01-The Magician – Upright Rider Waite Deck

Your Chosen Card – The Magician Upright Rider Waite Deck

When upright, the Magician symbolizes a person of great willpower who has mastered the knowledge, and skills needed to achieve his goals. As depicted in Llewellyn’s Classic Tarot, the Magician can access the cosmos above and the earth below as he juggles the four elements to manifest his desires. Ruled by the planet Mercury, the Magician is a gifted communicator of intense mental focus who can translate ideas into effective action. Themes related to the Magician have to do with directing one’s will and focusing one’s consciousness to manipulate physical reality.

Keywords Upright: Skill, mastery, cleverness, intelligence, cunning, expertise, initiative, impetus, self-confidence, determination, purpose, assertiveness, focused intent, dexterity, ability to juggle, strength of will, striving for power, transforming ideas into realities, control of natural forces, ability to manipulate the physical world; ‘as above, so below.’

Key 1: The Magician (Juggler)
Myths/Archetypes: Thoth. Hermes Trismegistus. Merlin. Faust. The Magus. The Juggler. The Con Artist.
Astrology: Mercury, messenger of the gods (Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo).
Numerology: 1 (Magician) = 1 + 0 (Wheel of Fortune) = 1 + 9 (The Sun)

Rider Waite: Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety; sickness, pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will; the querent if male; (R) physician, magus, mental disease, disgrace, disquiet.

When The Magician is upright you can pretty much take it that life is going well but that’s when life takes us by surprise.  If The Magician is unclear it may help to choose a card from the Major Arcana to provide more insight into what it is The Magician is trying to tell you.  If you had a particular issue in  mind, or want to seek clarification on something else, you can also choose again to get more guidance.

This chosen card is part of your upright card reading for The Magician using cards from the Rider Waite Tarot Deck. You will find many more tarot pages that will be of great help if you need tarot card meanings. Use the search at the bottom of the page. We have some amazing tarot books for you to browse. Please see below.


Here are some snippets from a few of my favorite books

Portable Magic
Book Details
Portable Magic: composed of the repeated suit symbol. The scenes on the number tarot cards in a modern deck such as the Rider Waite Tarot express, in a dramatic visual way, the meanings of the tarot cards according to the personal interpretation of the deck designer. It is regrettable that many who use modern decks mistake these interpretive scenes for the primary meanings of the numbered suit tarot cards, rather than basing their understanding on the numbers themselves.

Tarot Books

Complete Book of Tarot: Mercury is the messenger of the gods, assigned to the Magician, trump I. Mercury is a planet of communication, travel, commerce, dexterity, sleight of hand, trade, writing, theft, and magic.

Portable Magic: Grimoire: A word from the French meaning ‘grammar.’ Literally, a copybook of practical magic written by a magician as an aid to memory, or as a way of passing on a system of ceremonial magic to a disciple. Grimoires are handwritten texts never intended for public reading, often put together in the form of brief comments

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Portable Magic: Grimoire: A word from the French meaning ‘grammar.’ Literally, a copybook of practical magic written by a magician as an aid to memory, or as a way of passing on a system of ceremonial magic to a disciple. Grimoires are handwritten texts never intended for public reading, often put together in the form of brief comments