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The Magician & The Wheel of Fortune The Sun Ones & Nines In The Numerical Tarot:The Magician is |
THE MAGICIAN & THE WHEEL OF FORTUNEBeginning the Rider/Waite/Smith deck, is the card labeled The Magician. From the perspective of The Numerical Tarot, the Magician's mental agility and slight-of-hand dexterity symbolize the concept of speed associated to the the number 1 in the Geometric progression (see The Geometric Progression elsewhere on this site).As a true magician though, he does not perform 'tricks' but instead displays a superior intellect and will power. His knowledge, awareness and mastery of earthly manifestations is symbolized by the four suit signs of the Minor Suits, placed on the table in front of him - the ordered system of tarot.At his best The Magician symbolizes the brain, the mind, the intellect and the propitious state of pre-ameliorate incipiency. At his worst he is too smart for his own good.Opposite the Magician we have the Wheel of Fortune card. In the Wheel of Fortune card we see the concept of cycles being symbolized, and convey the notion of the number 1 as the eternal beginning without beginning.In comparing these cards to each other, we see how they both represent the two sides of divine mechanics - order and randomness. Both cards also represent a beginning. The Magician symbolizes the awareness of a deliberate beginning and the ability to make things happen. While the Wheel of Fortune symbolizes the randomness of a beginning that does not have this awareness and is therefore associated with fate.In fact in some decks, the Wheel of Fortune card is labeled Fate. The Wheel of Fortune symbolizes the outer reaches of ones karmic forces, before they return to their source. Of course that fate can be good or bad, the point is, it's beyond your control - you let it happen. You spin the wheel of fortune and take whatever you get - while the Magician, on the other hand, makes a conscious attempt to make things happen.So the Magician can be willful at best or pompous at worst. While the Wheel card symbolizes someone who is harmlessly naive and innocent at best, and stupid and ignorant at worst.In pre-occult decks, The Magician is sometimes called The Mountebank, and described in unflattering ways like swindler or trickster. The point being to describe him as a lowly commoner, and not a magician. His low social status then marks him as the lowest of all the trumps. But whether a dishonest, swindling mountebank, or benevolent magician, both live off their wits and intellect - intellect being a key concept for the number 1.In pre-occult decks, The Wheel of Fortune seems to emphasize the idea of folly, and the foolishness of ambition, showing characters ascending the wheel and growing ass ears to symbolize the stupidity of thinking their will can reign... and then falling off the other side, to symbolize the fickle, random nature of fate that can so easily defeat all will. By seeing this card as a 1 (10 = 1 + 0 = 1) it becomes a symbol of a turn of fate that is diametrically opposite in purpose to that of The Magician, and thereby marks the beginning of a deteriorate progression of ideas.IN THE ISOMORPHIC TAROT DECK, the symbol of a magician remains intact, being titled Auspice, the Cognizant Genius. While on the other side I choose to humanize the concepts of ignorance, stupidity and falling into the hands of fate with the image of a fool, titling this card Portent, the Ignorant Fool. Of course this means that the current fool of the tarot deck (numbered zero) is now considered to be superfluous and in need of a new identity.IN THE NUMERICAL TAROT DECK, (UNDER CONSTRUCTION, COME BACK LATER!)-----NOTE: Go to the DECK section of this site, to learn more about the NAMES and titles of this deck and how they are picked to describe a gridded pattern that utilizes extremes and in-betweens. Each card in this deck is but one possible expression on a spectrum of possibilities. There is a lot more to learn, than what is being shown here. |
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