So I had a thought in response to the conversation last night: What would Sabrina's associated Tarot card be, and how would it represent her, and also Dedolere?
It might be argued that our nature whatever we were dewitched from, but I think that wouldn't be the case: Sabrina herself has a very different center than Walpurgis or UGK likely does. And so I would expect the Dedolere of Sabrina is as different from the Stage Constructing Witch or Witch of Despair as Homulilly the Nutcracker Witch was from Homulilly the Witch of the Mortal World.
So here's my argument At the core of her, Sabrina is a creature of power and control. It was her wish, and it is part of her, for better or for worse. When we have aided others, it was often through simple power be it overwhelming force or simple grief control doing what nothing else before could. When and where we have threatened to harm or curse others, it was for the sake of control.
There is purpose to it of course. We made our wish to set things right. But in the end the way we chose to do so was power, and that's forever part of who Sabrina is.
And so for the card most associated with power, I will submit that Sabrina, and her incarnation of Dedolere, is the Magician. And with that association made, I think it can go much deeper.
As I'm not familiar with Tarot myself, using
this site as my source. Simply looking at the symbolism of the card:
The Magician card is numbered One – the number of new beginnings and opportunities – and associates with the planet of Mercury.
Sabrina is something truly new: Never seen before.
He stands with one arm stretched upwards towards the Universe, and the other pointing down to the earth. His positioning represents his connection between the spiritual realms and the material realms.
If Madoka is the witch associated with heaven, and the one who could become a goddess, and the comet and Homura is the witch who represents the mortal world, and the survivor who lives on to use her strength another day, then it fits well that Sabrina, the impactor, unites both of her creators.
The Magician uses this relationship to create and manifest his goals in the physical realm. He is the conduit that converts energy into matter.
Sabrina turns grief, the energy of emotion, into manifest physical substance. She takes the spiritual and otherwordly and makes it material and of the mortal world.
The Magician's robe is white, symbolizing purity, and his cloak is red, representing worldly experience and knowledge.
Consider that Sabrina is pure, her soul tainted by neither grief nor lived experience. And yet, like the magician, she holds vast knowledge and learning. Little of import is secret from her. And this knowledge can also be tied back to the second quote: She has Heaven's knowledge brought to earth.
On the table in front of him are the four symbols of the Tarot suits – a cup, pentacle, sword and wand – each symbolising one of the four elements – water, earth, air and fire. It is also a sign that he has all the tools (and elements) he needs to manifest his intentions into being.
This I don't have much to say about symbolism in its base form.
Perhaps a card drawn specifically for Sabrina might instead the weapons and items of her friends: Mami's teacup for cups, Homura's shield and the design thereon for the pentacle, Sayaka's cutlass for sword, and either her own hammer for the wand or one of Oriko's balls as a scrying orb instead. To symbolize how not merely herself but also her friends are important to her achievements. But then perhaps someone with a better read on the meanings of those items would have a different answer.
Above his head is the infinity symbol, and around his waist is a snake biting its own tail – both of which signal that he has access to unlimited potential.
A somewhat different interpretation here than the site's: Certainly her potential is vast, but more important is that Sabrina is the infinite engine: given infinite time she holds the promise of unlimited energy sourced only from her own being, and like the ouroboros she feeds on herself and so requires only herself to survive.
And in the foreground is an array of foliage and flowers, symbolising the blossoming and fruition of his ideas and aspirations.
We are nothing if not ambitious, yes, and not unsuccessful in achieving those ambitions. More than that, however, we
bring flourishing. Through the realization of our efforts others may rise and be made whole, be they inspired to action through our words, or more often given the power to act by simple virtue of our nature.
And on to card's meaning as a whole:
Upright the magician is manifestation, resourcefulness, power, and inspired action. Inverted it is deception and manipulation, poor planning, and untapped talents.
Manifestation here seems to mean "to make real and bring what is needed." Sabrina does both of these when she uses griefhax to create tools, but the latter half is true of even simple cleansing, granting others what they need to begin their works. Sabrina's resourcefulness meanwhile is that all other's trash is her treasure. The grief of magical girls and witches becomes hers, and she performs wondrous acts with it.
Inspired action here seems to mean careful consideration and inspiration
before action, and is noted on other sites to be "willpower." This too fits with Sabrina in multiple ways. The most obvious is of course her griefhax again, and how it takes will and concentration to shape. Less immediate is her nature as a researcher; Through learning and consideration, like enchantment or practicing what her grief can do, she becomes capable of more than she was before.
Power, of course, is obvious: It is why the card was brought up in the first place. We not only hold a great deal of it, we also seek to increase it, through both our studies and our politics. (In the latter case, it's not something we do for its own sake, but nevertheless the more power we have the more people we can aid.)
And if we invert the card, I think we view at who Dedolere might be, via Sabrina's major flaws and limits.
And it's notable that two of these have brought us closer to witching out than anything else.
More commonly, Sabrina has brought herself grief through being the idiot-genius. The poor planner of great skill and power. It was in a questionable moment of sense that she accidentally linked herself up to a witch. Repeatedly. Among other incidents where simple lack of consideration and foresight brought her great trouble.
Thus I feel Dedolere would likely have the same drive as Sabrina, to help everyone, but go about it through poorly thought out or self-destructive ways. I think that's especially reasonable given how other witches try to carry out the goals of the people they were before but in destructive ways. (Homulilly trying to protect Madoka, Candeloro driven to invite and trap others by loneliness, Kriemhild Gretchen forcing people into her heaven to save everyone, Oktavia wanting to hear Kyousuke playing, etc.)
The other time is manipulation. Our threat to witch out Kirika is the moment of which we are least proud, and even threatening considering the act brought a great deal of grief to our soul gem, be that because of our inner turmoil in contemplating it, or because of some resonance with bringing a curse upon another instead cursing ourselves. Even so, manipulating others into doing what we want by threat or deception
is part of us, is and it's something we have to watch out for constantly.
It wouldn't be so surprising if Dedolere took all that and made what we suppress into what she uses actively, though I'm not sure how that would manifest. (And as a side not here: we've tried talking to Dedolere, but I wonder if drawing our witch out for something like that requires thinking
like her. How would we manipulate or force her to talk to us?)
Lastly is untapped talents, which feels like it can be read as untapped potential. And it is not so much a flaw, as part of our arc. Us and Dedolere both. We know so little about our power and have so very much we could do with it, so much so that our every glimpse into what we have not yet done reveals vast new horizons. And just as we could save the world so Dedolere could grow to destroy it.
So. Yeah.
I think the Magician is a fitting tarot card for Sabrina, and that was why.