You can’t always trust the Magician. Sometimes this card will show up when you have the consummate skills to accomplish the task at hand, be it the first day on a new job or a walk around the block after a convalescence. It can be that mundane. It can be that meaningful. But I’ve also drawn this card for a manipulator, opportunist, smoother operator.

How do we know which Magician is before us?

As card readers, we create interpretations on the spot. Where do they come from? Intuition, context, and the cards themselves of course.

*
I could hear Miss X sobbing through her email. (Miss X isn’t her real name. Miss X is a composite since every client is confidential.) But back to our story–

Miss X was sobbing. Through her email. I could tell. I pick things up from emails. Energy. Mood. It wasn’t just her words.

She had done her own Tarot reading that morning, which reminds me: some folks believe we SHOULD be able to interpret the cards for ourselves whereas others believe we can’t be that objective.

And her question was a question of love. What was the true nature of her Beloved? Was he being true? Was he being false? Could she trust him? Tarot readers get this question a lot:  is he (or she) who he claims to be?

Or, put another, deeper, way, why am I picking up on these different strata of meaning? Dark AND light.

In my experience, I can trust my intuition. But overlaying my, or your, intuition may be…

-fear or anxiety
-projection: what I hope is or isn’t true
-my past experience with the person
-skewed interpretation of that past experience
-past life personality traits of the person in question
-worst case scenario personality traits of the person in question

The older and wiser I get, the easier it becomes to pick apart the layers, to separate the frosting from the cake itself.

Miss X had drawn just ONE card, as is her habit in the early morning, and the card she drew? Of course! The Magician! That’s when I received her email. She felt she couldn’t trust herself. She felt she couldn’t trust the cards. More cards = more information. Would it have helped her?

*
The Sun enters Gemini today, and the Magician card has long been associated with Mercury, Gemini’s ruling planet. One thing I’ve noticed about Gemini people — they have this uncanny unsurpassed ability to suss out, out of thin air, the perfect word while the rest of us struggle for such quick clarity. They are the communicators of the zodiac!

And like all the cards of the Tarot, the Magician contains dark and light. Yes, even the really dark cards. The Ten of Swords, for example, may be your devastation but also your end of a cycle or your darkest before the dawn — which returns us to the discussion of reversed, or inverted, cards. Should we read them? It’s a personal decision, one I’m still sorting through myself. If all the cards do contain dark and light, what more can an inverted card show us?

*
Miss X’s Magician was, indeed, inverted, and it took more cards to divine an answer, more information, which, also, is the province of Gemini and Mercury. The more the better for this quick-witted sign 🙂

Miss X, if you are reading this, I predict that this month, with the Sun in Gemini, you’ll know more. You’ll not only have THE answer, finally, to this question, but to many questions. Or, at the very least, the perfect word.

Aliza’s Rule Number Five for Tarot Reading:
When the Sun’s in Gemini, seek information from your readings. A logical practical approach is best. Less philosophy, more facts.

Dear Readers, do you read reversed/inverted cards? Why or why not?

P.S. As I was taking the photo for this blog post I was reminded of the different tools on the Magician’s table. In my next blog post. let’s discuss some of this symbolism. The Magician as craftsman.