The Archetype and The Tarot: The Athlete and The Magician
Through the Athlete and the Magician, this week we’re being invited to harness the union of body and mind. Can we trust ourselves to align intention with action, allowing our physical presence to be a conduit for creation and magic?
Welcome everyone! For an overview of what I’m doing here, please check out this post all about it. THANK YOU to all my subscribers! My heart and soul are filled with gratitude for your presence here. I LOVE this community that we are building! (If you’d like to support this work by making a one-time donation, you can buy me a cup of coffee here.❤️)
The Athlete Archetype
This is one of those archetypes that we often see in action on the light side—someone who embodies physical mastery and power. But, to me, the Athlete is not just about athletic prowess; really, it speaks to our relationship with the body and the ability to direct physical energy with intention.
In the light, The Athlete exemplifies mastery with the physical self, where body and will—heart and mind—are in perfect alignment. This archetype doesn’t necessarily require exceptional athletic talent (although it can reflect that); rather, it’s about being fully integrated and the ability to direct the power of that integration into our lives. This will look different for every one of us as we all have a unique relationship with our body.
The shadow side of The Athlete tells a different story—one of disconnection and misuse of physical power. This aspect often lurks beneath the surface, showing itself through patterns of avoidance or denial of our physical needs.
I can personally relate to this shadow. For a significant part of my younger life, I felt quite separate from my body, trapped in a mental space that dismissed my physical self almost as an obstacle. Chronic migraines made me retreat further into my mind, all of which eventually led to an illness that almost cost me my life. It was during this time, though, that my spirit guides offered me a choice: I could either choose death or commit to healing. I chose to heal, which meant embarking on a long journey to reconnect with my body—a journey that I still consciously navigate today.
When The Athlete comes up in a reading, I believe we are being invited to explore our connections to our physical selves. Are we in tune with our bodies? Do we listen to their signals? Or do we often ignore their needs, pushing through discomfort in our daily lives?
Some other questions to consider this week:
How can we nurture a deeper connection with our bodies this week?
In what ways do we ignore our physical needs, and how can we shift that perspective?
Are there practices we can incorporate to foster harmony between our body and mind?
The Magician
The Magician is card #1 of the tarot. I like to think of it as the result of the zero being sliced open and, suddenly out from nothing falls everything. Like the Athlete, The Magician is very much about the physical realm. It is the one who has the ability to pull things into physical reality according to their will.
The energy of The Magician gives a physical framework to infinity. I once read in a book called, “WTF is Tarot” a perfect metaphor for this. In it, Bakara Witner writes “We are always surrounded by infinite space, but inside an expansive cathedral, looking up at the high, vaulted ceilings, we can actually feel it.” This is the power of The Magician: to take infinity and give us a tangible, physical structure for experiencing it.
The Magician is the first created thing and acts as the conduit—the lightning rod—between the above and below or the seen and unseen. Although they might appear to be standing still in their Magician-y pose, there is actually a lot of action here as they combine elements and bring things into form. But in this action, there is no striving. We see in many tarot decks that The Magician is standing next to a table upon which is every tool they might need in their practice.
When we draw the Magician, I believe our task is to remember that we already have whatever we might need to bring our will into form. The Magician calls us back to the truth that our power to create and transform is already here, woven into the fabric of who we are and what surrounds us.
How does this pair work together?
With these two, I kept seeing the scene of Steve Rogers becoming Captain America. In this superhero lore, Steve Rogers was a small, weak-bodied man who longed to be a soldier, but could never quite make the cut. A mad genius had developed an experimental (and magical?) “Super-Soldier serum” that he injected into Steve’s body. After this infusion, Steve’s body reached “the upper-most limits of human perfection in strength, stamina, agility, and durability.”
But it wasn’t the Super-Soldier serum alone that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America. The ethics, morals, charisma, and intelligence that he possessed all along were just as vital a part in his superhero abilities as his physical strength. The serum was merely the magical catalyst he needed to get his body and mind on the same page.
I think this our call this week, not to become a superhero or more able-bodied than we are right now, but to look at the ways that becoming fully embodied and aligned can help us see the magical resources all around us.
Let me know in the comments, or feel free to send me an email, if you have any questions or thoughts about this week’s guidance. Blessings and kindness to you all!
Thanks Jenna! Always interesting what arises with these pairs! What I am sensing into are the four elements. Like the athlete is a magician. Having the ability to work with these elemental forces. Air as the breath, a strong lung capacity is important. As well as clarity of mind and having focus! Water to keep the body hydrated. Love as care for our physicality, a maintenance of health. Fire as the motivation, stamina and endurance. Then earth as the nutritional needs, being in the body, listening to its messages. Like you said, "to look at the ways that becoming fully embodied and aligned can help us see the magical resources all around us."