In the Beginning was the Word ~ side two ~ The Magician

Chapter Eleven

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD II
~ In the Court of the Crimson King ~

- chapter 11 index -
pg. 1 - Moonchild | pg. 2 - The Dream The Illusion
pg. 3 - The Court of the Crimson King | pg. 4 - The Purple Piper
pg. 5 - Three Lullabies | pg. 6 - Orpheus
pg. 7 - The Keeper of the City Keys | pg. 8 - The Pilgrim's Door
pg. 9 - The Gardener | pg. 10 - The Yellow Jester
pg. 11 - The Dance of the Puppets | pg. 12 - Dionysus
pg. 13 - The Fool | pg. 14 - Logos
pg. 15 - The Magician | pg. 16 - Finis

site index

Translate from

Ultimately, Hermes brings us to the tarot card presiding over the entire album, the Magician.

"Number 1 is equated with the One God, the oneness of mankind, the power of Selfhood, self-reliance, dignity, and rulership. It is the Wand of the Magician, the power placed in the magician's hands to create and accomplish through the use of Will.

Its planet is Mercury, which symbolizes adaptability - the tree that bends outlasts the storm. The Egyptian god Hermes corresponds to the Greek Mercury, and Hermes is said to have written 42 books on science including astronomy, astrology, arithmetic, geometry, medicine, music and magic. Also the great magician, his caduceus survives to this day as a symbol of the healing arts. Mercury facilitated communication between the gods and brought their messages to mortals, i.e., the Magician is the channel or message-bearer -- not the Source itself. In Tarot Key 1, the Magician is a figure representing the intellect in the creative aspect of utilizing power, and represents Man's will in union with the Divine, achieving the knowledge and ability to bring desired things into manifestation through conscious self-awareness."

- The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
The Tarot and Numerology

The image on the album's inside cover, identifiable by the (positive/negative, up/down) positioning of the hands, is also the magician.

"This Arcanum is represented by the Magus, the type of perfect man, in full possession of his physical and moral faculties. The Magus holds in his right hand a golden sceptre, image of command, raised towards the heavens in a gesture of aspiration towards knowledge, wisdom and power; the index finger of the left hand points to the ground, signifying that the mission of the perfect man is to reign over the material world."

- Christian's Commentary on the Tarot

By juggling, or holding as one, contradictory ideas (the realms of Eros and Logos, unconscious and conscious) the Magician is able to create/achieve a new state of consciousness. The magician card represents the transcendent function.

"Transformation, change. Sometimes destruction followed or preceded by transformation. The change may be in the form of consciousness. Sometimes it may mean birth and renewal.

- Gray's Commentary on the Tarot

As an Averroist, Frederick II espoused the doctrine of Emanations and therefore the Kabbalah. Once again, the transcendent function is synonymous with the Ein-sof of the Kabbalah.

"According to the Kabbalists, Ein-sof is the union of both Yesh (being) and Ayin (nothingness) (Elior, 1993,Ch. 14ff.), as well as male and female and good and evil and all other basic oppositions. For the 13th century Kabbalist, Azriel of Gerona, the godhead not only unites being and "the nought" (Scholem, 1987, p. 416) but also the visible and invisible as well as faith and unbelief (p. 441-2), and His emanations are the "union of everything and its opposite" (Dan, 1966, p. 94).

- The Lurianic Kabbalah: An Archetypal Interpretaion
Sanford L. Drob, Ph.D.

Five elements

"Here are five elements, four of matter (earth, air, fire and water) and THE quintessential - spirit. These may be arrayed around the pentagrams points. The word quintessential derives from this fifth element - the spirit. Tracing a path around the pentagram, the elements are placed in order of density - spirit (or aether). fire, air, water, earth."

And so the first King Crimson album forms a pentagram.

"Expressing the saying Every man and every woman is a star, we can juxtapose Man on a pentagram with head and four limbs at the points and the genitalia exactly central. This is Man in microcosm, symbolising our place in the Macrocosm or universe and the Hermetic / Tantric philosophy of associativity as above, so below."

- The Meaning of a Pentagram