Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. Today’s Tarot Tuesday blog post is about the Wizard Archetype, which is also more broadly the Magician Archetype, balanced with some bits of the Hermit Archetype. I will be exploring the Wizard Archetype via the stories of Merlin, Gandalf, and Dumbledore! I thought exploring this archetype in conjunction with the traditional Magician and Hermit Tarot Archetypes would be an ideal way to approach this topic, hence why I chose this to be a Tarot Tuesday post.
When we look at the Wizard Archetype, the first thing that is usually thought of is how they appear. The appearance of the Wizard is tall, has a long beard, wears long robes, and wears a pointed witch’s hat (or, more appropriately, a Wizard’s hat). Aspects of these visuals are also often seen in various interpretations of the Magician card and the Hermit card in Tarot decks, with several Celtic and Arthurian decks literally having Merlin on one of these cards! It is obvious that Merlin, Gandalf, and Dumbledore all fit into this description in literature and visual media. They also all fit into the Wizard Archetype, as I have described in the introduction of this post, as being the Magician archetype with a bit of the Hermit archetype of the Tarot, but in their own unique ways. Let’s look at the way the Wizards act in their tales.
Merlin is obviously the one we know best of these Wizards, given that he has existed in literature for a minimum of 1500 years but likely has Celtic folkloric origins much older still! He is the Wizard and Sorcerer of Arthurian legends who helped ensure the birth of Arthur by using Faery Glamour Magick to make Uther look like Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, to trick Gorlois’ wife Igraine into bedding Uther. So we see his willingness to use trickery there, which is also present in Gandalf and Dumbledore. All three of these Wizards use their immense foreknowledge of future events to help things play out the way they wish. Now, I do want to explain that I do have a lot of love for each of these Wizards, and their actions are not based solely on wanting things to happen the way they want for selfish reasons, but rather to have things play out to garner necessary change in their respective worlds!
Merlin used magick to make sure that Arthur would be born and assured that he would be raised away from the Court to preserve his honor so that Arthur could become the Once and Future King who brought about profound change and a new Golden Age (for a time until Camelot’s downfall). Gandalf used prophecy and magick, and a fair bit of mental gymnastics, to convince Bilbo to go on his quest in The Hobbit and would assure by similar means that Bilbo would give the One Ring to Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. This was the only way to ensure that the One Ring could be destroyed and Sauron would be defeated. So, yes, he manipulated the situation multiple times and is a very enigmatic figure, but his actions are done to bring an end to a great evil! Dumbledore really was the one who set everything into motion in the Harry Potter series, as he was the only one to know Harry would have to die in order to defeat Voldemort. He nurtured and trained Harry, which would lead to him being able to fulfill his destiny, ridding the Wizarding World of Voldemort!
That is truly who the Wizard is, the wise one who makes the difficult choices and provides guidance to heroes as they prepare to embark on their Quest. The Wizard Archetype is the one who sets up the tasks, as he knows what will happen before it does (with his prophetic abilities or access to prophetic knowledge), teaching and preparing the hero to fulfill their Destiny. Essentially, the Wizard Archetype is the Master of Manifestation, which is the Magician aspect of the archetype, using magick and arcane knowledge to create change. The Wizard Archetype is also the one who is deeply introspective and encourages this in the hero, which is the Hermit aspect of the archetype, using wisdom and the awareness of the world around him to manifest stability. This powerful energy is found throughout folklore, legends, and literature! It is also an energy that can be honed in order for us to learn a bit more about ourselves, bring about changes in our lives, and inspire our loved ones in their own journeys!
I hope you have enjoyed this short look at the Wizard Archetype via bits of the stories of Merlin, Gandalf, and Dumbledore. Who is your favorite Wizard character or folkloric figure? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a gorgeous Wizard artwork. I found the artwork on https://aaron-spong.pixels.com/featured/the-wizard-aaron-spong.html/.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries
Further Reading
- Vita Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmouth
- Le Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling