The Magician

Major Arcana I, The Magician stands at a table bearing the four suit emblems — Wand, Cup, Sword, and Pentacle — representing mastery over all elemental forces. Waite's Pictorial Key depicts him with one hand raised toward heaven and the other pointing earthward, the axiom 'as above, so below' made flesh. He is the active channel of will, the first numbered trump initiating the Fool's journey through the archetypal sequence. Crowley, in The Book of Thoth, identifies this card with Mercury and the pure transmission of creative intention into manifest form.