Definition of the Magicians Card

"The wide-brimmed hat of the Marseilles Juggler has disappeared and only the edge of the brim remains. It forms a mystical lemniscate--a figure eight on its side--floating above the head of the Magician. The lemniscate is a symbol of infinity. It illustrates that the Magician is connected to the timeless. This is reinforced by the fact that his belt is an ouroboros, a circular symbol of time formed by a snake biting its tail. Waite points out in his commentary that Gnostics and Martinists associated the number eight with Christ and he links the lemniscate to Christ consciousness. Perhaps he is referring to the fact that early Christians determined through gematria--an ancient practice in which symbolic associations were determined by equating letters with numbers and finding the sums of the letters in words--that the letters in the name Jesus added up to 888, a number that they equated to the logos, or the spiritual sun, a symbol of enlightenment. Alternatively, he may have been referring to the medieval association of the number eight with Christ, derived from the fact that Easter, the feast of the Resurrection, is the eighth and final day of the celebration of Christ's Passion, Holy Week, and the beginning of the first eight days of the Easter season, called the Octave of Easter.
The Magician stands in a garden of roses and lilies. Tarot historian Robert O'Neill points out that this symbol is derived from the Song of Songs, 2:1, "I am the Rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys." The red and white flowers, however, are also the alchemical opposites: red being equated to masculine and the fixed polarity and white to the feminine and volatile polarity. The objects on the Magician's table are the four magical tools, which have become the suit symbols for the minor suits in this deck and are linked to the four elements; pentacles to earth, cups to water, swords to air and wands to fire. The Magician's relationship with these symbols aligns him with the fifth element, the spirit. Three symbols also appear to be carved on the edge of the table. The first appears to be a seascape and possibly represents water. The second seems to be a representation of the element fire, and the third is the dove, a Christian symbol for the Holy Spirit--the divine force that is beyond the physical elements, and therefore, also the fifth element. At the top of the table leg, there seem to be three letters which possibly spell vin. This is Latin for"wilt thou?"--the question that the Magician poses.
This card represents will, initiations, and beginnings. The Golden Dawn correspondence for this card is Mercury, and like Mercury, or Hermes, the Magician holds his wand toward heaven and points his left hand toward earth in the Hermetic axiom "as above, so below." He says that the way of Heaven should be manifested on Earth. The Hermetic texts tell us that it is our purpose, given to us by God, to complete His creation by making the world beautiful. The Magician points the way."

from the Tarot-history,symbolism, and divination. pg. 190-191
by Robert M. Place