1. Tarot
2. Card meanings
3. The Magician

Major Arcana · I

The Magician

• skill
• self-confidence
• will

Upright meaning

Skill, will and self-confidence: the sense that the tools you need are already on the table. A card about bringing intention and effort together.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, a note of disquiet: talent that is unsettled or scattered. Worth asking which one thing deserves your focus first.

• disquiet

Symbolism

A youthful figure in a magician's robe, the sign of infinity above his head, one hand raised and one pointing down, the four suit symbols before him.

Group

Major Arcana

Element, astrology

Not given by Waite, so we give none

Source

Our own plain-English summary of A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1911), Part II §2 (symbolism); Part III §3 (divinatory meanings). The keywords are Waite’s own words. Waite’s fortune-telling lists also contain harsher terms; we keep to the reflective readings he gives and never state an event as certain.

Tarot is a tool for reflection, not a prediction of fixed outcomes. This is not medical, legal or financial advice.