Magical Manifestation
Ether Meets Matter
Hello, Mystics!
It’s week two of my journey through Tarot for Creativity by
, and today is all about the Magician.Where Ideas Become Physical
As seen in the card above, the Magician holds a confident air about themself. All of the elements (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles) are laid on the table. Red and white roses adorn the space, symbolizing innocence and passion. One hand points upward and the other downward—as above, so below. Non-physical made physical.
The Magician archetype represents creator energy. We co-create with what I call the Universe, and it’s up to us to show up with daily embodied action to bring the non-physical into the physical. It takes time, process, resources, knowledge, and support. And, a fun creative kick!
Chelsey introduces the Magician, saying:
Unlike the Fool, this card is not about jumping in blind, but about gathering your skills, tools, and ideas with intention.
Whenever I pull the Magician, it’s also a reminder that I have all I need even if I don’t see it yet. Some days I might forget available tools and support, but that’s usually when I get in my head. It’s when I start pushing and striving from a place of pressure and fear that I blind myself to what’s in front of me.
Only when I realign within do I see again.
It’s also a reminder we might need new tools on our creative path. Maybe the ones we’ve been using need to level-up or fall away to bring in something new. Our creative projects can demand a process we haven’t tried, or a tool we don’t like expressing in our craft. These elements can, at times, provide the missing piece, and it allows the stickiness of creative block to open so the project can keep moving forward.
The Magician: Manifesting Creativity Spread
Taking Creative Action
And the first card calls me out! I did cringe slightly when the Ten of Swords came up, as it echoes themes from last week’s reading with the Fool spread.
Taking creative action means stepping out of old patterns. It means breaking the cycle of suffering I’m putting myself through so I can focus more on what I want to create; even on what wants to be created through me.
It means rebirth.
When it comes to my writing—and my novel—I’ve been sifting myself through a cycle of non-action because of fear, lack of inspiration, and a dried creative well. Suddenly, inspiration comes in and I act on it for a couple of days—Bam! It’s gone as fast as it came in. Then I’m wading through the flotsam of budding joy and excitement.
I need to leave behind the year I worked on my novel in order to get back into the flow of working on it. I need to leave behind the stress, the self-pressure, the angst, and anxiety. The action I can take is looking at what I have done, and then taking the rest of the novel scene by scene. Bite-sized pieces so I don’t overwhelm myself and kick the cycle back into orbit.
It’s to remember the fun and joy I have writing—the seed of the idea and my why. I’ve forgotten my why, and it’s time for met to come home to it.
In regards to this, a quote from Chelsey acts as a wake up call and call to action:
Magicians conjure opportunity; they make things happen for themselves.
I haven’t been making things happen because of the cycle I’ve kept myself in. It’s time I return to the creative magician within.
Helpful Resources
I absolutely love the Two of Coins (Pentacles) has come forward because of the imagery in the Tarot of Tales. The bear watering the plant speaks to the idea of resources: as with every journey, we need tools to help us along the way.
We need things to support, nurture, and carry us through our creative projects—carry us through living creatively.
For myself, engaging writer friends and community can help. Bouncing ideas off people, setting up a space that honours and nurtures my desire to create (more on this with the Empress).
Creating affirmations about writing can even aid when fear creeps in. I’m big into affirmation work lately, and I’ve noticed they create a pause in any given moment where my mind is fear-focused. The affirmation inserts love and forgiveness into the picture, and softens the agitated part within. It creates a miracle moment, a radical shift into something new.
I could even use prompts before going into my main projects to get out of my head and into creative flow. I have The Story Engine, a deck of cards and endless story telling prompts, that I can pull from whenever. Tarot can be applied as an idea generation tool, too, and I also use Tarot for Creativity before I write to see what energies are at play.
These things can make this big task seem more manageable and fun! Plus, they could create other projects I circle back to later.
Emotional Needs
The Eight of Coins (Pentacles) points to working on our craft for the love of it, for the passion of it. My emotions around writing have been forlorn. There’s been grief, anger, excitement, and surprise. As of late, it’s been apathetic.
There’s a part within that absolutely rages and says unkind things when I don’t show up to my writing. It goes on and on when I look at my Scrivener file open on my MacBook Air. I should write today. I haven’t written in a while. You won’t publish this book if you never finish it. Will you finish it? You’re so silly for letting fear stop you (yes, I toned this thought down). The pressure heightens and…
Nothing happens.
I don’t click into the Scrivener file. I continue to beat myself up about not writing.
So, emotional support is 100% needed from myself. I have support from many in my life. But I think one of the things that needs to change is my choice to not talk about writing. I’ve clamped up as time goes on. I’d say, “Not done yet, but will be soon!” with an enthusiastic and positive tone. Not done yet. Not done yet. Still not done yet. I would try talking about a scene, but things went back to, “When will you be done? Why aren’t you done?”
And that’s the thing about creativity—it will be done when it’s done. Sometimes it takes longer. Sometimes it’s arduously slow and, dare I say, painful. But it’s our unique process that drives creation. We can’t force it out. We can’t push or strive or pull the creativity out. It flows when it wants to flow. Showing up regularly will tell our creativity, “Hey, it’s time to play!”
Emotionally, I need to bring excitement and playfulness back. I need to bring back talking. I’m a talker—I love sharing. And I think this will help tend the embers of my creative spark and offer the emotional support I’ve been lacking.
Planning Ahead
It’s inspiring to see the Six of Wands because these actions, these reflections, are leading me back to my light. They’re leading me to a place where I shine again, fully and wholly myself.
The lizard looks proud to show off its statue of a dragon-like creature. It’s not afraid or trying to hide. The lizard may still be carving, but something beautiful has come from the stone. It reminds me of this quote:
The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.
~ Michelangelo
I’ve seen the blank page in that way: the story is already there—the words just need to be revealed as if they’ve been hidden by invisible ink. We must uncover them, letter by letter, until the story begins to take shape.
I can see myself in this way, too, with my creative recovery. I’m slowly beginning to disassemble the stories, beliefs, and patterns keeping me stuck. Soon, the light I’ve been trapping within will finally be able to shine through the cracks until nothing hides its glory.
Creative recovery, as I’ve been experiencing it, means the lights go on and off regularly. But the lights still come on. It’s within those moments hope curls at my feet and reminds me the spark still resides inside.
✨Inspiration✨
I wanted to end today’s post with another quote from Chelsey’s book, as it feels like another call to action—the one that’s needed for myself, and maybe you need to hear it today, too:
All you have to do is accept your role as the Magician of your creative world.
~ Chelsey Pippin Mizzi