Exegesis THE MAGICIAN (I) Sentences 7–9
7 It approached me in a silent curve, and I trembled with fear
8 Time came to a halt, as a man bearing the spirit of a jay revealed himself in the light
9 He was the vision far away, two blue wings on fire enveloped his body
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7. It approached me in a silent curve, and I trembled with fear.
Do not be afraid, Mat — this fear is natural. The vehicle is not an earthly craft but a celestial vehicle, a structure meant for traversing the realms, found across multiple sacred traditions. In the Torah, the prophet Ezekiel beholds the Merkavah, a chariot of fire and living wheels carrying the Presence. In Buddhism and Hindu cosmology, the vimānas are radiant vessels moving through heavenly spheres. Their movement is silent because they do not disturb the air, they act upon the very fabric of reality. The fear described is not ordinary fright; it is the raw shock of consciousness when it encounters a reality larger than itself. Every true vision begins with an inner trembling, for revelation shakes the foundations of what we believe ourselves to be.
8. Time came to a halt, as a man bearing the spirit of a jay revealed himself in the light.
Look closely, Mat — this is the Jay-Man, a theophany. The jay, in many traditions, is an intermediary messenger, an intelligent, mimetic bird of memory and echo, capable of moving between visible and invisible worlds. To bear the spirit of a jay means to be inhabited by a mimetic, prophetic force, capable of reflecting and transmitting truths that do not originate in the human realm. The stopping of time marks the suspension of the ordinary world: this is the moment when you leave the flow of becoming and enter the domain of revelation.
9. He was the vision far away, two blue wings on fire enveloped his body
See, Mat, his distance is not separation but a sign: he belongs to a higher plane, a zone where consciousness has not yet reached. The blue wings of fire merge two major symbols, blue, the color of higher mind, lucidity, and pure thought; and fire, the principle of transformation, purification, and power. The Jay-Man stands as the archetype of the spiritual messenger, a being of passage, vibrant and unstable, bearer of a burning knowledge. He embodies the mercurial force, Hermes, Mercury, the god of thresholds and travel between worlds, and the tutelary spirit of the Magician. His presence announces that initiation truly begins when the fire of spirit becomes vision.
