Well last week was All Hallows, so this week marks a time of new beginnings. I thought that the Magus, would be the perfect card to follow All Hallows Eve. Melanie's Magus is one of the best cards in her deck. The card is very rich, the frame if you look at is a blend of the 4 elements. The sun behind the Magus energizes the card while the moon further back in the back ground ties her to the deep levels of the unconscious mind as well. The infinity symbol over the Magus head in the Gendron, and the right hand of the figure in the Robin Wood. Ties the Magus to the fifth element, Spirit.

I quite like the presentation of the Magus as a woman. She looks so right there, surrounded by the tools of the craft, a master of her art. Her craft being as Mel reminds us in her LWB, the manifestation of thought forms in the material world. Because the Magician is skilled in the blending of the elements, she is sometimes seen as a card of deception and illustion. The Marseille and other Medieval tarots portrayed the magician as a juggler instead. In the Medieval world the Jugglers slight of hand was necessary to his own protection. Parlor tricks are all well and good, but when you start dabbling in the deeper aspects of the elements, you are treading on peoples deepest beliefs. Beliefs that can inspire a dangerious intolerance in the minds of others. So the Juggler, misdirects the intolerant, teaching them, without letting them see their is more too her conjuring than simple entertainment.

The Magus, is primarily concerned with connecting with that spark of the divine in all of us. Of course the Magus is also the first trump, so we should not put her too high up on the pedestal. Yes she has mastered the technique of her craft, but the "Fools Journey" still lays largely before her. There is an expression, "Be in the World, but not of it." I see the Magus as still very much being both in the world and of it. I suppose I see myself the same way. I have always found something truly horrifying about the other thought. I could never embrace a level of enlightenment, where I felt I was somehow above the terrible things in this world.

Yet I know its a dangerous road. Being in the world, and of it, justifies the cycles of violence around the world. The Magus is searching for enlightenment. A path up and out of our world of right and wrong and retribution. If Jesus was here to teach us anything, its that when we connect with the divine in ourselves we touch a deep well of compassion. The life of the man, as it has been recorded, was remarkable in its compassion. Yet even Jesus 'lost it' when he encountered the merchants surrounding the temple. I very like this story, because it makes The Rabbi much more human in my eyes. The thought that even the most enlightened among us still has a few hot buttons to push.

Robin's Magician is a quite a nice image as well. The head of the stag grounds the figure in nature. Reminding us the Magickal is also Natural, and that the SuperNatural is something of a misnomer. I've been thinking of this a lot lately, and its reflected in my posts. I am quite convinced Plato's Allegory of the cave, is based on a very real experience. The Magician, has gotten up from her seat in the theater of the cave, and begun to explore the forms behind the shadows we commonly think of as reality. So to that extent the Super in SuperNatural is there. There is a level most of us do not access on a daily basis. At the same time, we cannot experience radio waves directly, yet we have figured out how to build devices that are sensitive to them and in the process bound the world up in an instantaneous web of communication.

While Magician has learned, "The world is not only stranger than we know, but stranger than we can know." She has set out on the road to learn all she can about it just the same. She knows that to find the true line, between her limits and her powers. She must first learn, not to limit herself.

Divination: Originality, Creativity, Flexibility, Imagination, Self Reliance, Mastery, Self Control, Slight of Hand. Awareness of the Unseen.

Reversed: Weakness of Will, Ineptitude, Insecurity, Deception, Misuse of ones skills.