1 - The Magician

The Magician card often depicts a grand yet mysterious figure, inspiring reverence and receptivity to higher awareness. It also represents a showman, a creator of illusions.

Some readers compare the Magician with the Fool because the illusionary aspects of the Magician cause some to wonder if he is, in fact, another aspect of the Fool, or perhaps the Fool after he has completed his journey of learning. The Magician is card number 1.
Some Tarot Decks (such as the popular Rider Waite and Robin Wood decks) depict the Magician receiving higher energy via his raised right hand and grounding it with his lowered left hand. Many writers suggest that the Magician’s key role is to receive spiritual understanding and make it accessible to others.

The Magician is usually interpreted as a positive card that indicates many abilities, confidence, initiative, information and energy.

The cards of the Major Arcana are widely considered to be the most powerful cards in the Tarot Deck. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana tell a complete story when arranged in upright and numerical order (beginning with The Fool). This is a story of of development and enlightenment and is sometimes referred to as "The Fool's Journey".

Some texts also include meanings for "reversed cards". These are for the situation in which the cards are shuffled in both order and orientation. The theoretical advantage to this is that it effectively doubles the number of possible "cards" in the deck from 78 to 156. (However, in terms of the calculation of obtaining results according to chance alone, it is not a simple mathematical doubling because once a card has been drawn it cannot be drawn again in the opposite orientation in the same reading.)