The Magician Archetype
Leaning heavily on Eliphas Levi, an actual Magician.
Magic is the art of changing consciousness in accordance with will - Dion Fortune
(This is third installment of a series on masculine archetypes. Links to the Warrior and King are found at the end.)
Growing up in America I remember hearing more than a few times, alchemy was about turning lead into gold. This was always delivered with condescension, those silly, backwards people ignorant of the true science! All that effort for nothing! Worse than nothing, the alchemists were the personification of futility!
Popular, modern culture makes a caricature of the magician, ever defying the laws of physics, lightening or lasers flying out of magic wands, flying on broomsticks, descending into a sanitized hell to party with your devilish doppelganger, and the like. It is all very silly and entertaining and has little to do with the actual practice of magic.
In fact, the alchemical search for gold is about the Great Work of coming to know thyself, about turning the base circumstances of one’s life into the gold of knowledge and true understanding, of turning emotional trauma into strong character and confidence, of coming to know the secrets of everlasting life.
To separate the subtle from the coarse, in the first operation, which is entirely done from within, is to liberate one’s soul from all prejudice and vice: which is done with the use of philosophical salt, that is to say wisdom; and with mercury, that is to say, with one’s skill and work; and finally with sulphur, which represents the vital energy and the heat of the will. By these means we are able to transform less precious things, even the filth of the earth, into spiritual gold. (1)
What if I told you too, it was the alchemists who spread this slander about lead into gold, among the “vulgar,” to make themselves look silly and ridiculous, not a threat, because the vulgar were otherwise occasionally inclined to burn magicians at the stake?
In fact the alchemists were the first scientists, the first to use the scientific method, long before Francis Bacon was given credit for establishing it. Eliphas Levi said magic (I am using magic and alchemy interchangeably) is the true science united with force, that is, the great arcanum, the astral realm, creative energy directly from the source; which would make the science of today void of spirit and faith, why it has become so ruinous to everything living.
This work does not deal only with science: magic, or rather magical power, is composed of two things: a science and a force. Without force, science is nothing, or rather is in danger. To take science only by force; such is the supreme law of the initiations. And the great revealer has said: “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence; and the violence take it by force.”… All the miracles are promised to faith, but what is faith if not the audacity of a will which does not hesitate in the darkness, and which walks towards the light through all trials and by overcoming all obstacles? (2)
That is a fancy and obscure way of saying the true science is the unification of reason and faith.
The definitive alliance of reason and faith results not in their absolute distinction but in their mutual control and their fraternal confluence. (3)
What if I told you the magician/alchemist archetype in shadow, the manipulator (4), rules this age, it has polluted the world and it is in the process of destroying Western civilization?
These days science is reduced to STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), which we believe is the key to scientific progress and economic growth, and Medicine. STEM and Medicine have also given us the nuclear bomb, bioweapons, forever chemicals like PFAS, endocrine disrupters in the water, hideously toxic dioxin mushroom clouds as in East Palestine, species extinction, bankers ruling the world, factory farms, the unnecessary mass slaughter of chickens and turkeys because of pandemicist ideology, pharmaceutical induced autism and chronic illness, bioweapons masquerading as cures, etc pathology.
The first magicians were about the Word, in the beginning was the Word, the word like the birth of creativity, language gradually over time giving rise to civilization; it was the magician energy that transformed us from apes to sapien. The greater the concentration of power in society, the more that magician energy became the priest which was used by a few to control the many. Now in this civilization we see the shadow magician manipulator in the media, and in government, which lately cannot tell a single truth. It is all about the Narrative, support the current thing no matter what, like a good automaton/zealot.
What sort of black magic convinces a people to accept eugenics as a core progressive value? What sort of black magic calls a bioweapon safe and effective? What sort of black magic calls the least secure elections in the lifetime of anyone living, the safest elections in history? What sort of black magic screams in a high pitch about the threat of climate change, but has nothing to say about pollinator extinction, and then says you must eat bugs to save the planet? What sort of black magic says there is no male/female distinction in nature, and declares it bigotry to say there is? What sort of black magic would seek to convince you that we humans are a plague upon the earth?
Even the shaman/medicine man of the indigenous is thought to have been a mere manipulator, in the postmodern conception; as with so much of the Left these days, mere projection, call the other what you are. Making a joke or a caricature of the magician too, we have allowed it to turn into a destructive, controlling energy, rather than something driving us intentionally in a positive direction. As with all archetypes, they are a factor, intentional or not.
In fact, the magician archetype is essential for coming to know thyself, which is the supreme virtue. It is the question, ‘who am I, what am I?’ and the means to the answer. It has the sight, the knowledge and the understanding of the outer and the inner worlds, it is the guide in the darkness. It is the problem solver. It is the master of the art of craftsmanship in all things. It is he who talks to God. It is the shaman at the edge of the village everybody is a little afraid of until there are crises and then everyone wants to talk to the shaman. It is the mystery and the awe of creation, and the will to understand. To intend, to will and to act.
Magic is the art of changing consciousness in accordance with will. Harrison Koehli wrote an interesting piece recently, about how trauma and difficulty define us, how it builds character and often makes us stronger; how we use art, film and print, to imagine who we want to be, that we have some kind of model. That is the art of the magician, to imagine the outcome, to will to get there and to act. The magician does not need to know how to get there necessarily: it is imagining the journey, taking the first step and then another, the path gradually revealed. The magician navigates trauma and difficulty, works through it and turns it into gold - wisdom and understanding - but does not wait for trauma or difficulty to strengthen and expand consciousness. The magicians art is the evolution of consciousness. The magician is the master of mind and body. The magician knows the universe awakens those who awaken themselves.
To reach the sanctum regnum, that is to say the science and the power of the mages, there are four things which are required: an intelligence enlightened by study, an audacity which nothing can stop, a will which nothing can break, and a discretion that nothing can corrupt or intoxicate….TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL, TO BE SILENT. (5)
To be silent, because the magician as a sovereign ideal has many enemies.
It is often said there is a division between church and science. When people think of religion and science, they see two things at odds, separate, even hostile too each other. It is said those of religion believe science is in err, the scientist thinks the religious are deluded. What if the separation of science and religion is not a separation at all, what if it is a kind of agreement, to rule humanity? What if science and the church had a kind of agreement: we the scientists will manage the terrestrial, worldly things; we the priests will manage the soul - coexisting as we rule. And now humanity is lost, ruled by scientism and religiosity, without understanding, descending into ever greater delusion, ever greater demands of obedience, ever greater oversight and surveillance, less and less freedom.
But what if the proper landscape of the magician is both science and religion? Such a challenging question is the work of the magician.
Reason was given to all men, but not all men know how to make use of it; it is a science that must be learned. Liberty is offered to all, but not everyone can be free; it is a right that must be won. Strength is for all, but not everyone knows how to rely on it; it is a power which must be seized.
We arrive at nothing if it requires no effort. The destiny of man is that he enriches himself with what he gains, and that, then, like God, he basks in the glory and pleasure of giving. (7)
This post is the third in the series, after the King and the Warrior archetypes, in the context of masculine psychology. But of course the magician archetype is not reserved for men only, as informative for women I have no doubt. The Magician archetype is about achieving your goals, about building the life you want, about overcoming adversity, about taking the mundane stuff of life and turning it into the gold of achievement. That is the province for every human.
In the context of the masculine, the magician informs the warrior and the king. The magician guides. The magician is the medium between the terrestrial and the divine, that the warrior and the king not be consumed with the merely terrestrial, the stuff of this earth and power over others. The magician reminds the warrior and the king to serve something greater than oneself, to preserve ones soul by way of serving others.
But why do we speak of archetypes at all?
Reason and faith mutually exclude each other by their nature and are united through analogy….Analogy is the only possible mediator between the visible and the invisible, between the finite and the infinite….There are in science necessary hypothesis, and he who looks to realize them enlarges the science without restraining faith; because on the other side of faith lies the infinite….analogy gives the mages all the powers of nature; analogy is the quintessence of the philosopher’s stone, it is the secret of perpetual movement, it is the quadrature of the circle, it is the temple that rests on the two columns of Jachin and Boaz, it is the key to the great arcanum, it is the root of the tree of life, it is the science of good and evil. (8)
To close out, in more plain language, why the Magician archetype is important:
If we are accessing the Magician appropriately, we will be adding to our professional and personal lives a dimension of clearsightedness, of deep understanding and reflection about ourselves and others, and technical skill in our outer work and in our inner handling of psychological forces. (10)
Whatever the mess of the world, the point is always and ever has been, know thyself. The magician archetype is a tool, how to regain yourself in a world where both science and religion work to close out the proverbial light of the self. You have your own light to light the world with: imagination, intention, will. (11,12)
Eliphas Levi, The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic; Greer and Mikituk translation, TarcherPerigree, 2017; pg 120
Levi; pg 22
Levi; pg 169
Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette; King, Warrior, Magician, Lover; HarperOne, 1990; pg 111
Levi; pg 31
L’Ermite, The Hermit, traditional Knapp/Hall Tarot deck.
Levi; pg 97
Levi; pg 184-185
Le Batteluer, The Magician card, the traditional Knapp/Hall Tarot deck.
Moore and Gillette; pg 118
For further context of the tonic Magician and the esotere in the history of Western civilization, see John Michael Greer @
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/ and
See also:
Beautifully written, William. I like that science and religion are an artificial dichotomy, perhaps the same as the separation of church and state. If both were defined as a means of inquiry, rather than a dogmatic set of answers, we would be including ethical and moral questions into both science and state. The magician is a powerful archetype, i.e. form of ruling, and it requires turning it around to demystify the tricks and use it to access the power for good we need to work with.
I read this at the right time. Thank you :)