A Stranger On The Road

Day turns to night as the trail at cliff's bottom becomes lost in shadow. Clouds move in and I sit to rest my suddenly weary feet. I can see birds are heading into nests and the first sounds of evening echo through the surrounding trees. The land takes on the chill of sundown. Food would be nice and as I think of it, I see a light sparkling between the dancing leaves as the breeze frisks them.

My own flute, nestled now within my pack, I follow a path, smelling a most delicious scent of cooking food. As I near a cabin, lights flickering through a window, I hear the deeper, more resonant notes of what sounds like an indian flute.

The door is open, and I step toward the threshold, peeking around the doorjam. "Come in," I hear a man say and suddenly I am inside, the moments of my day floating away, as if a dream, barely remembered.

"I've been waiting for you," the man says.

Everything about this card has an upclose and personal feel. There is a sense of tunnel vision, so that my focus is directed only to the central figure. He is a man of unknown age, graced with an aspect which shows one in his prime. He is fully bearded with piercing eyes. He fills the space of the realm with a commanding presence. He is clothed in robes of red, with a white inner lining, and where the seams of his robe come together, on either side and of equal width, running the length of the robes are panels filled with white roses, white lillies, entwined with leaves, upon a golden background. Upon his head rests the headress of a buck with a full set of antlers. The eyes of the deer peer out, above his own, deeper, dark, two wells of eternity within. Deer Medicine resides here.

He sits at a table, upon which are a pentagram on the right side, a wand, and a sword, crossed (the sword, pointing left to right, the hilt closest to his body, on top of the wand which lies right to left, with a crystal resting near his body). There is a chalice sitting to his left opposite the pentagram. On the edge furthest from him are what appears to be a red and a white rose, both on the right side in front of the pentagram.

Behind him are two pillar-like candles; a black one on the right side and a white one on his left side. The light of these candles fills the room with a brilliance of what seems to be a million suns.

Floating above his right hand, held in front of him, is a glowing sign of infinity. His left hand is conceiled.

He commands the world around him, while he maintains balance between the dark and the light. There is a sense that he is All Knowing and his teachings would lead a student to find both aspects within themselves and they would learn to stand in balance as well. Transmutation and alchemy of the self would be included in some of his lessons. There is great strength, courage, and wisdom in this man.

Standing before him all else recedes.

The Magician's Song: Magic Man by Heart