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In many Tarot decks, The Fool is portrayed as a character about to step off a cliff or a rooftop. Often preoccupied with chasing a butterfly, gazing at a rose or staring off in the distance, The Fool might appear... well, foolish. Can't he see that he's about to plunge into the abyss, we wonder? Why doesn't he watch where he's going?
The Fool is a lump of clay, about to be shaped on the potter's wheel called Life. Interestingly, when spiritual teachers and writers describe enlightenment, some speak of "unlearning" everything. Perhaps this is our spirit's yearning to be that soft, pliable lump once again, unsculpted by any human hand. In mythology, Lethe is a river of forgetfulness that runs through Hades (the underworld). In Virgil's Aenid, souls about to be reborn gather at this river to drink. Is it any wonder that the pursuit of consciousness is often called "remembering?" Also, in many depictions of The Fool, the character carries a pouch over his shoulder. What might this bag contain? Food for the journey? Gadgets for survival? I think not, for this would indicate premeditation - and, frankly, there is nothing "premeditated" about The Fool! Personally, I like to think that the pouch is completely empty - of expectations, defenses, or staples. But, if The Fool's pouch is empty, what is its purpose? With absolute trust in the Absolute, The Fool steps from the cliff - into Nothingness - with merely the clothes on his back, a theoretically empty pouch, and - in many depictions of this card - a dog or other animal nipping at his heels.
What if the pouch isn't empty, though - at least, But alas, it would seem that the River of Forgetfulness also erases our conscious knowledge of Spirit - which would make the Fool's Journey a trek to remember the Beloved, the wholeness of the Absolute, and the mirror of All That Is. Once we begin to listen to that dog nipping at our heels, telling us that we can't go off by ourselves, that we need guidance, that we might get hurt, that we need guarantees or hard data or proof of viability - we begin to fear. The mirror of All That Is then becomes fragmented by anxiety, mistrust and indecision. Yet, on a primal level, we desperately search for fragments of this mirror throughout life... trying to reconstruct what we suspect we already know, to recognize the "face before we were born", to recover that perfection shattered by fear. And this is why The Fool is often called the Eternal Child. Most children enter the world trailing the vapors of heaven, even remembering past lives or their most recent previous life. They have no reason to distrust animal or human, let alone rocky cliffs or deep waters. On one hand, this is an immeasurable gift. Tom Bradley observes,
The Eternal Child doesn't understand "can't." It's as if they possess
an internal gauge registering only one setting: That, dear reader, is one of the most valuable treasures of the Tarot: the ability to convey timeless, profound truths found on the pre-incarnation bank of Lethes while, at the same time, speaking to the vagaries of life found on this side of the River of Forgetfulness, the dualistic world we call Earth.
Some believe that there are "bad" cards and "good" cards in the Tarot, just as many individuals are convinced that the dualistic play we are acting out is the only "Reality", consisting of characters and situations that are positive or negative, black or white. Others, like me, feel that each card contains a vast continuum of light and shadow, awareness and ignorance.
In fact, Heraclites once said, Man
is most nearly himself In Jean-Claude Flornoy's reproduction of the Jean Noblet Tarot, an animal - perhaps a civet - has pulled down The Fool's pants. He is either unaware or unconcerned that his "sensitive" parts are exposed. He is unashamed and undeterred, oblivious to the opinions of others. Many would say that this is but one portrait of freedom: to be unfettered to the bad (or good) opinion of others.
However, on the shadow side of the continuum, we do live in a dualistic
world where there are social mores, expectations of civility and rules One of the traits of the Eternal Child is the Peter Pan syndrome, the inability or unwillingness to ever "grow up." It is the energy of a 40-something Michael Jackson at play on his Neverland Ranch, surrounded by children. It is the energy of those who pursue beauty - the fountain of youth - at any cost, including reconfiguring their face or body, or starving it to death. This shadow of The Fool is also the soul that rejects that it has incarnated in this dualistic Earth for a purpose, and refuses to gain - or apply - any wisdom that may evolve its Beingness, or at the very least, add to its cache of human experience. It is the soul that designs its earthly curriculum before incarnation, but then decides upon crossing Lethes that it would rather play hooky; this soul prefers escapism, daydreaming, and materialistic ease over the often arduous work of becoming conscious, gathering the fragmented parts of the Self, and obtaining maturation for advancement or "graduation" to the next level of growth.
Have a romp in the energy of The Fool. Ponder its implications not just in a Tarot reading, but also in your waking life - when it surfaces via conscious contemplation, meditation or symbol. Below are some questions to guide your pondering... Consider journaling the answers to these questions; you're likely to discover some surprising and illuminating wisdom direct from your vast (but seemingly empty) Fool's pouch.
Text
© 2009 by Janet Boyer Join us as Janet takes
us on a romp Next Month: The Magician |
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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IT
HAS BEEN SAID that the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana
portray the "Fool's Journey" - the various stages of life that The Fool
visits in the process of individuation or awareness. The unnumbered
card (or Trump Zero) represents the soul yet to be imprinted with life
circumstances, cultural mores, or bias.
In
fairytale and myth, The Fool is the one who "rushes in where angels
fear to tread." He is fearless and fresh - a tabula rasa in terms of
preconceptions, beliefs, attitudes and expectations. This "blank slate"
has yet to be written upon by parents, tribe, teachers or peers. In
Buddhist terms, this is the "no nothing mind" or "beginner's mind."
not in terms of "holding" something material? In Qabalah, it is said
that God created the world with the Word - that the twenty-two letters
of the Hebrew alphabet were floating in nothingness, waiting for the
Creator to rearrange them to birth existence as we know it. If this
is the case, that would mean that The Fool literally has everything
he needs for navigating, experiencing and surviving Life.
SAFE. Spiritually, this is true: our soul cannot be destroyed or corrupted.
But although we have "heaven" within us, the invisible totality of the
Universe in our proverbial pouch, we have all chosen to drink from the
River of Lethes as we incarnated into this world of duality.
On
the light side of The Fool, there is childlike innocence, unbridled
curiosity, absence of preconceptions, and the inability to fail. Metaphorically,
this is the state of Adam and Eve before "the fall", prior to eating
from the Tree of the Knowledge Good and Evil that split our vision into
dualities. One of the questions that teacher Byron Katie asks within
The Work is "Who would you be without your story?" It would
seem that, in terms of the Tarot, it would be The Fool in this regard.
(often unspoken or assumed) of proper behavior. This is just the way
it is on Earth and navigating through our journey here, perhaps even
for our temporal survival, often depends on knowing these rules and
abiding by them.
There
is an animal nipping at your heels. What kind of animal is it? What
might it represent to you?
