The Red King (The Magician)

In a reading

• Points to a person’s talent.
• A call to take a step forward.
• If it’s about work — working for yourself.

Relationships: being able to reach agreements matters. In relationship readings it can also say the relationship is only just starting.

Career, money: here money comes through personal talents. A good card for consultants who run their own business. What matters here is taking action, getting a lot done and being a pro.

Shadow side

The Magician is a manipulator. And someone who can suddenly disappear and dodge any situation that’s inconvenient for him.

Manipulation, quackery. A toxic person who uses people for his own ends. Or impostor syndrome. And spreading your talents too thin, when there are lots of ideas but none of them ever gets done.

The card’s advice

Take the initiative. You already have all the tools in your hands. Act boldly. Put yourself out there. And be sure to use your talents and knowledge.

From the wider tradition

Meanings common among other tarot readers, which Tahmina has reviewed and approved. She reworded points 1–3 in her own words right away, and they’re given in her wording.

• “As above, so below.” The hand raised up to the sky says he takes information from the flow and carries an idea given to him from above down into matter.
• All the tools are already his. All the elements lie on his table, he already has all the tools: the cup, the pentacle, the sword and the wand — all four.
• The lemniscate over his head. He keeps coming up with good ideas, the very best ones. The infinity sign over his head — unlimited potential, access to a constant source of strength.
• Manifestation — focused intention turns what you want into what’s real.
• The power of words, eloquence, communication, being able to persuade and present.
• In a couple — the relationship moving to a new, more conscious and deeper level.

Stage of the journey

The Magician is card I. He comes right after the Fool, so at this stage a person hasn’t gone far, but has already made a key shift.

What’s already behind. The Fool took the first step into the unknown. He doesn’t know yet where he’s going, he trusts life and acts mostly on instinct. The Magician has already realized: “I’m not just walking this path — I can shape it.” He’s been through total uncertainty and got his first sense of his own strength, will and ability to choose.

Where the Magician stands — between the Fool’s trust and the conscious mastery of the World that’s still ahead. The four suits lie on the Magician’s table — Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles. So his task is to learn to use everything he already has: will, feelings, mind and material resources.

Where the Magician leads next — not just to success, but to slowly getting to know yourself and the world. After him a person will learn to listen to inner knowing through the High Priestess, to create through the Empress, to set boundaries through the Emperor, to find a system through the Hierophant, to make a choice through the Lovers, and so on. And at the end of this long path is the World, where a person pulls all their experience together into one whole picture.

In short:

• The Fool: “I don’t know where I’m going.”
• The Magician: “But I can choose what to do about it.”
• The World: “Now I understand why I walked this whole path.”

The section above is the shadow side of the upright card — every card has one. I don’t read cards upside down — here is why.