Dreams & the Unconscious
Tarot · Major Arcana
The Magician
Manifestation, Power, Creation
Skill and will turned on the world — the same power that manifests can also manipulate.
What it meansOne hand to heaven, one to earth: the figure is a conduit, not a source. The four suit emblems lie ready on his table and the lemniscate floats above his head, so the power is borrowed and unlimited at once — which is why the same gesture reads as creation or as conjuring.
Symbol · The Ancient World · 1323 BCE
Ouroboros
The Serpent of Eternity
The end feeds the beginning: nothing is lost, only transformed — or nothing ever escapes the loop.
What it meansThe earliest drawing of it carries the legend hen to pan — the all is one — written inside the circle. The serpent eats itself and is not consumed, which is the alchemists' figure for a process that supplies its own material and therefore never has to stop.
Symbol · Esoteric Symbols · the 1980s
Merkaba
The Chariot of Ascension
A three-dimensional star tetrahedron composed of two interlocking pyramids, serving as a divine light vehicle.
What it meansTwo interpenetrating tetrahedra, one pointing up and one down, counter-rotating — spirit and body held in one figure and turning against each other. The vehicle in the name is Ezekiel's chariot, and the reading is that ascent requires both directions at once.