Meet The Magician, Key 1 in the tarot. I asked my daughter, Megan, to come up with a female image for the magician in the tarot for the 21st century. This is her rendition.This image speaks of the enormous changes we’ve seen just 17 years into the millennium. Take a look at some of the events we’ve experienced:
- 9-11
- the birth of the TSA and Homeland Security
- the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan
- the rover exploration of Mars
- Hurricane Katrina
- the birth of Facebook, Google, Twitter and thousands of apps for these devices
- the introduction of the iPhone, the iPad and other Smart devices
- the first black president
- a meltdown in the housing market, the recession
- the Affordable Care Act, the closest thing the U.S. has to universal health care
- renewed diplomatic relations with Cuba
- the hacking of the 2016 election by Russia
- the election of a businessman to the presidency
- an acceleration of climate change
- instantaneous communication and news 24/7
And that’s just for starters. We are more connected to each other than ever before and yet, increasingly more disconnected from ourselves. As a result, new archetypes, experiences, lifestyles, hopes and dreams are emerging. And The Magician is one of them.
I used to interpret this card as symbolic of transformation. Now I see it as magic – as in the Harry Potter type of magic. I see it as manifestation, the way we co-create our realities through where we place our focus, thoughts, feelings, intention. As Seth, the non-physical energy channeled by Jane Roberts, said frequently, “You get what you concentrate on…there is no other main rule.”
In 1998, Simon & Schuster published Power Tarot, which my friend Phyllis Vega and I wrote. It included 100 original spreads. In those days, the favored spread in tarot books was the Celtic Cross, first mentioned in 1910 in a book by Edward Waite White. That spread always irritated me and seemed fatalistic and too esoteric to provide concrete answers. So Phyllis and I decided to create new spreads. After all, the spreads in the tarot tell the story. They connect the dots. They are like a novel with compelling characters, a riveting plot, intrigue, a climax, resolution.
But in the 19 years since the publication of Power Tarot, the world has changed drastically and dramatically and I realized that the tarot needs to be updated to reflect that. New spreads and interpretations of the cards are begging to be born. So here’s where it begins, with this new archetype of The Magician.
Magan has a unique, remarkable technique in her paintings that I’ve never seen elsewhere. Anyone who has seen them can recognize them as hers without looking at her signature! Her usages of color are spectacular and undeniably Megan’s!
For sure!
I think the changes in the 21st century began slightly prior to its birth. For example, to add to your list, we also elected a MOVIE STAR (Ronald Reagan) to be president, and other oddities preceding the actual shift into this century, Almost like a slow borthing process into a new dimension. And, who’s to say this isn’t really a dimension?? I’ve used my Waite Tarot for decades. It’s old and worn from much use, but has tons of energy embedded in it and altho I also have the Egyptian deck, I don’t use it much.
Can’t wait to see what you come up with. I dragged all of mine out the other day when an old friend came to visit. She had never been interested in these types of things but has started her own spiritual search so we now have a bond we didn’t have before. Things are changing, and they are changing rapidly now.
Funny, this wasn’t supposed to go up today. Oh well, I guess it wanted to come up! Good to know you’ve got that connection, Nancy!Maybe the politics of it all is what’s helping shove the rapid change through.
Love the painting!
In the 90’s I painted my then husband as the Magician (https://rainbowbridgetarot.blogspot.com/2011/02/art-magician.html).
I called the Magician “the Artist”, and wrote: “He draws the white light of universal energy (the Above) through his skilled hand, his will, and then through his heart, to manifest on the physical plane (the Below). As his creative energies manifest, they are broken into the “rainbow” components of the physical world in all of it’s lovely diversity. The Mage is an artist in every sense of the word, for his magic arises from a skilled and disciplined understanding of the tools he has to work with, his intention, and a connection to the infinite realm from which all manifestations originate.”
Love your interpretation, Lauren. It so fits my vision for the tarot in the 21st century.