Card of the Week: The Magician
Arthur C. Clarke famously once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” And yet, knowing how the magic works doesn’t necessarily diminish its wonder.
The Magician card is the very embodiment of the appearance of magic masking the underlying work that goes into it. Like any worthy undertaking, a master magician devotes years of learning and practice to hone the skill to make their craft appear effortless. The artist Michaelangelo once said, “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”
Inverted, The Magician hints at work behind the scenes that is not ready for public view. Even the greatest performer will wish to mask an inadequacy, no matter if it is real or merely perceived.
In “Catspaw” the Enterprise is exploring planet Pyris VII. After a first landing party fails to check in, Kirk leads a second team to investigate. They receive a series of warnings to leave, in the forms of curses, ghosts, witches, and eventually a dungeon with cobwebs and skeletons. McCoy makes “trick or treat” jokes. They meet Korob and Sylvia, explorers from another galaxy. Korob uses a magic-wand-like transmuter to transport the landing party from place to place, and make various items appear and vanish. Sylvia transforms her appearance and performs other magic-like feats, including controlling the minds of the first landing party. Sylvia threatens to destroy them all if Kirk won’t help her increase her powers. When Kirk breaks the transmuter, everything vanishes except the true alien forms of Korob and Sylvia, revealed as tiny and powerless.
