The Magician and The Moon Tarot Combination: Illusion and Deception

When the Magician and the Moon land next to each other, the first thing I say is: things are not what they seem. The Magician is talent and will, but he has a shadow side: manipulation. The Moon is fog, where it is easy to mistake what you want for what is real. Together they say the situation is not what it looks like, and somebody in that fog is playing tricks - maybe another person, or maybe it’s you, fooling yourself.

That sounds alarming, but this pair has very different readings too - it can even point to something that is only just beginning. Which one is yours depends on your question and on the cards that landed nearby. That is what this article is about.

I covered each card on its own page: the Magician and the Moon.

What the Magician and the Moon mean together

Together, the Magician and the Moon mean illusions, self-deception, fraud. Behind-the-scenes intrigue in the fog, manipulation that plays on fear, shady projects with vague goals.

In relationships the Moon points to hidden motives, things left unsaid, cheating; lots of illusions and not much that’s concrete. It can be long-distance love or an online romance. In money and work it’s an unclear situation, scheming, hidden financial risks, partners you can’t rely on.

The Moon also has what I call its shadow side: paralyzing fears, phobias, living in a world of illusions - when the fog gets so thick that a person can no longer tell their own fear from what is actually going on.

The Magician: talent with a shadow side

This card always points to talent and being ready to act: the person has everything they need to make their plans happen. It’s no accident that all four tools lie on the Magician’s table: the cup, the pentacle, the sword and the wand.

But the Magician is also a manipulator. Someone who can vanish without warning and dodge anything that’s uncomfortable for him. Manipulation, charlatanism, using people for his own ends. Sometimes it’s the opposite: impostor syndrome and spreading himself too thin, when there are plenty of ideas and none of them get done.

Both sides are built into the card itself. Arthur Edward Waite wrote the companion book to the deck that Pamela Colman Smith drew, and his meanings for the Magician fit on one line, where loss and the snares of enemies sit right next to skill:

“1. THE MAGICIAN. - Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety; sickness, pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will; the Querent, if male.”

Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part III, § 3 (1911)

When he goes through the major arcana at the start of the book, Waite also gives the popular reading of the Magician, which he himself calls crude: a fairground trickster, “the caster of the dice and mountebank, in the world of vulgar trickery.”

Which of the two sides shows up depends on the question and on the cards nearby.

The Moon: fog and fears

First of all, the Moon says there’s no clarity. Look at the dog and the wolf howling at the moon: they’re the tame and the wild inside the same person. Waite calls them the fears of the natural mind:

“The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that place of exit, when there is only reflected light to guide it.”

Waite, Part II, § 2

And the light on the card is moonlight - reflected light. In that light you only see outlines, and you fill in the rest yourself - usually with what you fear or what you hope for.

With the Moon, intuition gets sharper, and so does the risk of fooling yourself. Once a woman asked me why she couldn’t get married, and the Moon came up: behind the wish to get married there may be a fear of being cheated on, of betrayal, or “I don’t want to live the life my parents lived.” What matters here is answering yourself honestly: what exactly am I afraid of?

Here are Waite’s meanings for the Moon:

“18. THE MOON. - Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error.”

Waite, Part III, § 3

Deception and error are on the same list. The Moon shows that the picture is wrong, but it doesn’t say why - you find that out from the question and the cards next to it.

One pair, different answers

The pair rarely comes up alone, and the answer comes from three things: your question, the position in the spread, and the cards next to it. As far back as the papers of the Golden Dawn order, the section “Of The Dignities” says that a card gets stronger or weaker depending on the cards on either side of it.

If the question is about a relationship, the first thing I look at is the cards next to the pair. The Seven of Swords, for me, is the card of hidden motives and intentions: with it, the problem more likely lies in what someone else is doing. The High Priestess is hidden information and things going on behind the scenes: somebody knows more than they’re saying. And the Ace of Swords is the antidote: the end of self-deception, clarity; with it, you can see the situation as it really is.

If the question is about money or a business offer, the card that most often lands nearby is the Seven of Cups - that’s when someone blows smoke and promises you the world. Then the pair points to a dubious offer with vague goals: there isn’t enough information, and there’s no need to rush.

And sometimes the pair comes up for something that is only just beginning. The Moon has a bright side too: creativity, mystery, pregnancy; and if it’s about a profession, an artist or a musician. Then the Magician next to it says: the talent and the tools are already on the table, all that’s left is to figure out what to build with them. A project with no clear goal yet, an idea that’s too early to show, a relationship that’s only just starting.

The position in the spread matters just as much. In the past position, the pair describes what you’ve already left behind. And even if the deception has already come to light, the Moon in the future position doesn’t pass the verdict “they’ll fool you again”: after the truth comes out there’s usually more confusion, not less, and sometimes the card says that something else will surface that you don’t know about yet.

If the question is about a person

People often ask about a specific person: what is he like, what is going on between us. Here the cards show two layers at once. They can describe the person himself - both his strong qualities and his shadow ones. And at the same time they show your attitude toward him: what you have already sensed and what you are afraid of. Both layers are about your situation, and they are read together.

I had a reading for the question “what is going on between him and me?”, and the Magician came up. I told the client: either she may suffer from his manipulation, or she will start manipulating herself. The Magician described both his ability to steer people and where she herself might turn.

A bit of history, by the way: Waite’s list of meanings for the Magician ends with “the Querent, if male” - the person asking, if it is a man. In his day, the Magician in a spread stood for the querent himself. Today nobody looks at gender anymore, and the Magician can turn out to be you, or the person you are asking about.

Two roads

For some questions, a reading gives not one answer but two directions - depending on what you decide to do. The case with the Magician above is exactly that: on one road you are being manipulated, on the other you are the one who starts, and the choice between them is not made by the cards.

Some people find this disappointing: they wanted one answer and got two. But to me this is the most useful thing a reading can show. You see both paths ahead of time - where each one leads and what you gain and lose on it - while you are still standing at the fork and can still choose.

Two questions to ask yourself

Before drawing conclusions from this pair, I suggest answering two questions honestly.

What fact would make you change your mind? If there isn’t a single one, you’ve already reached your conclusion, and you’re laying out the cards to confirm it.

Would you believe a reading that said everything is fine? If the honest answer is “no,” no reading will calm you down - first it’s worth figuring out what exactly you’re afraid of. Most often, that fear is exactly what the Moon is showing.

A separate word about money. If the pair comes up for a deal or an investment, the cards help you notice that there is not enough information - and after that you need documents and people who have no stake in the deal. If there are signs of financial fraud, go to your bank and to the police: the sooner you do, the better the chance of stopping the transfer. I read cards, and this is not financial or legal advice.

If this pair came up for you

The Magician and the Moon are a pair with too many readings to sort out from an article alone. Someone else’s deception, self-deception, a dubious offer, something at the very beginning - which of these is yours can only be seen from your question and the cards around your pair.

If this pair came up for you, write me your question. I will lay the cards for your situation, look at the neighboring cards, and if your question has two roads, I will show you both: where each one leads and what stands behind it. You get the answer as a recorded video where I go through your spread card by card.

Sources

• Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, London: William Rider & Son, 1911. Part I § 2, Part II § 2, Part III § 3. Deck illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith.
• “Book T - The Tarot,” an internal document of the Golden Dawn, late 1880s - early 1890s, section “Of The Dignities.”

A reading does not pass a verdict; it lays out the possible options so you can see them. For entertainment purposes only, not financial, medical or legal advice. No guarantees of accuracy or outcomes. 18+.