CHAPTER 1. THE MAGICIAN/ALEPH/NUMBER 1
A young man standing in front of a table on which several objects are placed. To fully invest oneself on the material level (symbolized by the table) by actively participating in the discovery of one's potentialities (represented by the various objects placed on the table). To combine work and play, to act and make a decision. The sense of play, the spirit of creativity.
The magician, or the Magus, juggles the symbols of the four elements: writing, will, and wisdom.
With its symbolic tools and colorful costumes, the bateleur is a master of his art. The bateleur informs of the importance of acting. It also designates a person who performs acrobatic and skill-based feats in public squares. It is a public entertainer who combines work and play. This bateleur advises working while having fun. It reveals the importance of acting and working on the earthly plane by expressing a certain form of pleasure. Pleasure is associated with the value of the spirit. Indeed, it seeks to cultivate the values of the spirit.
This means that if a person seeks to cultivate values, they must always exert great effort to achieve them, leaving little room for pleasure. However, one who expresses the deep values of the mind needs no such effort, as they are naturally (innately) predisposed to do so. Moreover, they do so with ease, skill, and pleasure.
The Jester also invokes the marvelous. He advises opening oneself to the experience of the marvelous, to that dimension of existence that cannot be grasped by a reason that, on the contrary, seeks to control everything. It is indeed in this perspective that all revelation (as divine grace) is situated. The Jester teaches the aspirant that he must open himself and accept the marvelous in an attitude of welcome and letting go.
Description of the arcanum
This card depicts a young blond man standing behind The Table, holding in his left hand a kind of wand (or staff signifying spirituality). He is facing forward in a relaxed posture. He is wearing a hat (the number of infinity, the 8 lying down) signifying the algebraic sign of the cosmic lemniscate of ancient Egypt, symbol of eternal life, and his clothes are multicolored in an alternation of red, blue, yellow, and green (Getting well).
Before him, on the brown table, is placed in front of him (only three legs are visible, the fourth is out of sight). In addition, various objects are displayed: a cup (emotions and sexuality), a sword or knife (will and intellect), a coin (material and financial aspects), and he touches this coin with his right hand. Finally, a red flower, still in bud, grows at his feet.
Symbolic interpretation of the arcanum:
The Magician appears young, and when we look more closely, he also appears old. This arcanum demonstrates that it is important to become a little child again, that is, to no longer renounce one's deep essence by adopting external values, so as to rediscover one's profound being and identify with it. It is obviously not a return to childhood as a state of immaturity or naivety. Moreover, the Magician's first lesson is to restore a coincidence between his deep being and his personality. This is what allows the Magician to preserve his youth, according to the ancient desire of the alchemists.
At the outset, it was specified that the Jester associated work and play. This association also evokes the archetype of the child. Indeed, a child works through play, but not in a frivolous, light, or superficial spirit.
A child’s play does not imply a disengagement or unconsciousness regarding the demands and responsibilities of life. On the contrary, it is always astonishing to observe, when watching a child play, the level to which they are involved. Jeopardy is so integrated into a child’s life that they do not clearly distinguish between reality and fantasy. For example, Marco may claim to be playing with two blocks, one block being a rabbit and the other a carrot that the rabbit is eating. These blocks truly become a rabbit and a carrot for him, and he behaves toward them as if they were real.
The child’s characteristic evokes the importance of openness and their exceptional capacity for receptivity. This also brings to mind the term “marvelous.” In the child, the mental dimension is not yet sufficiently developed to confine them to a purely mechanical conception of the universe, in which any dimension transcending reason (the mental) would be carefully excluded. For example, a child naturally accepts that a rabbit is having a conversation with a hedgehog. Yet it is precisely through such an openness that humans can access a higher level of being, thereby participating in divine realities and the very essence of things. This is also illustrated by the jester’s hat, shaped like a lemniscate (a horizontal figure eight), which, used in mathematics to denote infinity, eloquently evokes the character’s open-mindedness.
The Jester is standing, firmly grounded in matter in an active posture. He thus represents a person who dynamically commits to expressing themselves, undertaking, and implementing multiple projects.
His posture is very important; even though he is standing, he is not in motion, for he is not moving to the right (symbolizing the future) nor to the left (representing the past). Our Jester is firmly rooted in balance, his feet slightly apart (teaching the necessity of fully living the present moment), which is the second fundamental lesson of the Jester. All ancient wisdoms have taught the necessity of living in the present moment, the key to living life. One who lives in the past is not only incapable of accomplishing anything concrete, as he is not engaged in the present, but also runs the risk of programming himself for failure, thereby definitively eliminating any chance of success. Likewise, one who lives for the future too often nurtures fears or vain hopes. Remaining outside of the present moment, he is then outside of life. The Jester therefore encourages the human being to recognize in the present moment the only fertile ground for self-realization, a present moment that nonetheless integrates the lessons of the past and the seeds of the future.
Symbolically, the table in front of the Magician is closely linked to material realities, as confirmed by its brown surface, evoking the color of clay or earth. Its rectangular shape also aligns with that of the square, with which it shares the symbolism of the terrestrial world. The Magician’s worktable evokes the material plane in a matrix dimension, as the provider of the resources necessary for growth and development; the table also embodies the raw material on which the human is invited to work actively. This means that this action implies an investment by the young man in order to break the spell of the regressive forces’ grip on the world, thereby awakening in him a spiritual force that has long been dormant.
The Jester is an actor who must fully participate in the transformation of the material plane and its redemption, thereby leading him to transcend his profane existence into an active life, that is, into a process of regeneration.
Only three legs of the table are visible. At first glance, this seems to emphasize the number 3, which is undoubtedly an interesting line of inquiry. The number 3 evokes the expression of a force or a subtle reality on a more concrete plane. Associated with a triangle as the first polygon derived from the circle (associated with the number 1), it symbolizes the primary manifestation, the a priori condition of any revelation.
With regard to the table, the number 3 clearly highlights the purpose of the work undertaken by the strongman: to awaken (and consequently reveal) the divine (spiritual) essence that animates matter. The legs of the table lift the rectangular surface of the ground, evoking the idea of an elevation and sublimation of matter.
The fourth leg of the table is invisible, yet it remains fundamental, as the table’s balance depends on it. Even if this leg were absent, the table as it is designed could not maintain its balance: this evokes the idea that “the essential is invisible to the eyes,” and that the balance of the visible world rests on the support of the invisible world. In fact, this adage demonstrates that reality is not limited to its mere appearance (to its sole external dimension).
In fact, if the arcanum of the Magician evokes the number 3 in action, it also embodies the number 4. How so? By placing at the Magician’s disposal four instruments: a coin (to remain silent) corresponding to (the Earth element / financial and material aspects), a cup (the Water element / emotions and sexuality) and (knowledge), a sword corresponding to (the Air element / will and intellect) and (to dare), and a wand corresponding to the Fire element (spirituality) and to (the will to act), according to Oswald Wirth.
Oswald Wirth specifies that to take possession of these mystical instruments, one must have undergone the trials of the elements: Victory won over the Earth confers the Denier, that is, the fulcrum necessary for all action. By facing the air with audacity, the Knight of Truth obtains the right to be armed with the Sword, symbol of the word, which puts the ghosts of error to flight. To triumph over water is to conquer the Holy Grail, the Cup. One drinks of Wisdom. Tested by fire, the initiate finally obtains the insignia of supreme command, the Scepter, the staff of the king who reigns by his will merged with the Sovereign Will.
In other words, the Bateleur must work on his work table (matter) at the level of the four elements, structuring them (Earth element / the coin: Earth more precisely represents perseverance in the toil to be accomplished. Water element / the cup: flexibility and adaptability. Air element, sword: intellectual promptness and the exchange processes that allow He to relate things to one another by establishing relationships and links between them. Fire element (wand): it primarily embodies ardor and the integrity of dwelling faithfully to the deep values of the being, whatever the external circumstances. This means the psychological qualities of the human. In fact, this is what the training on the arcanum and its understanding represents.
The Coins suit also appears to occupy a preeminent position, as the Jester points to it with his right hand. The Earth element (associated with the Coins) traditionally represents the first stage of any initiatory path (perseverance in the work to be accomplished). Indeed, without the action of perseverance, a human being can only wander lamentably, failing to tangibly and truly actualize the potentialities of their deep essence.
The cup appears to be made of silver and contains a red liquid; open at the top to celestial influences but in direct contact with the earthly plane through its base, the cup has always represented the privileged site that allows a spiritual reality to fully incarnate in the world. It is assimilated to the soul and its openness to divine impulses (this cup is, moreover, made of silver, a metal traditionally associated with the soul). The Fool therefore teaches us that his soul must be fully open to divine impulses, since it is filled with wine. Moreover, the fact that it is red indicates that these impulses are fully manifested in the world (red being the color closely associated with incarnation).
The sword features a double edge and a yellow guard. Symbolically, it evokes truth that cuts, severs, and sometimes deeply wounds what it touches. A kind of sword, it strips away and lays bare all external forms to reveal their deep nature in the light of an impartial and unmitigated truth. The two edges of the sword correspond to the two realities upon which truth operates: that of the body and that of the soul. The yellow color indicates that this truth is driven by power, as yellow embodies spiritual reality.
The wand held by the Magician ends with two differently colored tips: a red sphere and a blue sphere. These two spheres illustrate the two polarities of the universe: the masculine (red) and the feminine (blue). They also represent matter (red) and spirit (blue). The wand connecting these two polarities evokes the creative power resulting from the fruitful interaction between these two realities. (Red and blue: masculine and feminine principles.)
Note, however, that the jester holds this wand in his left hand, thus indicating that he does not yet fully master this creative power; it is more in a state of potentiality (symbolism of the left hand) than fully effective and operative (symbolism of the right hand).
The richly colored clothes of the charlatan are also likely to help us grasp more precisely what he represents.
The red hat, whose green brim is edged in yellow, and given that the head (governing principle) symbolizes the spiritual dimension (spirit), the trunk embodies the psychic dimension of the soul, and the legs evoke the physical dimension. The hat reveals that the Jester’s fully awakened and active spiritual dimension (red) is expressed through heart values (heart) green. In accordance with the divine will (the hat’s brim) in yellow.
The red doublet of the Bateleur features a blue stripe down the center and a blue collar edged in white. This indicates that the psychic dimension (the trunk) is fully open to external realities (red being the color of incarnation/matter). However, it is not thereby disconnected from internal realities. On the contrary, its openness to the world is in accordance with the requirements of spiritual life (the vertical blue stripe, blue corresponding to internal realities).
Furthermore, five buttons (the five senses, open doors to the world) are located on this blue stripe, confirming that his perception of the world takes into account its inner aspects. The axis of the buttons is perfectly vertical, which clearly evokes the state of consciousness characterizing the character.
The blue collar edged with white reveals that the soul (trunk) connects to the spirit (head) in an attitude of faith, listening, and receptivity (symbolism of the color blue), supported by innocence and purity (white edging). The yellow shoulders indicate that his will (seat of the will) is in accordance with that of the spirit. Furthermore, the green and blue sleeves of the doublet inform us that the jester’s action is imbued with the values of the heart (green) and the spirit (blue). The red cuffs indicate that this action is fully affective and operative on the concrete level.
The Jester wears blue tights that perfectly cover his legs, suggesting a complete attitude of receptivity (blue) to the impulses of the soul (trunk), which itself is ordered to the spirit (the head).
The red flower (bud) appears at the feet of the Bateleur. Symbolically, it evokes the qualities and virtues of the soul blossoming under the influence of the spirit. This is because the three leaves at the base of this flower, by embodying the awakened cardiac dimension (green color) to the values of the spirit (represented by the number 3), give rise to a vertical stem corresponding to the verticalization of consciousness. The flower on this first arcanum is not yet in full bloom, thus underscoring that the virtues of the soul, which it represents, are not yet fully developed.