Shadowscapes Tarot

THE MAGICIAN

The Fool drifts past as a seed in the wind, as a twirling feather, as a crystal mote of condensation, and she sees the Magician. She watches the boy who is initiated into the mysteries of the elements. He is taught and masters conjurings, summonings, bindings.

One day she cannot resist, and she trails fingers of wind across his eyes; he opens them with a start, seeing for a moment. "Who are you?" he demands, but oh so quickly the spirit transforms into a stag and bounds away.

He chases the stag into the woods. Always the stag is just out of reach. His bare feet press into the earth. The air rushes through his hair. The sun beats upon his shoulders. The tantalizing flash of white from the stag darting through the verdure taunts him unbearably until suddenly...

It is gone, and he is alone.

Upon a rock he sees the gifts that have been left for him. The relics of the elements glint in the sunlight, and as his hands close upon the offerings, a smile touches his lips at the power that surges through them.

Meaning:

Originality, creativity, skill, willpower, self-confidence, dexterity, and slight of hand. It is about grasping the unseen around you and harnessing it to become reality, drawing forth the ineffable into the material realm of existence. This Magician draws upon relics representative of the elements: fire in his lantern, the voice of the sea in the shell, a breath of wind in the raven's feather, and earth from the leaves. He knows what he wants, and he knows he can make it happen with conscious exertion of his will and his knowledge of how to manipulate the world.