According to Count de Geblin, "Le Batleur indicates the entire fabric of creation to be but a dream, existence a juggling of divine elements and life a perpetual game of hazard. The miracles of nature are but feats of cosmic legerdemain. The wise direct the phenomena of nature and are never deceived thereby."

 

Le Batleur's correlating planet is Mercury, the messenger of God and Sun. Mercury is the planet ruling the intellect, communications, sciences, transportation, sports, anything requiring skill and dexterity, and trickery. Sun represents active force. (This all reminds me of the juggler's survey, as jugglers interests predominate in these areas.)

 

"Mercury is the fluidic basis of all activity," says Mr. Turner. "He is energy and motion, the electric charge and stabilizing factor of continuous duality, he is both truth and falsehood, wisdom and folly. Being creative, he has no conscience. The ends he attains support the means, fair or foul, or by cunning. Like a Jester, he unsettles any established idea, appears tricky. He causes change in conformity with Will (both conscious and unconscious). As the Juggler he is rooted in reality, constantly creating the world, mixing the elements into life."

 

As I understand it, there is a contrast between the mystical implications of the juggler and the magician as depicted in Tarot cards, and how they manifest in their present day performing counterparts.

For the magician, in order to adhere to the original meaning of the card, every act of ledgerdemain must have divine purpose. Through wisdom of the ages and mastery of the elements the magician's goal was to help the audience think on a higher level, to evolve toward the divine self. The magician is permitted to use misdirection and deception if necessary. It is important to be aware that a "flashy" magician's stage act that does not contain these messages may reflect a decline of ethics and morals in our society.

 

Although the juggler sweats more (jestering aside) through sheer being, especially with mastery in numbers, there is magic. The juggler enters a world of focus where time slows down, and begins to perceive the meaning of infinity (and its related as­

pects). The juggler is a spectator of the process. The audience shares the juggler's product and experience. Thus the juggler retains "Le Batleur's" original meaning.

 

In conclusion, the Tarot system is complex, and our card could have volumes written on it. In my way I did my best to make sense of it. Please contact me with your own insights. Turner says he would like to do a "mass reading" of jugglers as an entity. His results might make an interesting follow-up to our exploration of "The Juggler."

 

(Billy Gillen is a New York City performer and coordinator of the New York jugglers Club and chronicler into the mystic aspects of juggling history.)

 

Bibliography

The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P. Hall,

The Philosophical Research Society Inc.

Los Angeles CA  ISBN 0-89314-540-8.

 

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Arthur Edward Waite, Samuel Weiser Inc.,

York Beach ME

ISBN 0-87728-218,

 

A New Model of the Universe, P.D. Ouspensky,

Vintage Books, a division of Random House

ISBN 0-394-71524-1.

 

Wisdom of the Tarot, Elizabeth Haich,

Aurora Press,

New York NY

 

The Book of Thoth, Alaister Crowley.

 

The New Larousee

Encyclopedia of Mythology,

The Hamlin Publishing Group Ltd., ISBN 0-600-02351.

 

Bullfinchs Mythology-The Art & Practices of Caballa Magic, Ophiel.