The beautiful art of the Magician in the tarot

Hello and welcome. Let’s look at the Magician in various tarot decks throughout history.

We begin with the Tarocchi Visconti Sforza. This one is by Il Meneghello, Milan, 1450, approximately. Here, we have a seated Magician, which is unusual. He looks very well off, right? He looks refined in his fine, rich red clothing and nice hat, and whatever he’s working on, he looks like he is really concentrating and working hard.

This is the Tarot de Paris, from Paris in the early 1600s. And this one is interesting because here we have the Magician’s, his predecessor, Le Bateleur. He’s not alone, which is also unusual for the Magician. We often see him depicted alone; here, he is entertaining or doing something for these two male figures. And we also have a dog and a monkey at his feet. And in this deck, this card is associated with craftsmanship and commerce. Le Bateleur, the juggler, is often associated with street entertainment and is a con artist. And we’ve all seen those images, those videos of the monkeys that entertain, but then they take your money. But I do like that one. It’s a pretty interesting depiction of the Magician or the juggler.

This is the Tarot de Marseille, the Noblet by Jean-Claude Flornoy, 1650. And here we have a Magician who starts to look more like the one that most of us know. And he is at his table with various tools. But again, he has this court-jester appearance, and his tools are not like the elemental tools we know today. Again, they are like the tools of a street entertainer. They’re like dice; maybe these are balls and cups that he would shuffle around, and you would pick to see which one it is and play a gambling game. And, yeah, he is more of an entertainer. Again, he still has that word, Il Bateleur or Le Bateleur, the juggler.

This is Il Bagatto from the Ancient Italian Tarot by Lo Scarabeo, Milan, 1835 roughly. And again, Il Bagatto is still the juggler. And this one is quite interesting because he’s more refined. That’s the Soprafina style, but a lot more is happening here now. This looks more like a working, a workman’s bench rather than just a street juggler. And he’s enjoying a glass of wine. He has an apron on over his pretty nice-looking clothes. I don’t know if these were nice clothes in that era. They look like nice clothes to me today, although his hat looks like a worker’s. So, this is a very interesting card. And again, I like how he’s looking at us, which is a bit of a theme with this deck.

This is the Etteilla deck by Lo Scarabeo from the 1870s. And this one is quite different now. So, for starters, Etteilla puts him at number 15. He’s not number one on the deck, but that deck has a different structure. And here he is, both the Magician and the juggler. He doesn’t look like a juggler to me, though he very much does look like a Magician. And he’s got now the addition of these symbols on his table. Interestingly, the meaning of this card is maladies. Etteilla associates this card with danger, dangerous friendships, cheating, and boastfulness when reversed, so it takes on a much darker meaning.

In 1909, of course, we get the famous Magician that most of us know today from A.E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith. And here he’s pretty transformed. He has lost his origins as a street entertainer, a juggler, and a con artist. He is a more youthful figure and a magician, right? This is the influence of the Golden Dawn, where we have the infinity symbol, the As Above, So Below kind stance, the elemental tools, and some other symbols, including the colours the creators added to this card. One interesting aspect is that although this card doesn’t technically have that infinity symbol, some people note that the hat has a similar shape, so perhaps that symbol was there all along.

So, here we have the Thoth by Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris. This deck was started in the 30s, but it was published in the 60s, and we also have the influence of the Golden Dawn and Crowley’s ideas. And here, again, he is a full-on Magician. He’s the Magus. He’s associated with, much like here, skills and wisdom and will and transformation, occult wisdom as well, determination, all of those kinds of things. He occasionally also maintains, depending on the other cards around him, and whether it’s reversed, some of the origins of deceit, potentially as well, and cheating, but mostly, it’s a pretty positive card, and it retains that energy of creativity.

This is the Magician from the Modern Witch Tarot by Lisa Sterle. And I have to admit, I did not love this when it first came out because I thought she was too young. That was my sense of it. She’s too young to represent mastery, but this card does quite a few things well. It’s not like this guy over here is full of maturity. However, one thing this card does very well is capture the spirit of playfulness evident in the early cards where the Magician is a juggler. And she also brings a certain duality. She could represent mastery, but she could also represent showmanship and performance, like she’s showing off something she doesn’t have. So, a little bit of that con artist. This card could represent all of those things. However, it’s worth noting that the booklet with this deck has no negative associations with this card. The meanings are all about, you know, having dreams and all the tools that you need, believing in yourself, and making those dreams a reality.

That’s it. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please like, comment, and share. If you have any questions or feedback, I’d love to hear that as well. Take care.