The Magician and the Wheel

I have been remiss in my blogging especially when it comes to checking in with my cards of the month from my New Year Reading way back in January. So, I’m going to try and catch up with two cards and two months in one post. So, in this case, 2 + 2 = 1.

Yeah, whatever.

April’s card was the Magician Reversed which was followed by the Wheel of Fortune Reversed in May.

Oh goody, two Major cards reversed back to back. Oy, vey.

The Magician is not a magician in the contemporary sense of the word. In fact, I wouldn’t even go that far. He is one who celebrates ritual magic in order to manifest that which he needs. He isn’t one to make it appear out of thin air, yet he manifests it so that he encounters it on his wanderings through the countryside. Or, so I imagine. It would be like me meditating on this mantra, “I’m going to drive to the mall and find a very convenient parking spot.” And voila, I find it. Well, I'd do this back when malls were open.

If we look at the Magician's altar, we can see the symbols of the four suits of the Minor Arcana; the Wand, the Cup, the Sword, and the Pentacle. This suggests he has control over the four elements; Fire, Water, Air, and Earth respectively as they are also related to the suits. If he is about the elements and manifesting, he is also about using the elements as resources for his manifesting. I’m not talking about taking fire and torching cars to find a parking spot, but taking the energy of the element and setting the action into motion. Fire energy is drive, water is emotional energy, air is mental energy and earth’s energy is about being grounded or centered.

Regardless, the Magician is about manifesting. And if we want to manifest something, we need to take action. So, by extension, he is also about taking action.

Yet, he was reversed which would suggest a lack of any or all of the elements to get myself going. Since I didn’t post anything in May for April, we can see that I didn’t seem to have much fire in my fingers to write out a post. My heart, mind and spirit weren’t in it, either. In fact, I didn’t even think about it much until late May. Nor did I work on any drafts of other posts unrelated to my reading that I’d begun earlier. I simply wasn’t motivated, which could also be a symptom of a Reversed Magician. (Though I was motivated to exercise more, so that was a positive.) Perhaps the current situation threw me off center or uprooted me enough that I needed the time to get myself somewhat planted back on the ground again. So, perhaps the Magician Reversed turned out to be a kind of blessing in disguise. In a way. Maybe.

The Wheel of Fortune turned up in May but, again, Reversed.                   

When I see this card in a reading, my first thought goes to all those stories where the character goes off to seek his/her fortune or destiny. Most readers see this card as destiny rather than fortune in the monetary sense. 

I’m also reminded of that song about wheels, a bus and going ‘round and ‘round when this card shows up. However, this Wheel isn’t going ‘round and ‘round. In fact, it’s stuck. On its head. Or, it’s turning but, veeerrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy slllllooooooowwwwwwlllllyyyyy.

When we think of a wheel going ‘round and ‘round, we see part of the wheel up, then down, then up, then down, constantly revolving or changing. Like life. Sometimes you’re up, then you’re down. Up, then down. Things change. They get better, then they get not so better. Sometimes you feel as if the wheel has run over you. Sometimes, it’s the whole bus.

With the Magician Reversed followed by the Wheel of Fortune also Reversed, it’s no wonder my whole world screeched to a blinding halt. Then stayed there. Remaining in isolation wasn’t necessarily fun, but after a few years of retirement where I was at home most of the time, it wasn’t that big of a change for me. A few things did change: running to the store for a few items became a major ordeal;

• Coming home and wiping down surfaces of what I bought.
• Remembering to venture out with a mask and sanitizer, provided I could find some.
• Deciphering the conflicting information.
• Learning to shower after coming home from the store so I could wash thoroughly, just in case.
• Going to one store at a time to avoid cross contamination from one locale to another. So, I learned to make a master list and use curbside pick up whenever possible.
• Only running errands when absolutely essential.

But, I've also extended my interpretation to the world around me and the real world; my friends’ lives have changed as well. Friends who are parents were now homeschooling their children. So, my friends and I would have even less time as their duties increased. My social groups were now meeting online.

So, I learned to adapt. And to live by the Serenity Prayer:

Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

the Courage to change the things I can, and 

the Wisdom to know the difference.

Things may be changing as my state of California begins to open up, but I still think things aren’t going to improve any time soon. Yes, life does change; things do get better when they’re down, we just don’t know when the change will happen. Or how long it will take. Busses are heavy vehicles and it takes them a bit longer than a passenger car to get up to speed. And life is even bigger than a bus.

Yet, I see hope. I just don’t know when I see it. (My tarot mentor will be so proud of this insight. See, I paid attention to her numerology lessons.) In the Major Arcana, the Magician is card number 1 and the Wheel is number 10. Ones are seen as a beginning of whatever they represent. January is the first month so it begins a new year. One is the first whole number after zero and it begins any counting sequence. Doesn’t a single step begin a whole new journey or adventure?

So, the Magician also carries the additional layer of a beginning. 

Now bear with me on this one. It gets a bit tricky here. The Wheel of Fortune is card number 10. Yet, it is the first whole number that requires two digits to represent its value. Therefore, it also signals an ending while simultaneously signaling a beginning; the end of the single digit numbers and the beginning of the two digit numbers. In numerology, we often reduce multiple digit numbers down to a single number by finding the sum of the individual digits. So, a 10 card is also a 1 card because 1 + 0 = 1, which is the number of beginnings. I prefer to think of the Number 10 cards more as a transition; an ending which transitions into a beginning of something different, a new phase or chapter, if you will. The fact both cards came up one right after the other and in chronological order, first the Magician (1) then the Wheel (10), suggests to me that the energy of a beginning leading to a transitional phase of something and somewhen is there, but the reversal could suggest a delay because more work needs to be done as I have two more reversed cards for June and July. But, both upcoming cards are not seen as the most positive when upright, so reversing them may actually be a good thing.

They are the 8 and 7 of Swords respectively. Lots of mental work.

June's card

July's card

Yet, August does seem promising. But, I’ll keep that card under my hat.

Though, I will say this, it’s upright.

Finally!!