0 - The Fool (RWS)

[Joan Marie]

Have you ever agreed to do something like accept a job offer, take on a project, get married or have a kid, buy a house, or even just plan a party, thinking that you know what you are getting into or just being optimistic about it for no real reason?

That is The Fool to me. Not that it is foolish to do any of these things, but we all know the feeling of looking back and realising how naïve we were when originally we made these decisions. And thank goodness for that naïveté because without it we'd miss out on a lot of life's adventures. On the other hand it might have been helpful to at least have had your eyes open a little bit more...

The Fool is depicted in other decks as a clown, a jester, a pauper, but here in the RWS he looks beautiful and rich and carefree. The sun is on his back, feather in his cap, rose in hand, completely oblivious to the danger ahead.

The Fool, about to lead his dog astray...

I've never felt the need to assume he's about to fall off a cliff. We don't know and it may not even be a cliff. He may just take a little tumble, get a teensy bit wiser, or he may get lucky and not even know it. I guess it's for the other cards to help understand more but when I see this Fool I always think it's a little warning to consider what one might be ignoring or being too blasé or careless about.

And about the dog, people usually say it's trying to warn the Fool, but when I look I think the dog is in more danger than the Fool is. And maybe this is a little warning to the card reader...

[ParsifalsWheel]

I have to agree about that dog. In some decks an animal (not always a recognizable dog) is chomping on the Fool's leg or tearing at his backside. That seems more like a warning to me. This dog is prancing and capering, and one more bound will take it over the edge. He looks no more responsible than his master. I don't read much into it beyond seeing it as a companion that should have better natural instincts, but I don't discern that in this card.

[I Sunshine]

I, on the other had, have always thought it was the edge of a cliff our dear Fool is about to go over. I look at the white behind him and below him and think of mountains and clouds. He had grabbed what he can easily carry & off he goes. I don't see any hesitation at all. Head in the clouds. Day dreaming? I totally agree: Not a responsible pet owner! Ha! But they both look happy, him & his little dog.

[Tomatosauce]

You know who I always associate The Fool with?

Brendan Fraser.

Hear me out. In the late 90s, that guy did four movies nearly right in a row where he played some innocent who has to step out, all wide-eyed and naive, of what is known and comfortable and safe and make his way in the big, wide world. The babe-in-the-woods character was kind of his thing for a while there. (And I have just definitively dated myself.)

If you felt like a viewing to see for yourself and like 90s comedies, you could watch:
Encino Man
George of the Jungle
Blast from the Past
Dudley Do-Right

(though seriously, don't bother with Dudley Do-Right. It was terrible. Blast from the Past seems to have held up well.)

[Joan Marie]

You mean this guy reminds you of The Fool?

Brenden Frasier

download.jpg (5 KiB) Viewed 5077 times

He did another 90s movie which was a drama where he played the hunky but naive gardener for the director James Whale (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein) who quite fancies him. This excellent film Gods and Monsters, would also fit your description. He really gets into a situation that is over his head in a kind of wide-eyed way.

So, yeah, I totally get it.

Interesting "correspondence".

[Joan Marie]

In The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, A.E. Waite says that the "subsidiary name" of The Fool was The Alchemist.

The most basic understanding of Alchemy is the pursuit of turning lead or other base metals into gold. This of course proved futile, a Fool's endeavour.

An monkey-alchemist pumps a bellows in a laboratory; alluding to the vanity of alchemy. Engraving by J.P. Le Bas after D. Teniers II, c. 1650.

However, Alchemy was far more than that. Alchemists laid the groundwork for the later to develop studies of chemistry and other natural sciences. According to Jung, alchemy was deeply entwined with the development of the self. This is evidenced in the writings of many of them where they recognise the need to purify themselves spiritually and emotionally in order to discover the secrets they sought the answers to.

Waite seems to dismiss the connection between The Fool and The Alchemist with the first idea, that Alchemy was simply the domain of the foolish. This feels too simplistic to me.

Has anyone else considered the connection between The Fool and it's other identity as The Alchemist? And how does that influence your interpretation of the card?

[Tomatosauce]

He did another 90s movie which was a drama where he played the hunky but naive gardener for the director James Whale (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein) who quite fancies him. This excellent film Gods and Monsters, would also fit your description. He really gets into a situation that is over his head in a kind of wide-eyed way.

So, yeah, I totally get it.

Interesting "correspondence".

Oh, I hadn't even considered that about Gods and Monsters but I totally see it now. Good call.

And yeah, that's... probably going to be me in this process. I have limited knowledge/interest in esoteric correspondences, but I'm constantly finding tarot in pop culture, random paintings in hotel lobbies, stained glass windows, etc...

To merge that with the Alchemy thread... I read Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches trilogy last year, and ancient ideas about alchemy figure prominently in the plot. One of the ideas in it that was new to me was the idea of the alchemical marriage- the combination of two elements to create something entirely new.

It occurs to me that the Fool on his Journey is kind of a base element that is transformed- not just the Alchemist himself, but also the base that is exposed to various reagents until he is no longer recognizable by the time you get to 21, the World.

And/Or maybe The Fool is the pure state the alchemists need to get themselves to? Unburdened by what he thinks he knows, completely open to the secrets of the universe. The Christian ideas of childlike faith would have influenced Waite and his contemporaries, as well as historic tarot artists, and certainly many other spiritual traditions include the idea of true knowledge being available only to those who leave worldly knowledge behind.

[Libra]

I see The Fool like a tumbleweed most often. People think that it's just blowing in the wind, but that's only half the story - tumbleweeds will actually reroot and grow when they find water! So that sort of ties in with The Fool's Journey way of looking at the Majors, where The Fool is the one experiencing each of the "doors" of every other Major as he comes across it. He roots into that experience, gets what he needs from it and when the lesson is complete, dries up and up roots and goes where the universe blows him. In a reading, it becomes a card of just trusting your journey in life, that even when you feel lost and uprooted and tumbled, that you're being brought to where you need to be. All you need to to is have faith in that and openness towards truly settling in where you're dropped and making the most of that experience while you are in it. It's non-attachment to a set plan, and more about being happy in the moment.

[Vox Populi]

Interesting. Never seen the dog being in more precarious position, but it's true!

I think The Fool is one of the most complex cards. From a purely psychological perspective, and in other cards and in the Jung archetype The Fool is the flip side of the coin, he is the dark secret behind the facade. He is the good looking, charming womaniser who can't keep a girl because of his lack of sexual prowess or small manhood. He is the bully who falls apart when challenged. He is the "strong, independent" flash businessman who still lives with his mum. He is the Anarchist who bangs on about bringing down the government but lives off state benefits. He is the "queer basher" who's a raving iron himself. The Fool is the intellectual with no imagination. The Fool is the artist with no common sense. We all have our Achilles heel, and the more we pretend and the more extreme we are, the bigger the fall.
Now, in the RWS he is nothing like this. He is the dandy, he is happy, he is ready for adventure. He's not the Archetypal Fool. But I believe Waite really believed in the Journey. And the journey cannot even begin unless we are totally honest with ourselves. If you look there are two slabs of upright stone behind the man and the dog. It looks like an entrance to a man-made cave; it is dark, he has perhaps just come out the cave? I believe that this is the person who has just come to terms with his hidden side, no more pretending. He is himself. He is liberated and ready for the real journey of discovery.

[Vox Populi]

I see The Fool like a tumbleweed most often. People think that it's just blowing in the wind, but that's only half the story - tumbleweeds will actually reroot and grow when they find water! So that sort of ties in with The Fool's Journey way of looking at the Majors, where The Fool is the one experiencing each of the "doors" of every other Major as he comes across it. He roots into that experience, gets what he needs from it and when the lesson is complete, dries up and up roots and goes where the universe blows him. In a reading, it becomes a card of just trusting your journey in life, that even when you feel lost and uprooted and tumbled, that you're being brought to where you need to be. All you need to to is have faith in that and openness towards truly settling in where you're dropped and making the most of that experience while you are in it. It's non-attachment to a set plan, and more about being happy in the moment.

Nice, well put.

[Vox Populi]

The fool in the RWS is also an awakening to the familiar, something you've known all of your life but never appreciated, and usually accompanies a personnel re-birth, of values, emotions, spirituality etc. Could be a close call of a friend or relative, and then releasing you've taken this person for granted, and if they survive it will be different (and it usually is!...because one gets a sledgehammer to the head of the person's virtues and what an empty place that seat they usually sit in would be if they left us). It could be falling in love with someone who' you've known all your life, went to school with and hung around in the same set of mates, and it usually is a bolt from the blue as you will disguise your feelings from yourself and consider it all as just friend affection. Then one evening you'll look at the them across the pub table laughing and bang! But this is also Tower & Hanged Man territory too. It might be as simple as listening to music one day that your parents or older sibling played as you grew up and it annoyed you, then one day you hear it, and you realise how beautiful it is. The fool comes up when we learn how to cry too, or when we need to learn. Anything that we learn to utilize that is good for us, The dancing Fool and his prancing dog will show up.
All of my life i've never appreciated nature. I could look at a flower, know that the colour was beautiful, know that it was symmetrically perfect, know that this was represented pure beauty in my world, and the universe was in that flower, but still I would feel absolutely nothing. Although i could look at a piece of Parisian architecture, and feel moved. Then at the end of june this year, i was sitting in my mum's back garden reading a book(an avid gardener, she is), i closed my eyes for a moment, opened them again, and without warning i saw the many shades of green in the garden, and heard the wind through the trees, saw some bright blue flowers, then a perfect dark red rose, and i was overcome with beauty of it all... it was pure bliss upon bliss upon rapture. I was overwhelmed with the activation and went from plant to plant smelling, feeling, tasting (the neighbours thought i'd gone mental but i didn't care). I was the dandy in the card, for a moment. The reason for this awakening was that i had recently taken up the Kabbalah & had started meditating on the ancient symbols and it had a profound effect on me. I know this again is in The Hanged Man terrain, but if The Fool did have a Soul-brother - albeit a step-brother - then it would be The Hanged Man. One is going outward and the other inward, i'm aware, but they are both about reawakening and rebirth and liberation, just one is aware & has sacrificed something to get something better, and the other has stumbled across it and could lose it at anytime. The Hanged Man is just The Fool but on some mad, shamanic hallucinogenic. Or perhaps the other way round.
The bliss only lasted two-three weeks, but the newfound appreciation of nature is still with me.

[Amoroso]

Always seen The Fool as typifying a boundless sense of adventure, wanderlust, the beginning of stuff, especially of journeys. He doesn't heed dangers and though he'd sometimes be close to the abyss, he has luck on his side.

He's near the edge of a cliff, but I don't think that either he or his dog met an unpleasant end. He looks unruffled here so I like their prospects. I'm thinking that it would end somewhat like this:

[chiscotheque]

the symbolism of the white rose The Fool holds sums up at least some of his psyche - innocence, youth, purity, sympathy, spirituality, and true love. at a funeral, white roses can symbolize reverence and humility.
in dream interpretation, a white dog can symbolize one's inner self. as an animal, and man's best friend at that, it can relate to our purer, animal selves, and suggest loyalty and guilelessness.
this Fool is a very romantic character, like Keats on ecstasy. the o above him is like what he is - a nothing, a cipher, a blank slate. it's also like a ring - white roses are traditionally used at weddings, and the Fool and his animal shadow self are endeavouring through life like a newly married couple; the circle of course also represents circularity. in a sense, there is at foot here a chemical wedding, a Rosicrucian term, just as the white rose is part of the rosy cross and symbolizes the soul's journey.
I think there is something to what Joan Marie says about the alchemist, but i would say it's there in earlier tarot decks but waite/smith remove almost all trace. it may also be worth noting the role of fools in literature, - take Lear's Fool in King Lear. He is Lear's conscience. he speaks the truth to Lear which no one else dares to, and which the King is too blind and arrogant to see. The jester's pointy collar [as in the Marseilles] is actually an upside-down crown.
the white sun is Golden Dawn symbol for Kether, the regal crown of the Sephirot. he is the descent from the crown to the different aspects of the Tree of Life. therefore, the Fool is sublime - the most hidden of the hidden - akin to the soul and the divine grace of God. it is wisdom unlocked - it is sometimes symbolized by an opened lock. the Fool's bindle looks like a lock.

The Fool then, is ironically and/or absolutely aptly associated with true wisdom; the rocky precipice suggests the road less travelled - always on the point of disaster, never playing it safe, and always imbued with faith.
originally the Fool's names included Le Mat [mad] and le Fou [crazy], both implying the Fool is touched - that is, he has a screw loose. a fool can be a buffoon or a clown, but he can also be a trickster - someone who fools you. in some ways i would read the Waite/Smith card this way - he conceals more than simply the pure innocent dreamer he appears to be.
if i had to liken him to a character in a film, i might choose Harpo, or Peter Sellers in Being There, or The Jerk:

[Joan Marie]

This morning I was reading an essay by P.L. Travers (the author of "Mary Poppins" most famously) and she had a few things to say about "The Fool" in language and literature that I thought were relevant to this discussion.

First she regrets how words lose their full meanings over time and we become lazy in interpreting them when we see them. Words like Fool, Simple(ton) and even the word Silly are related and their oldest dictionary meanings are "innocent, not knowing (although not stupid or ignorant.)" There is a "celestial shrewdness" at play in these types. These words also meant "blessed" and by extension, "holy."

She then goes on to give examples of "Fools" in literature. One thing they have in common is they tend to take the advice of the bridge-trolls and forest-dwarves and faeries as they go on journeys and quests. They are kind and trusting and unafraid (or unashamed) to ask for advice and help. Because of this they tend to fare far better than their more cynical counterparts. (the "non-fools)

Travers gives the example of this short story by the Brother's Grimm, The Water of Life

If you have 5 minutes, it's a good read with much to say. The character of the youngest brother really exemplifies the fool and how his open nature and naiveté are the keys to his success. And also get him into some close calls. (the heels of his feet paying the price as you will read)

I also thought about the film "The Out of Towners" (the original one please, with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis). Jack Lemmon's character is the opposite of this idea of "the fool". He's a smarty pants who thinks he's in control and the more he tries to defy luck and advice and help and imposes his will, the more everything spirals out of control. He is the opposite of the examples chiscoteque gives of Peter Sellers and Steve martin in "The Jerk." His wife on the other hand is the beautiful Fool, constantly trying (unsuccessfully) to convince him to let go and go with the flow of the situation.

Innocence and vulnerability are truly great strengths, though clearly modern life would have us believe differently and the Fool of tarot belongs to the pantheon of literary and historical Fools.

Shakespeare's Fools were often more memorable than their masters and served the functions of exposing the folly of others through humour and of shedding light on the story's inner meaning.

Speaking of that, I have probably not succeeded in shedding any light that has not already been shed in this thread but the essay by Travers inspired me.

[BlueStar]

He's near the edge of a cliff, but I don't think that either he or his dog met an unpleasant end. He looks unruffled here so I like their prospects. I'm thinking that it would end somewhat like this:


0-The-Fool-After-Tarot.jpg

I love this! It's a good point. It’s easy to accept the standard interpretation that he’s on a cliff edge. But if you think about it is he really? Maybe (depending on the reading) he isn’t. We assume that’s he’s walking off a cliff, but actually we do not know what comes next for him, just as he at the beginning of his journey may not know what he will encounter next on it.

However, if we were instead able to step into the scene, and look from his perspective, not from outside, what would we see? Are his eyes are open (I haven't got this deck so I can't see the detail), so is he walking confidently and with a light air because he can see ahead (whilst we,the outsider , do not have that perspective, we see just a small frame of the environment), that it is just a step down, not a long fall off the edge (could this also signify the position of the fool as card 22?) ? Or is he so lost in his own thoughts or daydreams so that he is not being mindful of where he steps and doesn’t see the fall ahead?

The dog very ambiguous. On the one hand he looks like he is excited for the journey too, but he could be trying to alert the fool to what’s ahead. And what’s in his bag? He is prepared for the journey? Does he have everything he needs?

[jaq]

Joan Marie, I'm probably in your court. Of course, like everything else in Tarot, there are so many ways of interpreting the Fool. Apart from taking the stance that each card must be interpreted anew given the question, the deck, the position, and the surrounding cards, my idea about the Fool goes more in the direction of the Holy Fool. E.g. Dostoevsky's Idiot, the Beatles' Fool on the Hill, or the Zen story of the guy who, chased by a tiger, hangs by a soon-to-break vine over a cliff and enjoys the strawberry he just found growing in front of him. Foolish, yes, but maybe only foolish-looking to those who stay within their own small boxes and would never dare to jump off the cliff.

[Joan Marie]

Literature and legend are filled with stories of the Fool or the Simpleton whose naivete and openness makes them unafraid of encounters with strange creatures they meet along the road who end up being charmed and coming to the aid of the Fool.

The Fool rarely misjudges people because he doesn't judge them at all and therefore the Fool gains the trust (and special help) of those who live on the margins of society, the people who more arrogant travellers would disregard or even be cruel to. (There are some heavy life-lessons in this concept)

Additionally, the Fool is never ashamed to say "I don't know" and to ask for help. (more life-lessons there for sure.)

[stronglove]

just did a reading with the fool as a focus point and for the first time started wondering why the fool in the RWS is walking to the left. it feels weird to me, considering the idea that he’s about to start his journey through the archetypes.... why then is he moving ‘backwards’? or is this just a way of portraying his complete innocence and ignorance, that he has no clue where he’s going, he’s just going wherever his feet are pointing.... or is it meant as a reference to the 21st arcana of the world, to remind us that those two are connected, that the world card leads to/ transcends into the fool again on another level.....
in the TdM the fool is usually (but not always) depicted walking ‘forward’, i.e. to the right....

just some thoughts that came up today. anyone can shed any light on this?

[Charlie Brown]

in the TdM the fool is usually (but not always) depicted walking ‘forward’, i.e. to the right....

This is just my own notion, although based on Crowley (via Duquette) and M.M. Meleen: It doesn't matter which way The Fool faces in RWS because he isn't traveling left or right. He's traveling down. Down in the kabbalistic sense of descending the Tree of Life, that is. The Fool's divine naivety is a symbol of the divine nothingness (ain-soph) that existed prior to creation, the universal blank slate, if you will. When he falls, he pierces that veil and enters our universe. All that Tree of Life stuff was present in GD thought and you can see it manifest in other places in the RWS, so I don't see why it wouldn't apply here as well.

If we forget about all that and just read the deck as a pure cartomant rather than an occultist, then I like

he has no clue where he’s going, he’s just going wherever his feet are pointing.

quite a bit.


ETA: I don't remember the author off the top of my head, but that whole "Fool's Journey" thing is a fairly recent invention, no earlier than the late 19th century, iirc, maybe even as late as Eden Grey. Does anyone know the right book for sure?

[Joan Marie]

just did a reading with the fool as a focus point and for the first time started wondering why the fool in the RWS is walking to the left.

just some thoughts that came up today. anyone can shed any light on this?

I brought up a similar topic regarding the RWS Aces. Two enter from the right and two from the left. I wrote this:

When you consider that Pamela Coleman Smith designed theater sets, could it be significant that fundamental rules of staging say that "good guys" always enter the stage (or screen) from the left and "bad guys" from the right?

Beyond "good guy, bad guys", it's also considered a fundamental rule that lateral movement from right to left (like our fool) creates a more negative or bad feeling to viewers. Left to right feels better, that's why kitchens are usually on the left of the dining area in a movie, mom and food travel left to right. The front door of the house is on the right usually, because that's where trouble enters the scene from.
Film makers are very aware of this. I'm sure Pamela was too.

I obviously have no idea if that played any role in her design choices. But it does kind of tie with what Charlie Brown says, that the actual path is downward.

[Holdit]

Always seen The Fool as typifying a boundless sense of adventure, wanderlust, the beginning of stuff, especially of journeys. He doesn't heed dangers and though he'd sometimes be close to the abyss, he has luck on his side. He's near the edge of a cliff, but I don't think that either he or his dog met an unpleasant end.

This is closest to the meaning I've come to after reading several versions here and elsewhere. Someone setting out on something new: new relationship, job, home, hobby, etc. He is enthusiastic and entranced with the possibilities, but he needs to be mindful of the dangers, which is where the dog comes in. I believe the dog represents the little voice inside all of us that we ignore at our peril. For me the cliff represents a possible danger, but there is still time to avoid it if he heeds the dog, and even if he doesn't, the drop might not be all that much - there could be a ledge just a couple of feet below. (The artist could have been anticipating a common movie trick. )

This discussion made me remember a quote from the TV series, "The Newsroom" where the term "The Greater Fool" came up a few times in the sense of someone who wants to change things for the better in a system that will fight very hard to prevent such change, and also...

"The greater fool is actually an economic term. The greater fool is a patsy. For the rest of us to profit, we need a greater fool, someone who will buy long and sell short. Most people spend their lives trying not to be the greater fool; we toss him the hot potato, we dive for his seat when the music stops. The greater fool is someone with the perfect blend of self-delusion and ego to think that he can succeed where others have failed. This whole country was made by greater fools."
- Sloan Sabbith

[Lucifall]

Has anyone else considered the connection between The Fool and it's other identity as The Alchemist? And how does that influence your interpretation of the card?

Is this maybe a pointing to 1=0 and 0=1?

The Magician is called the Alchemist also.. The Magician who is able with 'the Powers from above' to create with the elements in our world below.
In the B.O.T.A. course Foster Case describes the fool as having all qualities of all the greater arcana cards in him and can we see the 0, The Fool as the representative of the Tarot itself. This He/She is naive but also very wise and Innocent discovering the world taking things and people just the way they are.

0=1
The Fool and the Magician are opposite energies; The fool is the inside and The Magician is the outside. The fool has all values to transmute in him and the Magician is able to create with the powers of Alchemy.. The Fool and Magician together are The United Spirit.
The Fool has number 0 representing the pure human mind and the breath of Life; Ruach, Prana, KI.
The Magician, number 1 is another aspect of this same Spirit, but then the outgoing aspect. The Magician creates and controls. In this sense All cards come forth from the Magician.
Together thet represent Freedom and together they are Jachin and Boaz; living entities that we can get to know.

The fool as Alchemist.. He can change into anyone/ anything of the 21 he wants ; the fool as Shaman? But for the real outgoing tricks he will need his other part... The Magician.

[Diana]

The Fool has number 0 representing the pure human mind and the breath of Life; Ruach, Prana, KI.
The Magician, number 1 is another aspect of this same Spirit, but then the outgoing aspect. The Magician creates and controls. In this sense All cards come forth from the Magician.

Oh, you always write such lovely things Lucifall. And I'm so grateful that you take the time to share them here on CoT. Thank you.

I'd like to just raise one point.

I can't go with the idea of the Fool representing the pure human mind. The Fool is more our Soul. Soul is indivisible (like a zero) but does express itself individually - and these expressions are represented in the Tarot. The human mind is more the "avenue of awareness", the "means" through which the creations of the Soul can be made visible. The Soul always remains intact of course, being indivisible.

Which would imply that all the cards come forth from the Fool THROUGH the Magician. The Magician would represent then the mind through which the alchemy can take place, in its individuality and this said individual mind symbolised by the number One.

(In the Tarot of Marseilles, the Fool has no number. When I noticed or rather realised the first time that he had no number, I remember thinking or rather FEELING "so this is freedom and fullness - and OMG he has no number.).

But I'd be quite happy to go with "The Fool has number 0 or no number, representing Soul and the breath of Life".

[Lucifall]

The Fool has number 0 representing the pure human mind and the breath of Life; Ruach, Prana, KI.
The Magician, number 1 is another aspect of this same Spirit, but then the outgoing aspect. The Magician creates and controls. In this sense All cards come forth from the Magician.

Oh, you always write such lovely things Lucifall. And I'm so grateful that you take the time to share them here on CoT. Thank you.

I'd like to just raise one point.

I can't go with the idea of the Fool representing the pure human mind. The Fool is more our Soul. Soul is indivisible (like a zero) but does express itself individually - and these expressions are represented in the Tarot. The human mind is more the "avenue of awareness", the "means" through which the creations of the Soul can be made visible. The Soul always remains intact of course, being indivisible.

Which would imply that all the cards come forth from the Fool THROUGH the Magician. The Magician would represent then the mind through which the alchemy can take place, in its individuality and this said individual mind symbolised by the number One.

(In the Tarot of Marseilles, the Fool has no number. When I noticed or rather realised the first time that he had no number, I remember thinking or rather FEELING "so this is freedom and fullness - and OMG he has no number.).

But I'd be quite happy to go with "The Fool has number 0 or no number, representing Soul and the breath of Life".

Thanks Marygold..

I am so happy i have found this forum. So much input and different ways of view. I love it!

I think we have the same drive in this one. Figuring out the fool's place in the journey... A point of view which always can change or reconsidered as the real fool's heart desires..

I can go with the idea of the Fool as our indivisible Soul. But what to do with is companion the dog, which should be mastered? The 0 mastered by the One, the Magician?
The same confusion appears when you connect the cards with the Hebrew Alephbeth.

Prana, Ruach is meaning literally breath but also has the secundairy meaning :the spirit or the all pervading life energy. This meaning is connected to Aleph which is in TDM associated with the Magician and in RWS with the fool.

When we take a look on the shape of the Aleph you can see the walking fool in it but also the human longues. In this way the Aleph is connected with the fool.
The fool is often pictured with a bag on his shoulders.. A Wind-bag .
The title Fool is derived from Follis which means a bag of Wind so this fool symbolizes that which contains air or breath.
(BOTA:) The number 0 carries this idea a step further: O is a symbol of the limitless, unconditioned life-Power. The 0 is shaped like an egg as it symbolizes all the potencies of growth and development. (Which also points to the whirling wheels on the fool's garment)

On the other hand the Aleph is a diagonal line with two dots: One Above and One Below which clearly points to the Magician..Also the shape of the magician is possible to connect with Aleph. Further Aleph = 1 as the Magician

Foster Case (Highlights of tarot) describes the dog as the Intellect, the merely reasoning mind.
This dog is a faithfull companion, but must have a Master.
I am wondering for years already: Is this Master the Fool or the Magician?
To control the intellect (by the power of Will) the Magician is needed. (0=1; the inner and outer)

[Diana]

I think we have the same drive in this one. Figuring out the fool's place in the journey... A point of view which always can change or reconsidered as the real fool's heart desires..

I can go with the idea of the Fool as our indivisible Soul. But what to do with is companion the dog, which should be mastered? The 0 mastered by the One, the Magician?

I knew I was heading for trouble when I joined this thread on the RWS Fool. He's very different to the Tarot of Marseilles Fool. But I can't resist when one speaks of the Fool. He's my favourite card since forever.

So I'll just answer the above and may then just watch from the sidelines : I think the Dog may have a reference to Anubis, who was the god who ushered souls into the afterlife. Anubis helped Isis put the pieces of Osiris together. And dogs have very good homing instincts.

Also I don't think the Fool is doing the journey through the Tarot as many people say - that would be the Magician, or Le Bateleur in the TdM. The Fool accompanies him of course - one can't not be accompanied by one's soul, one's essence. Also if anywhere, I would put the Fool at the very end of the series of cards and not in the beginning - but actually as he has no number in the TdM he can actually be placed anywhere at any time and maybe all the time.

I'm sorry if I messed up this thread. It's the Fool who made me do it.

Oh one more thing : if not Anubis, then maybe St Christopher (patron saint of travellers) who was often depicted as having the head of a dog. Or maybe both of these... and maybe even more. I think the layers go deep in the Tarot.