Bohemian Gothic Tarot

I THE MAGICIAN

Lighter or more conventional meanings

Creativity * Mastery over the elements * A revelation * Feeling that you can achieve anything, though this could be a dangerous delusion * Trickster * An alchemical transformation * Controlling natural forces, including esoteric and occult ones * A flash of inspiration and energy.

Darker, shadow or more hidden meanings

Being seduced by magic - and perhaps betrayed by it * Black magic, working with dark forces * Playing with the riskier sides of the occult, ignoring the dangers * Using treacherous or deceitful powers * Drawn to the dark side, attracted by its force.

In tarot, The Magician is a powerful card that needs to be interpreted with care. One aspect of it can indicate inspiration, creativity and even a flash of genius. But it also stands for trickery, spectacular delusions and being lead astray through false pride and the notion that you can achieve anything.

We see here a Magician who is part wizard, part alchemist and, we can surmise, part fiend. He stands in an immense space - it looks like an abandoned abbey - with the elements of his magic laid out before him. There is no doubt whatsoever that he's a figure of power, and the strange brazier burning with its orange smoke implies that something weird and magical is indeed taking place.

> The scene is both attractive and repellent. Certainly the Magician himself is charismatic and good-looking, but he also appears cruel. His face is handsome, but his hands, with their long, yellow nails, are repulsive. Would you want to be in his place - or even to be one of his acolytes? There's real mastery here, but we can see clearly that there is also great danger; this is not a person (if he indeed is a person and not some supernatural creature) to take lightly.

When this card appears in a reading it indicates fantastically creative forces that are full of potential but that could well be risky and hard to manage. This Magician's energy and arts may enable you to accomplish many extraordinary things, but the price you will pay might be high - proceed with some caution and don't be enticed too easily by the allurements of power.

Some further ways to consider this card

Why are the Magician's hands such a stark contrast to his face? In contrast to his general sleek good looks, they are repellently uncared for. They also look old; do they indicate something hidden about this man's age and history?

In traditional tarot, the Magician is often shown with four objects on his table, each one of which relates to a tarot suit. How might the objects on the table in the Bohemina Gothic card relate to Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles?

The Magician Earl

There was not, in his day, in all the world, so accomplished a magician as he. His fairest castle stood upon an island in the lake, and to this he brought his young and beautiful bride, whom he loved but too well; for she prevailed upon his folly to risk all to gratify her imperious caprice.

They had not been long in this beautiful castle, when she one day... implored him to exhibit before her some of the wonders of his evil science. He resisted long; but her entreaties, tears, and wheedlings were at length too much for him and he consented.

But before beginning those astonishing transformations with which he was about to amaze her, he explained to her the awful conditions and dangers of the experiment.

Alone in this vast apartment, the walls of which were lapped, far below, by the lake whose dark waters lay waiting to swallow them, she must witness a certain series of frightful phenomena, which once commenced, he could neither abridge nor mitigate; and if throughout their ghastly succession she spoke one word, or uttered one exclamation, the castle and all that it contained would in one instant subside to the bottom of the lake, there to remain, under the servitude of a strong spell, for ages.

The dauntless curiosity of the lady having prevailed, and the oaken door of the study being locked and barred, the fatal experiments commenced.
- Sheridan Le Fanu, JS. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales.