By Sarah Taylor
Since I started a year-long investigation into the art of Hermeticism, I have found that The Magician (also known as The Magus) and The High Priestess (The Priestess) have been featuring rather more in my own readings and the readings I do here every Sunday. (The Priestess appears at centre of the past Weekend Tarot Reading — a repeat of the position she held on November 25. The Magician appeared a week after that, on December 2.)
The theme that these two cards are introducing is one of stepping into mastery, and how the specifics of that work out for each of us.
But first, a little groundwork.
The Magus and The Priestess are cards 1 and 2 of the major arcana. The major arcana is comprised of 22 cards, and each card is what is known as an archetype: a word that is hard to describe because it really describes the indescribable. The best shot I can give it is that an archetype is a particular expression of energy, and embodies the sum total of the expression of that energy.
An archetype is transpersonal in nature; an archetype is limitless. We, on the other hand, inhabiting finite and limiting bodies, are in the realm of the personal, and therefore cannot hold an archetype fully. What we can do, however, is to align with and harness some of its energy (whether consciously or unconsciously) to bring it into being.
From The Fool at 0 to The World at 21, the major arcana could be said to describe the evolution of consciousness and how it is manifested in the world around us. Yes, this cycle is repeated many times in our lives, and not all steps are taken, nor is it always in chronological order, but the major arcana presents us with the choices that we and our souls make in order to grow and become more fully realised human beings — which, in actuality, is the journey of spiritual realisation.