Image via WikipediaThe Magician is the card of creation, and you can use this technique any time you need to. Or simply take the Magician out of the deck and meditate on him whenever you need fresh inspiration.

Occasionally, you may feel that you need to conduct an inner journey to consult the Magician in person. When you do, you can ask him for whatever you need in your life. However, you must also be prepared to make some changes in your life. The Magician will ask you to do something; promise only what you know you can deliver. That is, if the Magician asks you to stop smoking, don’t promise to do it if you know that you’re not ready to give up cigarettes.

An important warning: never make an inner journey to visit one of the archetypes without the assistance of your inner guide. The guide will mediate between you and the immense power of the archetype. You should also ask your guide’s advice before you agree to do anything the archetype asks you to do. Again, don’t make any agreements you’re not prepared to keep. The universe must be kept in balance. If you receive a gift from the archetype, you must give something in return. If you don’t keep your part of the bargain, then the archetype will take something from your life, and it may not be something that you were willing to give.

The Magician is a powerful archetype. When you meditate on the Magician, or when he appears in your readings, your life will change.

Image via WikipediaSymbols: Male figure, red robe, white cloak, lemniscate, magic wand in right hand, snake belt, left hand pointing down to the ground, golden sky, rose covered canopy over the figure, table with carvings, pentacle, cup, sword and wand on the table, garden with roses and lilies in front of the figure.

The Magician represents earthly power drawn from spiritual sources. As the first card of the deck after the unnumbered card of the Fool, he is the human soul endowed with a physical body and everything it needs to create a heaven on earth. He Magician wields a magic wands, showing that he has the power to transform. On his table, lie the tools of his trade, the four elements: earth, air, fire and water.

What does the Magician say to you? Remember that although he is an archetype his is you; you are the magician in your own life. Everything the Magician can do, you can do too. You have the power to transform your own reality.

You’re the Magician in your business. You develop and grow your business. You transform your ideas into products and money. The best way to get to know the Magician is via meditation. Take an inner journey, and get to know the Magician as he lives in you.

Here’s a small meditation to get you started. Think of a problem that you’re facing, right at the moment. The problem may be a large one, or it may be a relatively small one. Perhaps one of your best workers has just quit, or you need a new supplier, or you’re having a cash flow problem. Whatever your needs, the Magician can help.

Take the Magician out of the deck. Put it on the desk in front of you. Now, with the deck face up, select two to three cards which depict your problem. They can be from any part of the deck: major arcana, minor arcana, or the court cards. For a cash flow problem, you could select the 5 and 6 of Pentacles, for example. Place the cards you’ve chosen in a line under the Magician.

Just look at the layout for a few moments. Now close your eyes, and breathe deeply and slowly. Imagine your grounding cord running deep into the earth. Relax your body, starting at your feet, and working right up to the muscles in your scalp. Relax all your muscles, letting all the tension in them drain away into the earth, through your grounding cord. You’re feeling lighter, less tense, and much more relaxed.

Open your eyes and look at the cards again. Just look at them in a relaxed manner. Turn off your inner dialogue by replacing it with an affirmation. Say silently, or aloud: I am the Magician; I have the power to transform.

Repeat your affirmation—you can create your own, or use the one above, at least ten times.

Now select three more cards. Choose cards which show the situation as you would like it to be. For example, for the cash flow situation, you might choose the Ace of Pentacles, the Ace of Cups, and the 10 of Pentacles. Choose the cards which you think best represent your situation when the problem is completely resolved. Place these cards underneath the line of ‘problem’ cards.

Look at the spread you’ve created. Remember that you are the Magician, you have the power to transform the situation. Close your eyes and imagine how you will feel when the problem is resolved. Will you be relieved? Will you be happy? How will you feel? Feel those emotions now, and give thanks that the situation has resolved itself so well.

You can replace the cards in the deck, or you can leave the cards out so that you can look at them occasionally.

Go about your normal activities. You will find that the situation will transform itself, exactly as you imagined that it would. However, the resolution will rarely occur in a way that you could predict. The way the resolution occurs is usually unexpected.

Image via WikipediaThe Fool can be a useful card to develop attributes that you don’t already have. If you’re unwilling to take business risks, even when you know you should, meditate on the Fool. Visualize yourself at the top of a cliff, and then imagine yourself stepping off into space. You will realize that you can fly.

Because of the flying aspect of the Fool—he’s about to launch himself into space—this card has a lot of shamanic energy. It’s the medieval trickster and joker of myth. The con man, who plays the old shell game. How many Fools have you known in your life? If I were doing a reading to learn more about a new client or business contact and the Fool came up, I’d be wary.

If the Fool came up in a reading where you wanted everything to go calmly and straightforwardly, take care to dampen down the Fool energy. Match the card with Justice, or the Hermit, and meditate on the cards in tandem. You want the energy and the enthusiasm of the fool, but you want that energy to glow, rather than to spark.

You can use the Fool whenever you want inspiration, or when you want the courage to take risks; whenever you want the feeling that you’re just starting out in life.’    Look at the small dog, he’s important. He represents the Fool’s instincts. He shows that the Fool is not in touch with his intuition. If this card comes up in a reading for you regularly, as yourself how you’re stifling your instincts. What are you refusing to look at, to see?

If the Fool comes up in a reading in combination with the High Priestess and the Moon, it would be obvious that there was a lot that was being hidden from the querent, whether the querent was you, or someone that you were reading for. The combination could indicate industrial espionage. The querent should look at all her security procedures carefully. Perhaps it would be a good idea not to travel alone. Any threats made against the querent should be taken seriously.

However, in general the Fool is a cheerful card, showing a lot of youthful energy.

Image via WikipediaWe are part of the world, and of everything in it. each breath we take, we take in oxygen which has been given off by plants. We exhale, and our breath is taken in by plants. Every act we perform has ramifications far beyond ourselves. Working with the Tarot helps us to see our place in the world. It’s a healing process, because we also come to see and understand how we have been wounded by the world. In healing ourselves, we heal the world.

Take out your Tarot deck, and sort the cards into 2 stacks. First, the cards which you think are pleasant enough: those cards which you either enjoy, or which draw no real reaction from you at all. In the second stack, put the cards which disturb you. These are the cards which you recoil from, like Death, or the Devil, or those cards which you love, like the World. Both sets of cards are equally important. However, you will learn a great deal from those cards which disturb you.

The work we do with the Tarot activates our subconscious mind. We can’t know what is going on down there, and we don’t need to know. When we work with and study the Tarot, we begin the work of integration: we release energy which has been locked up by our unconscious repressions, and we can use this energy in our life. The integrative work is done in silence; the best way we can help this work to take place is by relaxing, and looking at the cards, especially those cards which disturb us. It’s a way of working which is similar to the work which people do with their dreams.

Working with the cards in this way helps us to transform our life. As we transform, the cards seem to transform with us. Over time, the cards which repelled us begin to appeal to us, and those cards which appealed to us, will lose their attraction.

The Death card repels many people, at least initially. It’s a card that reminds us that everything is impermanent. Nothing lasts. It reminds us of the people we have loved, who are now dead. The card shocks us. However, the card can also be a comfort. It reveals that it really is darkest before the dawn.

Think of yourself ten years ago. What happened to the person you were then? You changed. That person of ten years ago is dead. The preoccupations she had, the loves and the enthusiasms, are either gone, or have changed in vital ways. Over longer periods of time, we change even more. Think of yourself as you were when you were five years old. Where is that five year old now? You can’t say that you’re still the person you were at five, if you’re now 50.

Over time, we come to see the Death card as a beginning, as a constant becoming, rather than as an ending. Look at the bones in the Death card. They are the centre, life stripped to the essentials. And life goes on, with the seeds of the old, which transform into the new. If we understand the Death card well, if we internalize the meaning of the card, we become comfortable with the vast cycles of constant endings and beginnings.

Look at the Death card. Close your eyes, and feel the emotions which it arouses in you. Feel where in your body those emotions are located. In your chest? Your throat? Your belly? Focus on the emotion, and try to intensify it. as you do that, you’ll find that the emotion will change into something else.

What do we learn from the cards which attract us, and those which repel us? We learn to become whole. We learn not to be afraid. We feel our fear intensely, and as we feel it, so it changes to something else.

Take out your Tarot journal, and write down the date. Now write down the five cards which disturb you most, and the primary emotion which they arouse in you. In years to come, you will see that those cards which most repelled you, will cease to do so. You will either come to like them, or view them as neutral. This is inevitable, because you will change. The cards can help the process of change and integration.

We all have wounds, and just by looking at the cards, by being willing to be with the hurt parts of ourselves, those hurts are transformed by love.

How is this helpful in business? Business is life. To be successful in business, you need to be able to see yourself, and the situations you find yourself in, clearly. You need a sense that try as you might, you don’t  have as much control as you think you do. Events and situations will transform, and you will transform. Laying out the cards will give you the sense that your life makes sense.

You’ll be able to enjoy your work more, as you understand more about yourself, your motivations, and your life. You’ll be healthier in body, mind and spirit.