This card has layers of complexity in the artwork which were intended, by Haindl, to bespeak the many different aspects of the uses of power, and the many different ways in which we can empower ourselves and use power in the world outside ourselves.
You see the sword and spear making the cross of Gyfu, the rune which bespeaks either a curse or a blessing, or both, over the holy Grail, which is the core essence of personal worth, but which, in this drawing, looks as if it is on the way to tipping over, and whose transparency gives away the fact that it is, in fact, empty. You see the bull of Taurus, material comfort and stability, and the Norse rune Feoh, which is Cattle, wealth, prosperity, and yet between them is the changeable moon and the bleakness of a desert, reminding us of the insecurity of the material world. Our Mage has "two faces", his forward-looking, brightly "enlightened" conscious Self, smiling into the distance which invites him, and his Dark Self, the brooding shadow which literally "overshadows" him in the card, reminding us again that in the uses of power, all is seldom what it seems to be.
As one contemplates this card, different bits and pieces seem to "pop" out at one, with no necessary order nor flow of ideas, and the very lack of synchronicity says a great deal about our attitudes towards power, especially our own personal power, and how confused many of us appear to be when it is time to grasp and use it. This is the very essence of the Western world's confusion about the uses of power, and the differences between being empowered and power-over.
For us, as we look at the message of this card for this day, it needs to be made simple. Each and every day, the Mage dwells within us, and we far too often bypass his call to action. So, today, simply put--what are you supposed to be doing that will empower you, and why are you resisting the doing of it? Put behind you the confusion which whispers in your ear that you are not, in fact, a "powerful" person, and that you need others to tell you how to think and how to act. Accept, for today, the concept that you are, in fact, the boss of your own life, and that you have the power to act as you Will. Then--get up out of your chair, and go and DO it. Okay?
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