The Magician Card

[Brian]

I have a new-found interest in this particular card, especially the significance of the infinity symbol over his head (at the eighth chakra?)

 

Anyone interested in elucidating me?

[Nungali]

I think I just may have in the other thread ?   

 

In the Thoth deck he is pictured with the Staff of Hermes (mentioned in the other thread too ) , based on the Egyptian winged disk and showing the intertwined serpents  ( DNA - another form of 'consciousness' -  / Ida  Pingala ) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://hermetic.com/crowley/book-of-thoth/atu.html      @   1. The Juggler 

Edited January 8, 2016 by Nungali

[Apech]

He's usually shown with one arm raised and the other pointing down and this relates to the magical use of the subtle energies of the infinite (the One and All) to effect change in the physical world.  This was originally expressed through working with talismans and amulets where it was thought particular gems, metals, colours and images resonated with stellar forces which were part of the universal soul.  This is astral magic and includes planetary deities and things like the decans.  So effectively the Magician is channelling higher energies to effect change below - 'as above so below' and all that.  The card is related to the Hebrew letter Aleph.

[9th]

O you heuens arrise: the lower heuens vnder neath you, let them serve you! Gouern those that govern: cast down such as fall! Bring furth with those that encrease, and destroy the rotten! No place let it remayne in one number: ad and diminish vntill the stars be numbred!

 

Arrise, Move, and Appere before the Couenant of his mowth, which he hath sworne vnto vs in his Iustice. Open the Mysteries of your Creation: and make vs partakers of Vndefyled Knowledg.

 

[Brian]

I've read eight or ten descriptions/analyses of the card on various websites since starting this thread but nothing compares to the depth and complexity I've found here "at home" -- in this thread and others I've dug up from the past. I keep thinking it is time to walk away from the unhealthy squabbling here but then something arises which reminds me why I value this community.

 

As you may have surmised, my two threads are entangled, as are the responses -- much like Hermes' serpents...

 

I'm not yet comfortable with discussing the impetus for these questions even though I may have more but there is method to my madness (or maybe just madness to my madness!)

[RigdzinTrinley]

I really enjoy the spawns of your madness/method

 

OK back to the back seats

[Nungali]

I've read eight or ten descriptions/analyses of the card on various websites since starting this thread but nothing compares to the depth and complexity I've found here "at home" -- in this thread and others I've dug up from the past. I keep thinking it is time to walk away from the unhealthy squabbling here but then something arises which reminds me why I value this community.

 

The tide  goes out ... the tide comes in ... 

[Brian]

And sometimes the seaweed which wraps around your ankle causes a rash.

[Nungali]

He's usually shown with one arm raised and the other pointing down and this relates to the magical use of the subtle energies of the infinite (the One and All) to effect change in the physical world.  This was originally expressed through working with talismans and amulets where it was thought particular gems, metals, colours and images resonated with stellar forces which were part of the universal soul.  This is astral magic and includes planetary deities and things like the decans.  So effectively the Magician is channelling higher energies to effect change below - 'as above so below' and all that.  The card is related to the Hebrew letter Aleph

 

 

If it wasnt Brian's thread about the Magician I would quizz you on those decans.    

 

The 'sign of the Magician' is interesting; heaven and earth , also shown by the two serpents in the 'crown', in a way, representing upper (source) and lower (manifestation and fertility) 'kingdoms' , a reflection of Mercury's dual nature as psychopomp and messenger, he can function in the world / heavens  and transit and assist in the underworld  - also reflected in the sign it rules; Gemini the twins; one immortal and one mortal  .... that eventually became immortal  (well, you hang around  someone long enough, some is bound to rub off on you ) .

 

This is also a reflection, perhaps of the 'spiritual' nature 'lifting up'  the 'lower' nature.  And bring all those little internal demons into order. 

 

'The Magician    ( ' Hymn of  Honorius '  ) 

 

O Lord, deliver me from hell's great fear and gloom!

Loose thou my spirit from the larvae of the tomb!

I seek them in their dread abodes without affright:

On them will I impose my will, the law of light.

 

I bid the night conceive the glittering hemisphere.

Arise, O sun, arise! O moon, shine white and clear!

I seek them in their dread abodes without affright:

On them will I impose my will, the law of light.

 

Their faces and their shapes are terrible and strange.

These devils by my might to angels I will change.

These nameless horrors I address without affright:

On them will I impose my will, the law of light.

 

These are the phantoms pale of mine astonied view,

Yet none but I their blasted beauty can renew;

For to the abyss of hell I plunge without affright:

On them will I impose my will, the law of light.

[Nungali]

And sometimes the seaweed which wraps around your ankle causes a rash.

 

Or sometimes , one gets swept out to sea ....  when the tide is strong    ( a symbol of the unconscious ) 

 

" .....  Far out with the foam of the present that sweeps to the surf of the past:

Where beyond the extreme sea-wall, and between the remote sea-gates,

Waste water washes, and tall ships founder, and deep death waits:

Where, mighty with deepening sides, clad about with the seas as with wings,

And impelled of invisible tides, and fulfilled of unspeakable things,

White-eyed and poisonous-finned, shark-toothed and serpentine-curled,

Rolls, under the whitening wind of the future, the wave of the world.

The depths stand naked in sunder behind it, the storms flee away;

In the hollow before it the thunder is taken and snared as a prey;

In its sides is the north-wind bound; and its salt is of all men's tears;

With light of ruin, and sound of changes, and pulse of years:

With travail of day after day, and with trouble of hour upon hour;

And bitter as blood is the spray; and the crests are as fangs that devour:

And its vapour and storm of its steam as the sighing of spirits to be;

And its noise as the noise in a dream; and its depth as the roots of the sea:

And the height of its heads as the height of the utmost stars of the air:

And the ends of the earth at the might thereof tremble, and time is made bare.

Will ye bridle the deep sea with reins, will ye chasten the high sea with rods?

Will ye take her to chain her with chains, who is older than all ye Gods?

All ye as a wind shall go by, as a fire shall ye pass and be past; ..... "

 

- Swinburne 

 

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174559

Edited January 8, 2016 by Nungali

[Brian]

Yes, that is a possibility, isn't it? Once the cord is cut, one may float freely.

[Apech]

@ Nungali

 

1 ) Swinbourne! you poofta!

 

2 ) psychopomp - I love that word

 

3 ) decans eh!

[Nungali]

1.  How dare you use such an old fashioned homophoboslur on me !  

 

Why,  next time I drive down your street , I shall turn my exhaust perfume off  !  

 

 

 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-490013/Eat-heart-Elton-heres-eccentric-English-aristocrat-ever.html

 

2.  Nothing like a pompous psycho  .....  thats why we come to daobums 

 

3.  Yes ,   decans and significant stars in the decan giving it is energy to the decan ...  wait ... did we already do this  ???  

 

 

[Nungali]

So   ,   duality can be expressed by black and white 

 

 

 

but some prefer black and red. 

 

 

 

so really, the dragon can be red , or black , or one red dragon and one black dragon .

 

Down here , the black is heaven (night sky) and the red is earth  ( cause we got a lot of red earth )  . 

 

So, whether it is 'paired forces' in  biodynamics, or 'working the middle pillar' or even. maybe, the 'inner serpent '(dragon ?)  the 'trick' (the blending of the forces) seems to be in interpenetration  (hence first pic above )  , in biodynamics, its about bringing  the  roots energy ) 'earth'  up into the plant and the leaves energy ( from 'heaven' - 'cosmic forces' ) down into the roots.   

 

A reversal of sorts, but not a 'misplacement' .  

 

So as well as the earth red dragon sitting 'up top'   ..... is it too far a stretch to see a similarity in the  'snakey'  'border' barrier between black and white 

 

 

 

as a bit like 

 

  

 

?   

 

( the origin in Tarot, I think , in his hat ; 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, by itself he is a good 'symbol' 

 

[LAOLONG]

http://www.taroticallyspeaking.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/01_Major_Magician.jpg

[Apech]

Sorry Brian for that brief interlude of silliness.

 

The image of the magician or magus is very central and key to the Hermetic tradition.  When the renaissance thinkers like Ficino and Pico started study of the Hermetic Texts they were legitimised by the idea that Hermes Trismegistus (the author of the Pimander etc) was understood as an ancient Egyptian who understood and predicted the Trinity and the coming of the Christ.  This was partly a genuine belief and partly a ruse to avoid the inquisition.

 

This allowed the idea of the magus - which means someone who doesn't just wish to be infused with the divine but to operate by manipulating the energies coming from the divine to effect changes in the world.  What the Renaissance inherited through the Hermetic texts written in the early centuries AD was a bit of a mish mash of Babylonian, Greek and Egyptian ideas - on top of which you can add some Hebrew Cabala.  However it was understood to be mainly Egyptian and distinct but standing alongside Gnosticism, Neoplatonism and Cabala.

 

The idea that the universe is composed of divine substances is probably Egyptian - the idea that you can control and manipulate energies is definitely Egyptian (IMO) and gives rise to both astral magic and alchemy (depending on whether you are focusing on subtle forces or on physical substances).  It is actually a short step from this form of empiricism to science - since both believe in the possibility of both understanding the way the universe works and the possibility of manipulating it.  Hence Alchemy morphs into Chemistry - but only when the world view becomes narrowed by skepticism.  In other words you go from a wider world view which includes divine and subtle energies and so on - to one that refutes anything intangible.

 

In terms of astral magic while the Zodiac is Babylonian in origin and was only introduced into Egypt in the late and Greco-Roman periods, by the time of the Hermetic writing it was fully integrated.  But the Egyptians at least by the Middle Kingdom and probably earlier had a system of decan stars (so called because they divide the skies in arcs of 10 degrees) fo which there are 36 (36X10 = 360 = the whole sky).  The decan stars seem to have two uses.  One is to measure time at night.  So the rising of the stars above the horizon (or passing through the mid heaven) marked each hour of the night.  These hours were significant tot he Egyptians because they tracked the sun's passage through the netherworld.  Most significant being the 6th hour when the sun was regenerated.  The other use was a guide of the dead soul - a kind of sky map which allowed the dead persons soul (or the shaman priests soul) to travel across the sky to the east to greet the rising sun.

 

In the renaissance period while the translators and early 'dabblers' in magic fully embraced the Zodiac and the seven planets - they were a bit nervous of the decans which by this time were represented by different figures relating to the Zodiac sign.  Its not entirely clear why this is but it probably relates to the idea that they tended to relate to 'positive' planets and signs like Venus, Jupiter and the Sun and try to negate other like Saturn.  So they were trying to distinguish between High magic and Low magic and the decans although later accepted were originally thought to be low (possibly because they appear in the Talismanic work Picatrix which is full of witchcraft type spells).

 

The Tarot doesn't appear until the 17 century which makes some doubt its authenticity -  but practitioners generally accept that the symbols are drawn from the Western Magical Tradition.

[Brian]

So , duality can be expressed by black and white

 

 

 

but some prefer black and red.

 

 

 

so really, the dragon can be red , or black , or one red dragon and one black dragon .

 

Down here , the black is heaven (night sky) and the red is earth ( cause we got a lot of red earth ) .

 

So, whether it is 'paired forces' in biodynamics, or 'working the middle pillar' or even. maybe, the 'inner serpent '(dragon ?) the 'trick' (the blending of the forces) seems to be in interpenetration (hence first pic above ) , in biodynamics, its about bringing the roots energy ) 'earth' up into the plant and the leaves energy ( from 'heaven' - 'cosmic forces' ) down into the roots.

 

A reversal of sorts, but not a 'misplacement' .

 

So as well as the earth red dragon sitting 'up top' ..... is it too far a stretch to see a similarity in the 'snakey' 'border' barrier between black and white

 

 

 

as a bit like

 

 

?

 

( the origin in Tarot, I think , in his hat ;

 

 

 

 

Anyways, by itself he is a good 'symbol'

 

Thank you!

[Brian]

Sorry Brian for that brief interlude of silliness.

 

The image of the magician or magus is very central and key to the Hermetic tradition. When the renaissance thinkers like Ficino and Pico started study of the Hermetic Texts they were legitimised by the idea that Hermes Trismegistus (the author of the Pimander etc) was understood as an ancient Egyptian who understood and predicted the Trinity and the coming of the Christ. This was partly a genuine belief and partly a ruse to avoid the inquisition.

 

This allowed the idea of the magus - which means someone who doesn't just wish to be infused with the divine but to operate by manipulating the energies coming from the divine to effect changes in the world. What the Renaissance inherited through the Hermetic texts written in the early centuries AD was a bit of a mish mash of Babylonian, Greek and Egyptian ideas - on top of which you can add some Hebrew Cabala. However it was understood to be mainly Egyptian and distinct but standing alongside Gnosticism, Neoplatonism and Cabala.

 

The idea that the universe is composed of divine substances is probably Egyptian - the idea that you can control and manipulate energies is definitely Egyptian (IMO) and gives rise to both astral magic and alchemy (depending on whether you are focusing on subtle forces or on physical substances). It is actually a short step from this form of empiricism to science - since both believe in the possibility of both understanding the way the universe works and the possibility of manipulating it. Hence Alchemy morphs into Chemistry - but only when the world view becomes narrowed by skepticism. In other words you go from a wider world view which includes divine and subtle energies and so on - to one that refutes anything intangible.

 

In terms of astral magic while the Zodiac is Babylonian in origin and was only introduced into Egypt in the late and Greco-Roman periods, by the time of the Hermetic writing it was fully integrated. But the Egyptians at least by the Middle Kingdom and probably earlier had a system of decan stars (so called because they divide the skies in arcs of 10 degrees) fo which there are 36 (36X10 = 360 = the whole sky). The decan stars seem to have two uses. One is to measure time at night. So the rising of the stars above the horizon (or passing through the mid heaven) marked each hour of the night. These hours were significant tot he Egyptians because they tracked the sun's passage through the netherworld. Most significant being the 6th hour when the sun was regenerated. The other use was a guide of the dead soul - a kind of sky map which allowed the dead persons soul (or the shaman priests soul) to travel across the sky to the east to greet the rising sun.

 

In the renaissance period while the translators and early 'dabblers' in magic fully embraced the Zodiac and the seven planets - they were a bit nervous of the decans which by this time were represented by different figures relating to the Zodiac sign. Its not entirely clear why this is but it probably relates to the idea that they tended to relate to 'positive' planets and signs like Venus, Jupiter and the Sun and try to negate other like Saturn. So they were trying to distinguish between High magic and Low magic and the decans although later accepted were originally thought to be low (possibly because they appear in the Talismanic work Picatrix which is full of witchcraft type spells).

 

The Tarot doesn't appear until the 17 century which makes some doubt its authenticity - but practitioners generally accept that the symbols are drawn from the Western Magical Tradition.

Very interesting. Thank you!

 

(BTW, I found meat on the bones of that foray into frivolity, too.)

[Zhongyongdaoist]

(BTW, I found meat on the bones of that foray into frivolity, too.)

 

Remember to crack the bones and eat the marrow.

[Brian]

 

Remember to crack the bones and eat the marrow.

I have received a bounty of things to consume and digest recently and I am very thankful (but have much processing to do at this point).

[Nungali]

http://www.taroticallyspeaking.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/01_Major_Magician.jpg

 

 

The Magician reversed.  

 

Is there a whole deck of those ? 

[Zhongyongdaoist]

 

http://www.taroticallyspeaking.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/01_Major_Magician.jpg

 

 

The Magician reversed.  

 

Is there a whole deck of those ?

 

Some of us know how to find things by ourselves:

 

The Tarot of the New Vision

[FraterUFA]

 

Some of us know how to find things by ourselves:

 

The Tarot of the New Vision

 

Now, now, Donald. That might be construed as "unhealthy squabbling".

 

:-)

 

UFA

[Nungali]

 

 

 

 

 

[Nungali]

No ... sorry Brian and Frater UFA  .....   just    no -     that's it !