This Week in Tarot: 23-29 May 2022

The Magician

From artist to thinker to farmer to musician, each mind makes petitions to The Magician.

When old scripts of ambition take on a new mission, The Magician’s rendition revises traditions.

In this week’s News from the Future, the card of the week is The Magician, a Major Arcana card that offers tools for manifestation through clues depicted in the ritualised clothing, objects, and gestures of its imagery. The Magician is a card that alludes to hypnotic transformation, although the changes that can happen with hypnotherapy or self-hypnosis are not exactly “magic”. For instance, there are case studies from hypnotherapists like twentieth-century psychologist and hypnotherapist Milton Erickson that document the results of his innovative hypnotherapeutic techniques that built on the work of previous psychologists and hypnotists.

One example of how The Magician manifests its magic is by playing with disguises. For instance, near-future U.S. News will continue to reveal attempts at oppressing education with book banning and women’s rights with abortion bans. This situation will prompt a very vocal movement that combats neofascism, which will eventually manifest as a more progressive government (although not for some more years). If it hadn’t been for such extreme political oppression, this movement wouldn’t arise as quickly as what will be needed for 1) the political pendulum to swing further to the left in order to 2) put time-critical climate policies into action. No, no one’s rights should be oppressed and lives will be irrevocably affected by these unfortunate policies. However, the reality is that this is happening, so what will the response be and how will it help those who are suffering from these affronts to human rights? The more extreme an action is, the greater and swifter the oppositional response will be. The Magician can act as an underlying force, even shapeshifting when necessary to prompt major transformation through sudden, unexpected, and sometimes shocking events.

Magic shows play tricks on the mind and therefore prompt curiosity and entertainment. However, unlike a magic show, hypnotherapy uses techniques to elicit real and lasting change. Magic and hypnosis have a common goal, though; both of these methods seek to create a metamorphosis, whether externally or internally, and in that process the seemingly impossible becomes possible. There is a difference between a hypnotherapist and a hypnotist (although sometimes a practitioner is both) which I will elaborate on in another article. In terms of the unconscious function of this card, The Magician is not only a hypnotherapist but also a speaker and thinker of affirmations. Another distinction that will be covered in this article is the difference between affirmation repetition and hypnotherapy or self-hypnosis.

No matter what your circumstances may be, there is a lot of hope in the concept of magic, especially hypnosis. This card has something in common with the “courage to change the things we can” part of the Serenity Prayer, which calls for accepting what cannot be changed but also the courage to change the things we can.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”. —Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr

When all else fails in trying to transform the external world, The Magician offers one more way to ask for change before accepting acceptance. Ultimately, the only thing we really have control over is ourselves, which can come down to the ABCs: Attitudes, Behaviours, and Actions. Other people, places, and things can’t be controlled. In some interpretations, The Magician is about self-improvement, partly through the words we think and speak, and also with the help of the tarot cards and astrology associations that are present in the four suits/elements that are featured as objects on the ritual table of this card.

Overall, The Magician card tells a story through both astrological and tarot-oriented instruction that gives us hints about how to bring about the changes that we want (or the ones that are in our greatest interest but we don’t yet know we need).

Tarot Card of the Week: The Magician

The figure in this image is raising a wand to the sky while pointing to the ground, which, in the context of magic, indicates that beliefs can become reality. I think of The Magician as being like a hypnotist who helps you rewrite your unconscious belief systems so that your external circumstances will start to mirror your newly acquired internal belief system. The infinity sign above his (or if this card is used to represent a Querent, this figure could also be interpreted as a “her” or “their”) head symbolises that this truth is eternal and you can always update belief systems no matter what is happening in the outside events that are affecting your life. The Magician has the power to act as an intermediary between the conscious and unconscious minds.

On the table, there is a pentacle, cup, sword, and wand. These objects represent the four suits of a traditional tarot deck. Each suit represents a different aspect of life while also standing for the four astrological elements (e.g. cups signify Water Signs). Part of the message of this card is that creation and manifestation are available to anyone. Essentially, this is a card of “mind over matter”.

The Magician is associated with the planet Mercury, which rules the signs Gemini and Virgo. Gemini represents the words or chants that are alluded to in this image. In the narrative suggested by this card, words become thoughts and thoughts become things. Virgo rules service and health, which are other clues to the meaning and potential of this card. Gemini gives The Magician incantations with which to rewrite unconscious thought patterns and those patterns become behaviours that influence the outcome of our daily lives. Any one of us can do this at any time. But transforming the way we think isn’t just about getting a new outcome, and especially not the result that we are expecting. Life, after all, is a co-creation with the cosmos and the something that brought us to life also sustains it so we are not doing this alone.

The Magician is empowering but there are limits to its power, and one of those is accepting that what we get is not always what we initially thought was best for ourselves. I am so grateful for the many times when I didn’t get what I wanted. The things I thought were right for me would not have been in the long run and would have held me back. What did happen for me ended up being better than what I could have ever imagined for myself. The Magician encourages flexibility because no matter how much effort we make to change, there is an unconscious force that knows what’s better for us in ways our conscious minds often cannot comprehend. If you are open to the potential revision of thought patterns that The Magician can initiate for you when you are ready, you may find a gratifying opportunity to be helpful to others and to increase the well-being of everyone around you, including but not limited to yourself.

The Magician as Meditation

While meditation is not the same as self-hypnosis, meditations can sometimes induce an altered state of consciousness in highly suggestible subjects. After choosing this week’s tarot card of The Magician, I posted a Magic Chalice meditation that can help you connect to one of the benefits offered by this card.

The following extended article includes:

Secrets of The Secret as Magic

World News from the Future

U.S. News from the Future

Tarot-Astro News from the Future

Future News for You

Personalised Psychic Tarot Readings in the Q&A

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