The Magician (II)


Notes from Hermetic Conversation of June 14, 2016:

Tarot Study, 6/14

 June, Joel, Phillip, Dennis, Gail, Richard, and Laurel were present.

Our process was the same as the previous week.  Afterimages from “thinking in unison” the Magician:

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– reminiscent of the Representative of Humanity

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– In one card he looks youthful (and he is described as such in the first Letter), but in the other he looks much older and wiser

– the different nuances that come from different artist’s colorations of the Arcanum.  For example, the card with the “older Magician” (Dodal and Noblet) is darker and has more gravity.

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– reminiscent of Kaspar Hauser

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Cypress tree below root chakra

  • is it in the distance?
  • Indicates a receptive (feminine) root chakra
  • Flame of Pentecost, but from below
  • Van Gogh’s Cypress trees – full of life/etheric
  • Knife sheath mirrors plant (as above, so below)
  • Knife, coins indicate genitalia—fructification=Arcanum
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He is the Image of Silence.  Spatial Dynamics – opening up combined with fructification; masculine/feminine simultaneously

Red and Blue legs = Red and Blue Pillars.  Image from the 4th Apocalyptic Seal = Root Chakra.  Steiner Red, CR Blue.  Flow of blood (arterial and venous).  

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The particular angle of the feet.  The Foot and Gaze point towards the right (will).

Bag = fifth element (Christ).

3 polarities – Lemniscate (crown) vs cypress (root).  Left vs right side of the table – objects vs bag.  Diagonal cut through the wand – passivity above, activity below (could also be seen as the third dimension, back to front). Wand and Cup above the line, Coins and Knife below.

Right hand is totally balanced (also where it is positioned, Venus, Kidneys).  Left hand is freely levitating.

3 legged table = 3 legs of the Hermit.  3 legs = Father, Son, Spirit.  4 corners = four part human being.  7-fold.  

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Magician’s leg is the fourth leg (4th member of Quaternary is Divine Personality).  He has united himself with his objects of activity – he supports what is supporting his tools.  “Make every burden light.”

What is he looking at? – Minor Arcana?  In the other direction is the “unfinished table” – the unfinished work of Creation.  Lemniscate also unfinished.  

Day lily growing out of foot?

Marsilio, Marseilles, Martialus.  Mars = France?  

Gospel of Mark under sign of the Lion.  Mark was initiated by Ormus into Egyptian Mysteries in Alexandria.  Karma research question.

Colors of T in eurythmy.  (Leo).

Magician = 1 = Sun

Wheel of Fortune = 10 (= 1+0 = 1) = Leo

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Sun = 19 (= 1+9 = 10 = 1+0 = 1) = Gemini

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Sun, Circulation, Lion all speaks to our previous discussion.  The value of the personality as vessel for Christ.  Transforming the likeness (personality, plurality) into a reflection of the image (individuality, wholeness).  This is how sacred magic is accomplished.  Healing the relationship between:

Image/Likeness

Individuality/Personality

Cain/Abel

Red/Blue

Aristotle/Plato

Boddhisatva/Avatar

Magician relates to “Hallowed be thy Name” = Hallowed be the sacred mission of each individual. [Edit December 2020: This is in reference to the Grail Knight’s Practice, a mantric distillation of the entirety of Valentin Tomberg’s Lord’s Prayer Course, which began to be presented in stages by Robert Powell in 2012, with eurythmy added to the mantra by him. These mantra are akin to those of the First Class of the School of Michael in Anthroposophy. In our Tarot work, we began to bring the different sections and mantra of this practice into connection with the Tarot. The first mantra focuses on the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, and was brought into relation with the first Arcanum in our work].

Horizontal lemniscate indicates transformation, metamorphosis rather than as above so below.  Eurythmy form in “you.”  Middle way of personality meeting other personalities, rather than dominating or diminishing.

The image is pierced above by lemniscate; pierced below by cypress; pierced through the heart by the wand.  

Sikhs wear a knife – cutting through illusion, protecting the innocent

Knife divides table – the Cherubim guarding Paradise (the Bag).

Next time – arrange all 78 cards in a circle.

Richard opened to a passage to see what the Letter had to say for itself.  

He opened to page twelve – 

Knowledge presupposes ultimate unity. Truth is the reduction of plurality to facts, facts to laws, laws to principles, principles to essence, or Being.

Addressed a question of June’s serendipitously.  

An occurrence on the level of knowledge akin to the activity of individuation for the soul (psychosynthesis).

Law of concordance – “seeing truth” rather than hypothesizing, analyzing.  It is only possible after a long road of experience.  The more experience we have, the more we are able to “see truth” through the lens of analogy rather than grappling with a mass of facts.  Again, the Old Magician.  Years of experience and Wisdom.

Possibly he is both Old and Young, like Dicken’s Ghost of Christmas Past.  

Kaspar Hauser.