The archetype of the King brings order and creativity. The Warrior brings action and clarity. The Magician also has a twofold role: The Magician is the knower and he is the master of technology. By knowing, it is meant that the Magician has an understanding of knowledge that requires special training.
You are spending large amounts of time, energy, and money in order to be initiated into rarefied realms of secret power. You are undergoing an ordeal testing your capacities to become a master of this power. And, as is true in all initiations, there is no guarantee of success.
The Magician initiates this knowledge through ritual processes. Like a master and apprentice relationship where the apprentice learns from the master, who has the understanding which the apprentice requires and in doing so, he comes to follow certain patterns and adopt behaviors that will aid that apprentice in gaining special knowledge.
Also, the fact that the Magician has understanding, he comes to play an important role in society. He can deflate the ego of the King by questioning his decisions and actions. In doing so, he can awaken the King’s conscience.
The Magician archetype in a man is his “bullshit detector”; it sees through denial and exercises discernment. He sees evil for what and where it is when it masquerades as goodness, as it so often does.
This knowing aspect of the Magician’s energy is theoretical science. While the applied science is the technological mastery. Technological understanding being the practical knowledge that can be imparted onto another which would include how a certain thing works, what are it’s parts, how to fix it if it breaks and so on.
Understanding and applying the Magician’s energy has three main benefits. Firstly, by having the knowledge, it can allow an individual to detach from oneself and reflect prior to making an important life decision.
Its proper role is to stand back and observe, to scan the horizon, to monitor the data coming in from both the outside and the inside and then, out of its wisdom—its knowledge of power, within and without, and its technical skill in channeling—make the necessary life decisions.
Secondly, by pursuing knowledge you also come to terms with what you don’t know and what you need to know and thus, this understanding can help you focus in order to improve. Lastly, the Magician energy can bring clarity of thinking which can be combined with the Warrior energy and one can act with clarity.
The Magician, then, is the archetype of thoughtfulness and reflection.
Like the previous archetypes, The Magician also has shadow forms. The shadow form is the negative form of The Magician’s energy. His shadow forms are the Manipulator and the Denying “Innocent” One. The Manipulator can withhold information and knowledge which can then allow the individual to manipulate others to his own benefit. For greed or status or other vices, such Manipulators can be anyone from teachers to doctors to psychiatrists. While the “Innocent” One is someone who does not take responsibility that comes with the Magician’s energy but wishes to have its rewards. This individual is often lifeless and envious of others for he does not wish to act but just wants the knowledge.
A benefit of understanding this archetype is that it shows how no one person is complete. In order to gain the benefits of this archetype, you have to seek out other people and ask for help. It acknowledges the fact that we all need someone else to guide us. That learning how to detach, to find mistakes in your actions and to think clearly aren’t something we are born with, rather they are taught to us by someone who is further along the journey of understanding.
This puts us at first a subservient learning position and then an authoritative teaching position but at all times we’re interacting with others and improving one another.
Learned Living 