When Potential Becomes Power: Meeting The Magician
- Aug 31
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 31
To begin a journey, you need more than just two legs; you need the will to start walking.
The Fool, as mentioned in this blog post, is typically the first card you encounter in a tarot deck.
However, the sharp-eyed reader might notice that The Magician, pictured above, is numbered I, indicating that it is the first card in the Major Arcana*(1).
So what gives?
In case you've not yet read the other blog post, I'll explain The Fool's presence in the deck and what it represents.
The Fool, numbered 0, shows us the first step of a journey.
As the first card in the deck, The Fool represents the untapped potential every moment has.
It represents the endless possibilities of each moment and the joy and fresh experience you can encounter when you go in with an open mind.
When you look at the card, especially the carefree pace that The Fool seems to be taking, and especially coupled with the bright yellow sky representing joy, this archetype shows that every journey has immense potential.
What exactly does The Magician represent, then, and why is it numbered one?
Think of it this way: Every moment has potential, but it takes internal will to get the engine running.
If The Fool card represents potential energy, The Magician card represents kinetic energy.
Both The Fool and The Magician are required for the journey to start, but only one of them marks the true ignition point.
The Magician is a powerful card, encouraging wholehearted action and suggesting that the manifestation of your desires is on the horizon.
It's always important to remember: "Tarot is subjective, it is about what you derive from it, where your spirit is pulled, and to what things The Universe decides to draw your attention."
That being said, there are a few things to each of the Major Arcana that are pretty standard across the board.
Even if your unique tarot deck has completely original designs, like this Magician card from The Wild Unknown deck, as illustrated by Kim Krans, there are still archetypal symbols that evoke the same presence or aura.
Just as The Magician in the Rider-Waite deck depicts a strong, almost sharp start to something through the position of the figure, this image can be seen as showing the sharpness of a leopard, conveying the energy of the moment an animal pounces, the moment it chooses to act.
And when it chooses to act...
When The Magician archetype is accessed...
When the energy from The Fool is ready to be manifested into Reality...
That's when the journey really begins.
(1) The tarot deck can be understood as Major Arcana, or cards that signify a step in a major life journey, and Minor Arcana, the suited and numbered cards. The latter group of these two is usually more mundane. There are 22 Major Arcana cards and 56 Minor Arcana cards, making for 78 total cards in a standard tarot deck.
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