Magic
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
Pentacle
The Star of Elements
A five-pointed star representing the four classical elements crowned by spirit, encircled by unity.
What it meansOne continuous line crossing itself five times, enclosing a pentagon that generates another star, forever. Four points for the elements and the fifth for spirit above them — the arrangement is the claim: spirit is not a fifth element but the one that orders the other four.
Symbol · The Ancient World
Gorgoneion
The Visage of Protection
The severed head of the Gorgon Medusa, utilized as a powerful apotropaic amulet to ward off evil.
What it meansIt works by looking at you. The head is set facing outward on shields, doorways and cups — the only frontal face in an art of profiles — so the thing that turned men to stone is aimed at whatever approaches. Protection by threat, kept after the monster was killed.