The Potential In The Merlin Oracle Card

The Merlin card from Collette Baron-Reid’s Wisdom of Avalon oracle deck.

For those of you who don’t know me, I read tarot cards professionally, and have for 15 plus years. It’s a side gig that I enjoy and on occasion, I am invited to read for larger groups. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to read at a high school prom.

This was my second year reading for this particular annual event and I was excited as the energy that comes off such a large group of young, eager adults is palpable. I happily ingest this current throughout the evening and come away from the event buzzing with the absorbed excitement.

I put out a sign up sheet with 10 minute incremental slots as I know there will be lots of interest, well at least from the young ladies at first. The young men on the other hand are a little leery. Most don’t even know what tarot is. Those fellows who do take a chance and have me read for them are my favourite. I love to watch their facial expressions change from guarded, maybe even skeptical, then to interested, and finally to out right amazement as I offer some insight that hits home for them.

I would say that on this particular evening - over 3 hrs., I read for about 40 attendees.

The first thing I do is ask their name and introduce myself as well. Names have power as it opens a conduit between myself and the querant (that’s the fancy name for the person I’m reading for). I then ask if they are graduating and if they are going on to higher education. This sets up some context for the reading as most don’t have a question for the cards but opt instead for the cards offering them what they need to know. Not all who attend are grads. Some are older, or younger dates so the context for them would be different.

Once that is done, I pull 3 cards from my trusty tarot card deck and begin to read the message. I finish off with one card from an oracle deck for a final insight, it’s a way to finish up the reading and it is this deck that holds the Merlin card.

I never let others touch my tarot deck. Call me superstitious but I want the energy of that deck to stay clean and not tainted by many hands and outside forces, so I control the dealing of those cards but with the oracle deck, I offer the querants to participate and pick their own card.

This particular oracle deck, The Wisdom of Avalon by Collette Baron- Reid has 65 cards in it. Incidentally, a true tarot card deck has 78 cards. I fan out the oracle deck and ask them to pick one card to wrap up the reading. I love to watch the focus on their faces as if by choosing a card, they are choosing their destiny, and perhaps they are.

It was after doing about 20 readings that I started to notice the Merlin card. It was making it’s presence known so I mentally began to count when it appeared. Of the 40ish readings I did, the Merlin card was picked 7-8 times. I can’t be sure of the exact number, I may have missed counting one, or two but I’m confident that it came out a minimum of 7 times.

Let’s get some perspective here. There are 65 cards in the oracle deck. The cards are shuffled each time by me and then fanned out where the querant can choose which ever card they feel drawn to. The odds of the Merlin being picked a minimum of 7-8 times from 40 pulls is something to take note of. I can’t even do the math for the probability but I know enough to know that at best, those are more than random odds.

So what does the Merlin card represent and why do I feel this is magical?

The Merlin card is the magician. He is all powerful and holds all the energetic tools in his metaphysical toolbelt. He is able to change energy in shape and form, but most importantly, he can mold or shape reality and that, in essence, is the meaning of magic.

Merlin, or the magician, is also considered a universal archetype. What is an archetype you may ask? It’s a universally understood image within the collective unconscious, or in simpler terms, it is something that, all around the world, folks have an understanding of what it is and what it represents. In the case of Merlin the magician, we understand this archetype as to be wise, thoughtful, understanding, reflective, healing, and contemplative but he is also dynamic, influential, charismatic and clever. He can use his acquired knowledge to wield magic for good or for bad.

I might add that the energy of archetypes ebb and flow with influence throughout time and society. In the 90’s for example, the princess archetype was strong. An easy one to see what with the influence of princess Diana and the Disney princess franchise in that decade, but now I would say she has faded into the background and perhaps replaced by a stronger female force; a warrior perhaps or even the wise old crone. Could the magician be a new archetype emerging as well?

Now it also seems universal that every older generation lacks confidence in the generation coming up. They will lament that they are entitled, coddled, lazy and lack drive - and they are usually wrong. But our world has changed and we are not leaving as bright a future for these young folk as we ourselves where gifted and so for me, I don’t lack confidence in this upcoming generation, know as Gen Z, I feel fear for them, or at least I did before the Merlin card.

Generation Z is the first truly digital generation. There wasn’t one young folk there who didn’t have a cell phone. It has become another appendage for them; as important as breathing. They’ve never know a time before the internet and they communicate through apps and social media platforms with as much ease as my generation lived for the telephone. Gen Z are an evolved species. We old folk all know the tired joke, “Got a computer problem? Ask a kid to fix it for you.”

So hear we are, with a new generation of humans embarking into the adult world, and after a evening reading for them, this is my insight.

Gen Z is a generation who understands and embraces technology but has also been taught to be kind and tolerant. They’re a much more multi-culture cohort than any other generation previous and while the racial chaos of our current times might offer a different perspective, I witnessed a group of multi-cultured young people whose interactions and respect for each other transcended race and colour. It just didn’t seem to be and issue.

These young folks have a different set of tools in their metaphysical toolbelts than even Gen X or the Millennials and regardless of what career they eventually choose to pursue, they will come at it from a completely different mindset then the subsequent generations before them.

No one knows for certain what the future will hold. Right now, the world is changing rapidly and it’s not always in a positive way, but what I saw in this group of young folks gave me a new hope that the possibility for a future beyond anything that my mind could possibly imagine, is wrapped in a field of potentiality of the magic that this upcoming generation holds.

So move over Harry Potter, Merlin is back.