magician (or Juggler)
a.k.a. The Magus of Power
Rulership: Mercury
Hebrew Letter: Beth
Translation: House
The path between Kether (the Crown) and Binah (Understanding). This is reflected in the Magician's role as the inquirer, wanting to understand the godhead (Kether); thus, keeping creation(s) in motion in order to gain insight.
The number one: Every creation; ultimate power, God, Hadit the point, uniqueness; the Manifest; the Gods; Kether; cosmic consciousness; archetypal world; Aleph; Reason. Egyptian ankh. Fire. The most powerful of all magical numbers. All miracles are possible once. The impossible beginning of everything stemming from the Void. As in music, it bears the stress: ONE, two, three...
Mercury: attributed to intelligence, communication, TCB (taking care of business), and trickery. Also, magick, insight, and true wisdom. The hermaphrodite is a common symbol for mercury. The caduceus (twin serpents), emblems of wisdom and guile.
Beth: The mouth as human's organ of speech, the interior of a human, and his or her habitation. Virility, paternal protection, and interior action and movement. Beth in conjunction with aleph forms all ideas of progress, graduated advance, the passage of one state (the initial) into another.
Possibly Beth is B (Beth), E (Ayin), and Th (Tau). Numerically, this is 2 + 70 + 400 = 472 = 13 = 4. I reduce this to four as the that is the number of elements, and is shown in the suits of the Tarot, and the tools of the Magician (we shall see the attributes of four in the Emperor). Although, thirteen is a number associated with transformation, and the Magician does undertake this...
In Readings:
Dignified: Will, mastery, skill, and oratory. Initiative, and the ability to take appropriate risks. The ability to perceive and utilize one's own potential. Well developed organization and communication skills.
Reversed: Timidity and hesitation. Shyness, indecision, and self-depreciation. Poor self-image. Unable to use time or talents effectively or properly. Difficulties in self-expression. Stuttering, speech disability, poor co-ordination and problems with the ability to learn (sometimes).
Mythological links: Hermes, Mercury, Odin, all god/dess(e/s) that are planners and arrangers of life rather than the makers of it.
Metaphysical Musings: The Magician is the force that shapes the initial manifestation of the Fool. S/he creates order from the chaos that unfolds from the Void in the moment of creation. Thus, s/he becomes the force that keeps things in motion--forever juggling the "star stuff." The Magician is the synthesis, as in hir are all the opposites/dualisms. Where the Fool is silence, the Magician is words and naming; thus, the creator of things, and the power over what has been named/created: the unknown becomes the known. The state vector stemming from the collapse of a wave function.
The hermaphrodite is associated with the Magician as it represents the path between the Crown and Understanding--recognizing the need for, and an the understanding of, dualism (ex. male/female) in order for there to be any sort of creation (which necessarily excludes the negation of what is; i.e., the cat manifest as x instead of ~x once out of the Fool's bag): a recognition of the differences between opposites while, paradoxically, understanding their wholeness. The planner and shaper of all things--s/he who dares to lead the ox thus steering the plow. As above, so below. |
Kobol Storm 
