The Wheel of Fortune — X

La Roue De Fortune

Tarot de Marsailles: Destiny, fortune, outcome, felicity, godsend, special gain or unusual loss, result, conclusion, inevitability

Roue = Wheel

Sometimes in depictions of The Wheel, the wheel depicted is a small wheel such as the one above which is giving off the vibe of something like a roasting spit, other times the wheel calls to mind a larger wheel, such as the wheel of zodiac which we are "affixed" to at birth, as alluded to in the picture below. 

The Halloween Tarot, art by Kipling West - Flux, unexpected change in luck, New choices, new circumstances. Rolling with the punches, but not passively. 

In either case, whether it is viewed at the macrocosmic or the microcosmic level, with the wheel there is a certain level of impending, or at least possible peril.

Roulette is from French roulette "gambling game played with a revolving wheel," meaning "small wheel (Old French roelete), formed from Late Latin rotella,  diminutive of Latin rota "wheel," also "a potter's wheel; wheel for torture," from PIE root *ret- "to run, to turn, to roll"[OE]

Sometimes God is referred to as the "divine potter." In the Book of Genesis it is written that God made ha adam / "man" out of the dust or clay of the earth. Elsewhere the same symbolism is used.

"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Job 10:8-9

In ancient Egypt the creator God, Khnum, was the divine potter. He was said specifically to have fashioned the bodies of humans upon his potter's wheel. We might say, therefore, he fashioned humans upon a roelete "little wheel." Or if we are to think more macrocosmically, the Creator fashions people upon the big "wheel," the rota of the zodiac with earth / you perspective at the hub. 

And whatever anyone's experience is of life, good or ill, it is definitely perilous and torturous (from Late Latin tortura "a twisting") at times. From the moment we leave the luxurious confines of the homogeneously warm womb, we begin to experience the extremes of coldness, loudness, brightness, hunger . . .  bodily functions such as breathing and digestion, which come with unpleasant side effects, such as possible difficult or obstructed breathing (suffication), gas, bloating, pain, bowel movements, diaper rash, etc., we are put in uncomfortable clothing, made to touch grass or get in cold water, etc. It is not easy being human. We are always growing and changing, and our environments are subject to entropy and change. Nothing stays the same and nothing is simple like it was in the womb. 

Living life leads many to ruin from Latin ruina "a collapse, a rushing down, a tumbling(turning/wheeling) down," and everybody in their day will die. It might make one rue "make (someone) sorry," from PIE root *kreue- (2) "to push, strike," the day they were born [forced into the crude, rude, bloody game (roulette) of life]. Hit me with your best shot God! Strike the wheel! Big money, big money! 

And by the way, these are things that could be associated with the Sun, i.e., Ra / Re, who we might say comes to ruin at the conclusion of each day, i.e., swallowed by night, after "rushing down" from his zenith, Re who "strikes" the earth with his harsh rays / Re(s) and made Jonah rue being alive.

When the sun [Ra] rose, God [elohim] provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live." Jonah 4:8

And Ra, who traverses the wheel / le roue of the zodiac yearly.

Oh wheel! It is as is fated, as it is willed by God. The gods wield the power of the wheel [from root *kwel- (1) "revolve, move around; sojourn, dwell"]. Thy kingdom come, thy wheel be done.

Shaddowscapes Tarot, by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

"Also known as a wheel window, such windows were often placed above doors and on the western side of the structure in order to maximize light filtering into the interior. At the time of their popularity, they were sometimes called 'Catherine Windows' (named for the spokes of the Catherine wheel on which St. Catherine was tortured.)

They were often laid out in twelve parts, which reflected not only hours of the day, but also the months of the year and the zodiac. Like the Eastern mandala, rose windows often symbolized how various smaller parts could form a harmonious whole and attain perfect unity." -study.com - Rose Windows: History, Design, Symbolism 

We emerge from our mother's wombs, constrained and tightly wrapped, into this new reality from a vulva, which word itself comes from *wel- (3) "to turn, revolve," [with derivatives referring to curved, enclosing objects OE.] At the moment of birth our place is fixed. We then begin to evolve as we revolve from that place. The primordial mound . . . 

Tatanen / Tatenen / Tanen / Tenen / tA - Tnn "risen land," who was associated with Khnum (eg. Temple of Esna, column 4:32-39; who created using his potter's wheel), who was the primordial mound.

In a version of the divination of the parts of the body, a common formula in the afterlife literature, the vulva of the deceased is identified with Tatenen (BD sole 181). In "The Songs of Isis and Neptheys,"Osiris is hailed as "Sacred image of thy father Tatenen," ("The Bremmer-Rhind Papyrus—I," p. 123 [1,16]), and is told that "Thy father Tatenen lifts up the sky [*Nwt] that thou mayest tread over its four quarters; thy soul flies in the east; thou art the likeness of Re [*the Sun], and they who dwell in the Netherworld receive thee with joy, Geb [*the Earth] breaks open for thee what is in him, and they come to thee in peace," ibid., p. 132 [16, 24]). Tatenen Henadology.Worldpress.com, ¶3

When we are born our fortune is set. Originally fortune from Old French fortune was about ones lot "share or portion of life" in any way," that which is given by fate, God or destiny", and carried the meaning of either "good fortune" or "misfortune," from Latin fortuna "chance, fate, good luck." When someone has good fortune, i.e., fors "chance, luck", we say they are fortunate, i.e.,  fortunatus "prospered, prosperous; lucky, happy" (past participle of fortunare "to make prosperous"). But it is strange that when we call an event unfortunate "unlucky" it is still occurring according to ones fortune. It's not as if "unfortunate" people don't have a fortune or fate, and they aren't necessarily unlucky either, in the vast scheme of things. Fortunes can change, and sometimes what appears to be unfortunate can turn out to be, on the contrary, very fortunate. For example, getting kicked off the only flight to your destination (unfortunate?), but then you later learn that the plane has crashed. You are suddenly fortunate for the very same reason you thought you thought earlier you were unfortunate for. 

Spolia Tarot, artwork by Jen May

"Jupiter [*Gk. Zeus] bestows his luck from the background, being the ruler of both good and bad luck." -Jessa Crispin

We might also say one's fortune is like a fore + tune, the name [Gk. όνομα onoma] or a tune / tone spoken by God which fashions a person to be who they are. 

But now thus says the LORD, he who formed you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." Isaiah 43:1 ESV

Before I formed thee in the belly [beten] I knew thee; and before thou came forth out of the womb [rechem] I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.  Jeremiah 1:4-5 KJV

 . . . before tuning, before being stretched (by the potter) or living out this existence of becoming or being shaped into something, the fortune is what tells us who we are (our name).

Tune is from "tone" and is said to be from PIE root *ten "to stretch." Compare this to ancient Greek teinein (teinō) "to stretch," and tenon "tendon, sinew" and  tenos "sinew" [which is a kind of cord, from Latin chorda "string of a musical instrument, cat-gut" (from Gk. khorde "string, cat-gut, chord, cord") that can make a chord which makes a sound / music that has a certain character and is named, i.e., C major, A minor, etc. An artist or creator, such as God, creates that which is in accord with the cor / cordis "heart, intellect, mind." We might say we pulled at God's heart-strings or his "cords cordis" and thus were "tuned" into being by his will from the stuff of the earth/matter to be, each, our own unique selves. 

Also certain chords can tune a person back into proper shape or back into health, such as the troubled King Saul who was soothed by David's chord playing. 

And so it was, whenever the spirit of God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him. 1 Samuel 16:23 NKJV

In any case, the "ten" vocalization is related to words having to to with stretching and also foundations, such as the first land "stretching" out of the primordial waters, Tatenen, the "risen land."

*ten = stretch

 tA "land" Tnn = which has risen/become distinct [. . . which means that we could say that tatas are mammory "lands" and are our first refuge (the land flowing with milk) as a baby, 

taw taw

X marks the spot, ta da! Or we could say Ta marks the spot, the symbol x originating from the Phoenician taw, which is χ which sounds like tA

taw = χ = tA

χ marks the spot / taw marks a spot on "the risen land" (tatenen)

10 in ancient Egyptian is written with the "animal fetter" / "hoble for cattle" hieroglyph.

The ancient Egyptians had a base ten number system, so 10, ten, X (decem), was literally a foundational building block [tA], or a number which other numbers rise out of [Tnn] such as 100 (10 x10), 1,000 (10 x 10 x 10), . . . 1,000,000 (10⁶).

Ten is a titan "thing of very great importance" of math. And the Titans were the elder or first gods and sometimes described as chthonic gods, 

The hot blast enveloped the chthonic Titans, the indescribable flames reached the divine sky, and sparkling flare of the thunderbolt and lightning dazzled the strongest eyes. - Hesiod, Theogony, p. 24, lines 697- 700, translated by M. L. West

The Fall of the Titans, Cornelis Corneilisz van Haarlem, 1596-1598

Titanomakhía 'Titan battle,' a ten year war

Chthonic is from Gk. χθόνιος khthonios "of the earth, in the earth," from χθών khthōn "the earth, solid surface of the earth,"said to be from PIE root *dhghem- "earth"[OE], which is somewhat similar in vocalization to the PIE root for the word "ten" (and Gk δέκα deka) , i.e., *dekm-. So if PIE root *ten- means "to stretch," and the word in English for the number 10 "ten" comes from PIE root *dekem-, which is similar to PIE root *dhghem- "earth," which is "land," then it seems like there is the possibility that the concept of 10 or  ι  in Greek [iota], could carry the meaning of a number that is a building block / first "land," like [Tatenen] tA "land"  Tnn "risen land" / land stretching out of Nun, and therefore the primordial mound / primordial "earth." 

Or maybe we could say 10 tethers, i.e., fetters, numbers together. Tether being from *deu- "to fasten." The word for 10 in ancient Egyptian is transliterated as mḏw, and said to be pronounced something like medju. It is, interestingly, similar to the ancient Egyptian word for "word, speech," mdw, medu. So ten, medju, is foundational like Tatenen, and "word" or "speech," i.e., medu, is foundational to creation. God created with his word and saw that is was good. He took appropriate measures, i.e., *med- [md] when he created with his mdw "word" and life emerged [*ten-] upon the first land, Tatenen. God meted [from mete (v.) "to allot," which is also from *med-], out a fate, literally "thing spoken (by the gods)" from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say," with his speech, i.e., medu. The divine maker md with mdw and the foundational building block of the mathematical universe, the medju "ten," came into being and it was the central place or the "middle" of creation, middle said to be from Proto-Germanic *medj, from PIE root *medhyo- "middle," also root of Latin medium  "the middle, midst, center; interval" / medius "in the middle, between; from the middle." 

Medulla Oblongata  tethers the spinal chord to the brain stem

"While every part of the brain is important in its own way, the work of the medulla oblongata is essential for sustaining life." -verywellhealth, The Anatomy of the Medulla Oblongata

"It is only about 3cm long, but the medulla is an indispensable nerve tract which contains the control centers for our automatic vital functions. . . The medulla contains four cranial nerves including the hypoglossal nerve which controls tongue movements and muscles involved with speech" [*medu]  -The hindbrain, University of Queensland

Medulla is from Latin medulla literally "marrow" also "pith of plants," both marrow and pith certain types of undifferentiated cells, namely, hematopoietic stem cells and parenchyma cells, and also have the figurative meanings of - marrow "inmost or central part, inner substance, essence," and - pith "essential part, quintessence, condensed substance," so we might say medulla contains the intrinsic and central word (medu) or name / fate of a thing. And the medulla is in the *medj "middle," center, central part, and perhaps the medju "ten," that is, the foundational mater (Latin meaning) "origin, source, mother," or foundational earth / land [Tatenen].

So, we might say at the foundation of the universe, as time wore on, from this place in the middle / center / central part (*medj ) of creation, the primary medu/word of creation, Tatenen, the foundational block, "ten"/medju, or from the first iota (ι), or atom "building block of the universe," more and more was added or built up each "day" (which is "cycle": Day, Night, Day[morning] = One Day) of creation. 

God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Genesis 1:5

If we equate the beginning of the first day to the Big Bang, on this first day we have a cosmic soup of particles that then cools into atoms of hydrogen, then helium, and eventually stars form and there is light. After the first day, there was a second day, and so on until human beings were created on the sixth day. Then on the seventh day, there was the day of rest, so the the end of a cycle / Gk kyklos "circle, wheel, any circular body": the first week. Days upon days, weeks upon weeks, eons upon eons, cycles upon cycles, spirals upon spirals, wheels upon wheels later, we find ourselves here; revolved from the first little packet of light / information; photons, into subatomic particles, into elements, into molecules, and into beings made of more complex information building blocks; RNA and DNA, and it is all very geometric and mathematical in nature.

DNA Tube

Some people do in fact contend, and there is argument to say, that the universe is in actuality made out of mathematics. So in this way, everything that is made would be endowed with this mathematical karma [from Sanskrit karma "action, work, deed; fate"]. Everything is made from and governed by the particular laws of creation and cannot deviate from these fundamental conditions / building blocks of existence, such as the four fundamental forces of nature, namely, gravity, the weak force, electromagnetic force, and the strong nuclear force. What goes up, must come down, if a = b, and b = c, then a = c, whatever you do, creates an action, i.e., karma, as a result.

Dalí Tarot

"The disk in the middle is divided into two parts, indicating human consciousness and the unconscious mind. Both parts of the image complement each other, but differences are also apparent. The lower portion is full of symbols and signs, while the upper areas are empty [* within the inner and outer white rings]. This might suggest that the messages of the unconscious are conveyed through symbols alone." - Dalí Tarot, Wheel of Fortune, Great Resolution, 

In this description of  The Wheel of Fortune from the Dalí Tarot 👆, it says that the upper part indicates human consciousness and the bottom part indicates the unconscious mind. From looking at it, we could say it also calls to mind the Ancient Greek cosmogony of the Universe divided into Sky [Ούρανός Ouranos] and Tartarus [Τάρταρος Tartaros]

The universe was envisioned as a great sphere--or egg-shaped ovoid--with the solid dome of the sky forming the upper half and the inverse dome of the pit of Tartaros the lower. The flat, horizontal disk of the earth divided the interior of the cosmic sphere into two halves-- the homes of men and gods above, and the gloomy, storm-wracked prison of the Titanes below. —theoi.com - Tartaros

. . . the dome above, heaven, and the dome below, the underworld. It is interesting that the treasure, or treasury of symbols is under the plane of the earth, which word in Greek, χθόνιος khthonios, begins with the X-marks-the-spot-like chi [χ]. The gates [732], and threshold to the underworld are also described in the Theogony as being made of bronze khalkion / khalkios, which word also begins with chi, χάλκεον. 

There are the sources of extremities of dark earth and misty Tartarus, of the undraining sea and the starry heaven, all in order, dismal and dank, that even the gods shudder at; and there are the shinning gates and the [χάλκεος] bronze [ούδός] threshold, firmly fixed with long roots, made by no craftsman's hand. And beyond, excluded from the company of the gods, the Titans live, on the far side of the gloomy chasm. —Hesiod, Theogony, p. 27, lines 807-814

And we known from descriptions such as that of Achilles' armor in the Iliad, that χάλκεον khalkion "bronze" can be dazzling. 

He [Achilles] put it [his armor] on, the gifts of the god, which Hephaistos had made for him with much labor. |  First he put around his legs the shin guards, |  beautiful ones, with silver fastenings at the ankles. | Next he put around his chest the breastplate, | and around his shoulders he slung the sword with the nails of silver, | a sword made of bronze [χάλκεον]. Next, the shield, great and mighty, |  he took, and from it there was a gleam from afar, as from the moon, | or as when, at sea, a gleam to sailors appears | from a blazing fire, the kind that blazes high in the mountains | at a solitary station, as the sailors are carried unwilling by gusts of wind | over the fish-swarming sea, far away from their loved ones. | So did the gleam from the Shield of Achilles reach all the way up to the aether. —Iliad 19.368-379

Now that's money! [χάλκος khalkos "copper, brass, money"] 

So, the entrance to the domain of the (chthonic) χθόνιος Titans, is shiny (made of χάλκεον) like treasure (gaza γάζα "treasure" in Gk.), something that would capture the gaze, and perhaps have allure and lure, before it snaps shut and imprisons the body and spirit. 

The eyes are the gateway to the soul.

Inside however, it is a different story, beyond the gates is described with words such as "misty," "loathsome," "dank," "murky," "dark," and a "gloomy chasm" [zoferós Khaos], ζοφερός Χάεος [814], "which even the gods abhor" [809]. 

Then what kind of treasure is this repository of symbols, the unconscious mind, the half of the sphere that supports, or forms the counter balance to heaven and the light of consciousness, that is itself so fearful, monstrous and dark? It certainly suggests that a healthy dose of awe, reverence and respect for its depths and power is in order. Very few mortals are said to have returned from Hades. It takes something more to cross χ the threshold both ways. But perhaps if we employ our inner psychopomps, like Hermes and Hecate to travel between the worlds we can traverse the bronze threshold and mind for treasure there without being sucked into the gloomy chasm and confined for eternity to hell.

And what are the parameters to our portion? Portion from porcioun "allotted part; lot, fate, destiny,"from Latin portionem"share, part," ultimately from PIE root *pere- (2) "to grant, allot. It is the Wheel of Portion, our universe, that is our home. It is what has been allotted to us, it is our part, our share of existence. And this space in which we are living out the drama of our lives didn't just appear out of no where. No, we are literally riding on the backs of giants, that is, the first stars which formed in the cosmic soup of the early universe that first reigned supreme, and created the circumstances necessary in the universe which would eventually form a certain star, that would support a certain little blue planet, that would support life, that would then provide a place for us to be here today, made out of the clay of the earth. 

What science has gathered from peering back in time with powerful telescopes uncannily mirrors the Greek mythology. Scientists say that the first stars were giant stars [so primordial titans] that burned bright and hot for a [relatively] short period of time and were later replaced by their descendant "children" stars (and planets) which then became our "gods," and specifically the gods of our solar system, i.e., the Sun (Helios / Sol / Ra), moon (Selene / Luna), planets and constellations, while they, the progenitor stars, were relegated to "Tartarus," i.e., the black holes at the center of the galaxies.

Another change occurred after the first stars started to form. Theory predicts that the first stars were 30 to 300 times as massive as our Sun and millions of times as bright, burning for only a few million years before exploding as supernovae. . . 

. . . Understanding the first sources [first stars] is critical, since they greatly influenced the formation of later objects such as galaxies. The first sources of light act as seeds for the later formation of larger objects. . . 

. . . Additionally, the first stars that exploded as supernovae might have collapsed further to form black holes. The black holes started to swallow gas and other stars to become objects known as "mini-quasars," which grew and merged to become the huge black holes now found at the centers of nearly all galaxies. nasa.gov-Early Universe

And these black holes even in their extreme terribleness rest so far away, that from our present physical reality that they pose, not only no danger to us here, but provide a stable axis of rotation. Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy is 26,670 light years from Earth. 

And there, all in their order, are the sources of the ends of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and the starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor. [740] It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he would not reach the floor until a whole year had reached its end, but cruel blast upon blast would carry him this way and that. And this marvel is awful even to the deathless gods. —Hesiod, Theogony, 736-744

In other words, it's so far away that you can't even imagine the distance properly, and is even frightful to the gods, like something being thousands of light years (5.88 trillion miles / year) away, and having  a mass 4.3 million times that of the Sun /(our god) Helios/Sol. It's just far far away, really really far, and really really huge. 🤯 

In ancient Egyptian mythology, the goddess Nut (Nwt) "sky" was the night sky [sometimes depicted with a spherical pot (nu) as her crown and the hieroglyph for her name], she was also depicted as a woman covered with stars arched over the earth as the dome of the heavens, so Nut was our portion of the universe, our dome and domicile. We call the sky "above" heaven (from Old English heofon "our visible sky firmament").

Nut, The Night Sky, The Milky Way

And "below" is hell, which would be the grave, and death. But in actuality it is all just "out there" or "in there" and relative to each of us situated upon this earth in this place in space.

Thoth Tarot, Alister Crowley — Fortune

"This card represents the Universe in its aspect as a continual change of state."

This universe shapes us, she is our cauldron (pot) of transformation, she gives us our universal experience of being alive in the otherwise undifferentiated, cold, dark endless chaos of infinite space, time and consciousness. 

She is our foundation. A definite 10.  So even if this wheel can be tortuous at times, where would we be without it? 

You're lucky to have something to do, and to be somebody.

If we didn't have birthdays, you wouldn't be you. If you'd never been born, well then what would you do? 

If you'd never been born, then well what would you be? 

You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree! 

You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes! 

You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes. 

Or worse than all that . . . Why, you might be a WASN'T! 

A Wasn't has no fun at all. No, he doesn't. 

A Wasn't just isn't. He just isn't present.

But you . . . You ARE YOU! And, now isn't that pleasant! —Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!, p.10

Unfortunately, we don't have any other option but to be in motion, given that we are creatures and in the process of becoming or being created, and are therefore not THE Unmovable, Unsearchable, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Eternal Creator God, God. Even Jesus, being born fully human and fully God did not escape tuning and torture. But through our immersion on this little watery planet, in the big waters of the womb of universe, we end up getting turned into Christ [Χριστός] upon that wheel. And that is a treasure, by Jove! 

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4 ESV

So, embrace your cross X and your fate like that "fool" from the Bible. Wheel it and deal it (or deal with it), and who knows, you might just get out of here alive!

 . . . Strange and terrible 

are the HOUNDS of the Barrier.

Follow they consciousness to the limits of space.

Think not to escape by entering your body,

for follow they fast the Soul through angles,

Only the circles will give ye protection,

save from the claws

of the DWELLERS IN ANGLES. . .

. . . Aye, know ye man,

that the Soul who dares the Barrier

may be held in bondage

by the HOUNDS from beyond time,

held till this cycle is completed 

and left behind

when the consciousness leaves.

Entered I my body.

Created the circles that know not angles,

created the form

that from my form was formed.

Made my body into a circle

and lost the pursuers in the circles of time.

But, even yet, when free from my body,

cautious ever must I be

not to move through angles,

else my soul may never be free.

Know ye, the HOUNDS of the barrier

move only through angles

and never through curves of space.

Only by moving through curves

can ye escape them,

for in angles they will pursue thee.

O man, heed ye my warning;

Seek not to break open

the gate to beyond.

Few there are

who have succeeded in passing the Barrier

to the greater LIGHT that shines beyond.

For know ye, ever the dwellers,

seek such Souls to hold in their thrall. . . 

—The Emerald Tablets of Thoth - Tablet VIII: The Key of Mystery, pp. 22; 27-29 

The Magician – I

Le Tarot de Marseille

One is the loneliest number. But, the funny thing is, it wouldn't be lonely if weren't for two. If not for a second thing not being there, one wouldn't be alone, rather it would actually be all one. When something exists, by the fact of its distinction from the ALL, then it is another, i.e., "a second of two." 

Being alone ("all "+ an "one") isn't bad if you are actually everything, like the unmanifest, unsearchable, eternal God. But once anything exists apart from the perfect Unity, which is what any created thing or creature is by its very nature, then being alone can be lonely. And any created creature is also by its nature more lowly than the creator.

The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, c. 1508-1512, ceiling of Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

This makes every person single from Latin singulus "one, one to each, individual, separate," from a form of the root *sem- "one; as one, together with," but not integer, that is, "untouched," from in- "not" + tangere "touch", from PIE *tag- "touch, handle." No, we are creatures tagged by God. We are very much touched, and very much separate as individuals.

Shem / Šem the oldest son of Noah, means "name" in Hebrew. We don't know what Noah and his wife had in mind in calling their son "Name", but surely they hoped it would be a good name. Perhaps there was even some connotation of this name as denoting their son as their first, #1, seminal or *sem- "one" child. In any case, a person's(or a thing's) name can be either good; a name of fame or renown, or it can be bad; a name of ill repute or shame, given the particular state of their reputation. Even this name meaning "name," shem, could be a name of shame meaning "byword". 

then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name [šem], I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword [šem] among all peoples. 2 Chronicles 7:20

One is actually perfection and a name of "God," Monad, the origin of everything, the source of everything else. One is frightening and powerful in that respect. Yet we, as creatures can only experience one in relation to other numbers, so it is also lowly, being the first, as in the lowest number of a sequence. Everything that comes after is bigger and more. Like 1 on a scale of 1-10. However, we also say "number one," as being the best, the top. 

The Magician holds a bit of this duality of dignity in its history. In the earliest tarot decks it is Le Bateleur in French and Il Bagato in Italian, the mountebank, who might be a charlatan or swindler, who uses illusion, trickery and sleight of hand to gain money, power or position. 

The Italian name Il Bagatto (a word derived from bagatelle, a little thing) refers to the card's roll in the game Tarocchi. It is the lowest-ranking card in the trump series, vulnerable to being captured by any other trump card. Eventually, the word came to mean sleight-of-hand tricks, deception, fraud and swindling. The French name, Le Bateleur, has the same meaning.  Tarot Heritage -all about tarot history and historic decks

Salvador Tali Tarot, Taschen Books, first published 1984

However, in more modern tarot decks the I card is sometimes named The Magus (a word derived from Latin magi, singular magus "magician, learned magician"). And  in general, The Magician, whatever it is named, has a positive interpretation in tarot readings. 

The Magician – (some) keywords: skill, self-confidence, will, creative power, control, dexterity, mastery, ambition, domination, strategy 

Shadowscapes Tarot, Stephanie Pui-Mun

So, sometimes the same word can be used at different times as a name of respect, or as a name of shame. Such is the case with magician. It can be applied to someone like Le Bateleur, the mountebank,  or it can be applied to someone who is a knowledgable alchemist, someone is knowledgeable about causes, a worker of powerful magic, like Merlin, or worker of miracles like Jesus.

How do we tell the difference? It's not always clear at first, but we can always look to results or fruits. For example, Jesus preformed wonders and cured people of disease and sickness. The question wasn't whether he was efficacious or not, it was if he was "allowed" to be doing these things. When Jesus cured the man blind from birth. The man did not question Jesus' powers because he was cured as a result of them.

He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" John 9:25

And if we remember, back in the time of Moses, in ancient Egypt there were powerful magicians who, "did the same things" as Moses "by their secret arts." 

So, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men[chakamim] and sorcerers[kashaphim], and [they] the Egyptian magicians[chartome / ḥartummê] also did the same things by their secret arts[lahatehem]; Exodus 7:10-11

Chartom חרטם is translated as "magician" [ḥartummîm "magicians"], however(according to the NAS exhaustive concordance), literally it has the meaning "engraver, writer," from the same root as cheret "engraving tool, stylus". Writing and words in general were considered to have magical power. In ancient Egypt this concept of magic was called heka. 

Heka referred to the deity, the concept, and the practice of magic. Since magic was a significant aspect of medical practice, a physician would invoke Heka in order to practice heka. The universe was created and given form by magical means, and magic sustained both the visible and invisible worlds, Heka was thought to have been present at creation and was the generative power the gods drew upon in order to create life. Heka, World History Encyclopedia

These wise men and sorcerers,  "magicians", were the educated writers and engravers of hieroglyphs [from Gk. hieros "sacred" + glyphein "to carve"], called medu-netjer "words of the God" in the ancient Egyptian language, or the prescribers of such engravings, carvings and spells. The cheret "stylus" is a pointed instrument, like a wand, used to carve or write words, i.e.  "to cut". This word is charats  in Biblical Hebrew, meaning "to cut, sharpen, decide, utter, decree, determine." They were very skilled at their craft.

The magician-priest-physicians, cutting with sharpened tools made decrees and uttered spells of magic to determine outcomes. When acting as priest-magician-physicians the chartomim would have used carved amulets and wrote/"engraved" magical prescriptions (sometimes which words were even dissolved and eaten by the patient). 

The sem priests were magicians who preformed ceremonies for the dead, ceremonies which include specific utterances, to promote safe passage in the afterlife and insure the use of the senses, such as the Opening of the Mouth ceremony where a specific ritual "cutting" instruments were employed such as a ritual adze and peseshkef  were used to, what we might say, "cut"(charats), i.e. open the mouth of the deceased. 

When participating in the funerary ceremony, the sem priest wore the leopard-skin mantel that covered most of the otherwise bare upper part of the body . . . The Opening of the Mouth ritual transformed the deceased into an akh, the reanimate spirit that was a crucial element of the ancient Egyptian concept of the soul. Preforming this rite on a mummy enabled the spirit of the deceased to breathe, speak, see, hear, and receive offerings of food and drink. Sem Priests of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Origins

Sem Priest with Ritual Adze

So the ancient Egyptian magicians were skilled carvers in more ways than one. They were skilled with carving words, spells, amulets, and also using "carving" or "sharpened" instruments for ritual. They were also skilled physicians. 

The Egyptians were advanced medical practitioners for their time. They were masters of human anatomy and healing mostly due to the extensive mummification ceremonies. This involved removing most of the internal organs including the brain, lungs, pancreas, liver, spleen, heart and intestine (Millet et al., 1980). Herbal Medicine in ancient Egypt

Magic and medicine were not completely separate disciplines in ancient Egypt. The carving of a physician on the body, i.e. surgery,  is arguably even more important than the carving of the words(prescriptions and spells), at least there is more immediately at stake for ones life going under the knife. It is very important to intrust ones wellbeing, both physical and spiritual, to a person who is  skilled at their craft.

Carving is a type of craft, which is from Old English cræft "power, physical strength, might"(from the same Germanic root as the German Kraft "strength, skill" and Sweedish kraft "strength". It is the case that the thing a person becomes powerful(cræfty) at is also a the thing they are skilled(Kraft-y) at. And like all craftsmen, there are those who are very skilled and those who are not so skilled. And of those who are not very skilled there are some who are posers and pretend like they are more skilled than they are for their own advantage. We call these charlatans. There is not always a clear distinction between a true magician / the magus / miracle worker and, the charlatan. Rather there is a certain of amount of skill and efficaciousness one person displays compared to the next.

Charlatan "one who pretends to knowledge skill, importance, etc." is taken from French charlatan  meaning "mountebank, babbler," from Italian ciarlatano "a quack." Mountebank is also taken from Italian, montambanco, a contraction of month in banco meaning "quack, juggler," literally "mount on a bench" (to be seen by a crowd)"[OE]. However, a juggler, beyond its modern typical meaning of throwing around balls and clubs, also can refer to, "one who preforms tricks or acts of magic or deftness [so someone we would generally refer to as an "illusionist" or "magician" nowadays]. Another meaning of juggler is "one who manipulates especially in order to achieve a desired end[Merriam-Webster]." In the original sense the term juggler was used to mean "magician" in the sense of a kind of trickster or "joker, the original term being taken from Latin ioculari meaning "to joke, jest." And they both, jugglers and magicians preform many of their tricks adeptly using their hands .

The connecting notion between "magician" and "juggler" is dexterity. Especial sense "one who practices sleight of hand, one who preforms tricks of dexterity" is from c. 1600 OE

So a juggler is a "magician" of a different sort than the more serious chartom of ancient Egypt, or magi of the east. A magician may be a charlatan who is a very skilled  or crafty juggler of objects or words, but, finally, is not one who is a master of or the more subtle causes of nature, and who is thus able to produce alchemical transformation, wonders, cures, etc. Adeptly hiding a ball under a shell to make money off of passers by is a lesser kind of magic than bringing sight to the blind.

Magus is a term taken from Latin magus(pl. magi) meaning "magician, learned magician" from the Greek term magos, used to describe the Persian learned and priestly class as portrayed in the Bible, from Old Persian magush "magician" possibly from PIE root *magh- "to be able, have power."

Spolia Tarot, artwork by Jen May

In this respect we might say that God the Creator is the best magician (and therefore best craftsman[or we might even say, carafe-man like the ancient Egyptian Khnum the "Divine Potter," "Lord of created things from himself," whose hieroglyph was a large water jug(khnm), aka a carafe]) of all, or The Magician par excellence. [I previously explored magic/heka in this post, excerpt below, He's a Magic Man, July 31, 2020]

Creation is a dark mysterious statement. All that is, was, and ever will be was fashioned in a single moment, or named [or spoken(spelled)] in a single Word of perfection. It is this concept that allows for magic. There is a single template(the Logos/Word/OM) we are traveling in, around and through at every moment. It is because of this fixed reality of ordered infinity that we get magic(heka) as the offspring of the omnipotent creator of the universe. An unmagical world is not the product of an omnipotent Magh-ician. Magic is the result of the self similarity and nature of oneness which makes up the universe. The image which is creation at all levels(both the macrocosmic and microcosmic levels) is perfect and can never be compromised or altered in any way fundamentally. It is an image of the ALL. He's a Magic Man, Chthonic Kore

Just because there are a lot of quacks and charlatans, does not make magic a base thing or a hoax. Rather those who claim to be magicians, but are really jokers, tricksters, charlatans and quacks give the word "magician" a bad name. This is why different terms are applied(or different names given) to make distinctions along the way. Such as saying Jesus preformed miracles instead of saying he preformed magic, a term which is too caught up with its association with charlatans and entertainers. Miracle itself simply comes from the idea that what Jesus did was astonishing, amazing and wonderful, coming from Latin miraculum meaning "object of wonder." Jesus was a wonder worker.

In this sense we could say that Jesus himself was a powerful wizard. Wizard being from Middle English wys "wise" + -ard. Jesus is shown many times in early Christian art preforming his miracles with a wand in hand. So this would make him a type of chartom(magician) as well.

[1] The raising of Lazarus, Sarcophagus in Lateran, forth-century, [2] Fresco, Raising of Lazarus, Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome, early to mid-third century, [3] Multiplication of the Loaves, Via Anapo catacomb, third- or fourth-century, [4] Jesus Raising the Dead, Marble, sarcophagus fragment, fourth-century

Which brings us back to the term Le Bateleur. 

Bateler has the meaning in French "to conjure, do magic tricks; to juggle," and these are people who often have things like batons, from French bâton "stick, walking stick, staff, club, wand," in their hands doing tricks and preforming magic.

Massimiliano Truzzi, 1903-1974

While the magician[in order to focus / direct energy . . . or distract /divert attention] uses a wand for a different purpose than the juggler[to throw and catch], they both must be very skilled with their use of their wands. The best magicians and jugglers make it look easy.

Both the magician / illusionist / sleight of hand artist and juggler must be so practiced at their craft that it becomes second nature, in order to impress their audience. Success, for the magician / juggler comes in this form of  what is called "concentration without effort" as described in Meditations on the Tarot.

Concentration without effort is the transposition of the directing center of the brain to the rhythmic system – from the domain of the mind and the imagination to that of morality and will. The great hat in the form of a lemniscate which the Magician wears[in the Tarot de Marseille], like his attitude of perfect ease, indicates this transposition. For the lemniscate (the horizontal 8: ∞) it is not only the symbol of infinity, but also that of rhythm, of the respiration and circulation – it is the symbol of eternal rhythm or the eternity of rhythm. The Magician therefore represents the state of concentration without effort, i.e. the state of consciousness where the center directing the will has "descended" (in reality it is elevated) from the brain to the rhythmic system, where the "oscillations of the mental substance" are reduced to silence and to rest, no longer hindering concentration. 

Concentration without effort – that is to say where there is nothing to suppress and where contemplation becomes as natural as breathing and the beating of the heart – is the state of consciousness (i.e. thought, imagination, feeling and will) of perfect calm, accompanied by the complete relaxation of the nerves and the muscles of the body. It is the profound silence of desires, of preoccupation, of the imagination, of the memory of discursive thought. One may say that the entire being becomes like the surface of calm water, reflecting the immense presence of the starry sky and its indescribable harmony. . .   Meditations on the Tarot, A Journey into Christian Hermeticism, Letter I The Magician, p.10

So all these different types of "magicians" whether juggler, charlatan, or magus, must be so practiced and skilled at their craft, whatever it is that it comes almost effortlessly and fluidly. 

Some skills, however, come more easily and readily to certain people than to others. For example, one person may pick up an instrument and learn to play it better than another who practices for an equal length of time, given their particular natural "God given" gifts and talents. Therefore to become a great musician,  or "magician" of a craft is admirable especially to those who do not possess the same natural skill sets and would never reach the same level of mastery(craft) even with years of practice and effort. To these(those unskilled or less skilled in the same craft), the ability of the magician does seem truly magical, and for the magician their own ability is a source of power(*magh-) and magnetism.

Leonard Bernstein, conductor, composer, pianist, author, humanitarian(1918-1990) conducting with wand / baton

The magician, the one with power and craft, creates and makes things happen. The magician is a handy(skilled) maker. Make is said to be from PIE root *mag- / *mak- "to knead, fashion, fit." Here again, the maker, par exelence, would be God.

Does a clay pot dare argue with its maker, a pot that is like all others? Does the clay ask the potter what he is doing? Does the pot[poal "the work"] complain that its maker has no skill[yadayim "hands; ability"]? - Isaiah 45:9, Good News Translation, [see Hebrew]

Khnum the Divine Potter (father of Heka) fashions Ihy on his potters wheel, Temple of Hathor, Dendera[detail from Inner Shrine]

The Divine Maker took a mass "irregular shaped lump, body of unshaped coherent matter," from Old French masse, from Latin massa "needed dough, lump, that which adheres together like dough," from PIE root *mag- / *mak- "to knead, fashion, fit," and magically fashioned it into the first humans, i.e. the adam, ha.adam (who was made out of the "dust" of the adamah Gen 2:7), 

male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. Genesis 5:2 ASV, Hebrew Interlinear

What has mass is what is malleable and therefore the lump, the massa was formed by the creator/maker to make a mas, which means "male" in Latin, and is the root of the English word male. A male is a mass made into flesh and bone like Adam. Interestingly enough, this male named "man," that is, Adam, then acted as "female," when God took or "sucked" [the fe in female is from PIE dhe(i) "to suck"] from his flesh and bones, i.e. his mass, to make Eve. The female, which is said to mean literally "she who suckles," therefore the "mas that suckles(fe)," or we could say, perhaps even more properly, the mass that is sucked from (even while suckling young). The female is the one who creates and sustains new life through a transfer of matter, as a woman does when a baby is gestating in her womb (and then furthermore through milk production), which is definitely very magical. 

Me acting as female 2012, photo Julie O. /chthonickore

And in this respect even if a man gestates a baby in his womb he is still acting as "female" according to the etymological origin of the term. He is still giving of (or being sucked[fe] from) his own mass to create a new person. In this way we could say what matters for the term male and female is matter. Basically every person is a lump of matter and some people get matter sucked from their own mass to make new individuals. The vast majority of the time the people who do this identify as female and are women, so the terms take on assumed meanings and connotations which can give these words a bad name or loaded meaning, not unlike the word "magician." A lot is assumed about a person through these terms "male" "female" "masculine" "feminine" "man" "woman" etc. This is why words / names matter, and naming is itself a form of magic. Naming is creative. Naming is powerful. Words can and do hurt, and words can and do heal.

The Egyptians believed that if you knew someone's name, you had power over it. If you wrote the name of a dangerous animal or evil spirit on pottery and smashed it you were symbolically killing the evil. So called "execration texts" have been discovered all over Egypt particularly near burial areas. According to one myth all Egyptians were given a secret name at birth by the goddess Renenutet* which was never disclosed to protect them from harm. Names in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Egypt Online 

*Ren [pl. renu] meaning "name, identity" was one of the parts of the soul in ancient Egypt.

In ancient Egypt names[renu]were protected within "magic / heka circles" called shen / šn, meaning "encircle" [and if people were given new renu, it was a kind of magical renewal / renu-al]. A cartouche is a type of shen ring encircling a persons name / ren

Engraved Cartouche of Hapshepsut(1507-1458 BC) - on obelisk, Luxor, Egypt

In this way a written (i.e. spelled) name was a spell within a spell and it is clearly denoted as being one, one thing, one name, a unity. Like *I*, meaning [me] or one.

I

The Magician. One; lowly or mighty, infamous or renowned, charlatan or magus, tricker/illusionist or maker/creator, man or god? The proof will have to remain in the pudding!

Be careful what you wish for . . .