The Magician Tarot Card Meaning - Upright, Reversed & More

The magician upright

The Magician At A Glance

Keywords: Manifestation, being resourceful, making magic, taking the first step, acting on an opportunity, say yes, courage, willpower, self-belief
Seasons: Spring and Summer
Zodiac/Planet: Mercury

The Magician Tarot Card Description

The Magician is the 2nd card within the major arcana and is usually numbered as 1. Within the original RWS (Rider Waite Smith) system which most modern day tarot cards are based on The Magician card depicts a man in a red robe pointing one hand to the sky holding a wand as the other, empty, points to the ground. By him rests a table with a cup, sword and pentacle (a gold coin scribed with a pentagram.)

Each object on the table plus the wand he holds represents the four elements and also the suits of the minor arcana within tarot: Cups, Swords, Pentacles and Wands.

  • The Cups are the element of water and represent our emotions.
  • The Swords are the element of air and represent thought/communication.
  • The Pentacles are the element of earth and represent money/health.
  • The Wands are the element of fire and represent manifestation and passion.

The fact that the Magician has chosen the wand of all the tools is no coincidence. He is the great manifestor within tarot, using all the elements around him to manifest his desires. The infinity symbol above his head shows us he is a very powerful magician and that at least some of his desires have been made manifest.

The Magician Upright Meaning

When The Magician card is turned over in a card reading and the art work is right side up this is called upright. It often means that we have the chance to really make the best of an opportunity. But an opportunity is not going to present itself to us, instead we are going to manifest it out of thin air. Even if nothing else changes in our lives our attitude has changed. This means the very way we use our resources, like a pour money, time and energy also changes.

By moving our schedule around we can create some time for a new hobby. By creating a budget we can save money to put towards our goals. This is Magician energy and it is very simple but powerful and therefore easy for us to apply it to our lives once this card comes calling and guides us.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Magician Reversed Meaning

The magician reversed

If The Magician card appears with the artwork is upside down then it is reversed. It therefore carries a slightly altered meaning. The Magician card, even when reversed, is still about manifestation but it’s saying what we are trying to create isn’t right for us at this particular moment in time.

There is a big difference between what we want and what we believe we can have. Sometimes we can want something very badly but at the same time feel undeserving so we subconsciously push it away. If this card is reversed it’s saying the manifestation can’t happen until we work through the beliefs that are holding us back.

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” - Elbert Hubbard.

The Magician: Yes or No

The magician is a strong yes from the universe. If we receive this card and have asked a simple yes or no question The Magician card says we have the capability to achieve this within us already. We need to believe in ourselves because our imagination is our only limitation. If we have asked a yes or no question and we see The Magician reversed then it is a no.

It is saying that for the time being this project is past our limitations and we should spend time manifesting a more realistic goal that will set us up better so that we can come back to this idea when we are more advanced.

Let’s Break Down The Magician In Our Lives

How The Magician card applies to different areas of our life. A look at The Magician’s energy in more detail.

The Magician In Love

Either romantic or platonic, when The Magician card appears it can suggest that beautiful love matches and amazing friendships can’t tend to themselves, we need to continually put in the time and make the effort to keep these relationships healthy.

Reversed Magician in love is advising us to not to push or force the situation or try to bend the relationship to what we think it should be by exerting our own will but instead try to relax into it and let it exist naturally without trying so hard to make every date or meet up perfect. We alone are enough, we can make others happy without all the thrills and material.

The Magician With Money

If The Magician card appears when a question about our finances has been asked it is suggesting there is great opportunity to be made here if we are prepared to push ourselves to do it. It won’t be an easy or quick win, it will be created by chipping away at the work that needs doing. This is created start to finish by the very will power within each of us.

Reversed Magician regarding finances is saying to take a very clear step back. We have been pouring our energy in to a lost cause and it’s time for us to cut and run. But we have this feeling of fear at admitting what we have lost so we keep on going hoping to regain back some, if not all, of our resources. This is called the sunk cost fallacy. There is no reclaiming what is lost but there is such a thing as continued loss. Whether that loss is energy, time, money or emotion it’s time to pull away now and avoid sinking further.

The Magician At Work

When asking the tarot about a work or career situation The Magician card can mean we may feel like we need to grit our teeth and bare it but it’s actually possible to remedy this situation by working smarter instead of harder. We may need to take an extra second or two to think of a more effective solution but by doing so it will bring better results and quicker than if we just tried to plow through on auto-pilot.

Reversed Magician in the work place is telling us to quickly divert our energy into a more fruitful project. The situation can’t be remedied as it stands and we need some high powered out of the box thinking to solve this puzzle.

The Magician With Others

If we are asking about our external world, either personal or global and we get The Magician card as an answer it means we can manifest more easily if we trust and invite in others who have the same vision. We often try to hold people back so we don’t get hurt but we can achieve so much more as a team than we could alone. If we share the highs and lows with others, whether it’s a good or bad day it’s made better by spending it with the people we love.

Reversed Magician regarding others is asking us to put our expectations of other people to one side and try to see them for how they are really are and not force them closer to what we would like them to be. It is suggesting we remove ourselves from the center of the situation and instead try to put ourselves in their shoes.

The Magician With Self

The Magician card relates to our internal world by asking us to look deep to find our dreams and then begin to believe we are worthy of achieving them. It can be very hard to decide to chase a dream, most dreams are something safe and comforting that we like to fall back on when we’ve had a bad day. Making them real is much harder and can make us feel vulnerable. The Magician card says we have everything we need to succeed inside us already.

Reversed Magician is hinting that we are blocking something we want from ourselves. We want something but can’t seem to make ourselves achieve it. This card asks us to check in with our intentions behind the desire. Do we really want it or do we just like the way it sounds? Once the intention is clear the manifestation can begin.

The Magician As Feelings

The Magician feels like invincible power, inspiration and the drive to manifest our desires. We start to see how we can use our time and other resources more efficiently and it has a profound affect on us. It is like the first time we start to plan our time and suddenly find space for the hobby or activity we have been trying to get started.

We feel like we have tweaked the very fabric life itself. We see how much control over our lives we actually have and by taking back this control we feel a surge of power and will power. It is very liberating.