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The Magician - One

It's no secret that I'm pretty fucking magic. By that, what I mean is that I have the ability to get shit done in a creative and exciting way. I believe we all have magic powers. I'm not talking about supernatural abilities, I'm talking about our every day power to make stuff happen. Magic is the art of change and influence. My daily performance of taking charge of my own life might seem like miracle working. But what am I really doing? How does the trick work?

Tarot of Marseilles
If we translate the French name for this card, it is the "sleight of hand artist" or "illusionist". This card points toward the fact that we are living in a world of illusion, or false perception. It seems to us that the world is made up of separate parts, of opposites, of polarity. We feel ourselves to be individuals who are separate from the rest of the world. This is the illusion of ego. The number One represents the individuality of a separate "I" or "ego" who acts independently of the world. Being independent from the rest of the world is a false perception, an illusion. The Magician represents the ability to manipulate people's perceptions. The Magician's audience witness a stage act which is mysterious to them. This performance represents life to the individual. It seems like life is just a game, and they are just characters in a play. When awakened to the outside influences in one's life, and the interconnectedness and oneness of the Universe, one begins to lift the veil of illusion.

Real magic is the art of illusion, the ability to manipulate perceptions. The Magician is a mystic, an initiate, one who understands the secret workings behind why and how things happen. It is a falsehood to believe that you as an individual person, an ego, is in control of one's life. Free will is an illusion. In reality, every thought that streams through your consciousness is fed to you from the world. You are not an independent thinker. You are a medium through which ideas are expressed. Your decisions in life as to which action to take are not free from outside influences. You do not willfully decide who to be and what to do with your life. You are not in charge, because the ego that you identify with is not a reality. Your ego or personality is not a solid object, seperate from the rest of the world. It is an illusion of separateness, built up from your limited experience of the world. You are one point of perspective among an infinite number of points through which the Universe is perceiving itself.

Maya is term found in Pali and Sanskrit literature, which can be translated to mean something of an "illusion" or more accurately a "delusion". In Hindu mythology, Maha-Maya clouds the knowledge of the new born babe, bestowing individual ego, ideas of ownership, and involving him in pleasures and pain of the transactional world. Maya is the principal deity that manifests, perpetuates, and governs the illusion and dream of duality in the phenomenal Universe. The goal of enlightenment is to understand this—more precisely, to experience this: to see that the distinction between the self and the Universe is a false dichotomy. In Mahayana Buddhism, the magician's illusion exemplifies how people misunderstand themselves and their reality, when we could be free from this confusion. The magician's illusion may exist and function in the world on the basis of some props, gestures, and incantations, yet the show is illusory. The viewers participate in creating the illusion by misperceiving and drawing false conclusions. For the Mahayana Buddhist, the ego is maya, like a magic show, and so are objects in the world.

"Mahamaya" by Avishankar Mitra
 
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