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0 - The Fool

Description:

A gaudily attired young person strides through space, leaping from a circle of creative light towards a circle of dark becoming.  The Fool leaps over a blue/indigo flow, where 10 not-yet-formed spheres are gestating.  The Fool is wearing a sky-blue vest with green trim, fastened with a series of various colored buttons. On the Fool’s left chest is the alchemical symbol for Air.  The Fool is wearing yellow shorts.  Rainbow-colored feathers billow from the Fool’s shoulders and waist. On the left foot, the Fool wears a red slipper with the Hebrew letter Aleph, and affixed to the slipper is a red rose.  In the right hand, the Fool carries a long-stemmed white rose.  Dangling from the Fool’s left hand is a mysterious black box with a red handle.  The Fool is wearing a crown of white lotus petals.  The Fool gazes confidently upward and onward, taking no heed where the feet are placed.  Joining the Fool on the right side is a wolf-like dog, seemingly more of a guide, companion and protector rather than a pet.

Symbology:

The light and dark circles, with the Fool leaping between them, represents the Eleventh path on the Qabalistic Tree of Life, the path of the Fool, between the Light source of Kether (Universal Breath of Life) and the formative creative force of Chokmah (Eternal Father).  The circles themselves are reflective of the number Zero, the secret space of creative potential, the space between thoughts, the void on the cusp of becoming.  The ten spheres in the void are nebulous and not yet wholly formed, indicating the emanations that are to come on the path of creation.

The Fool’s sky-blue vest, yellow shorts and rainbow-colored feathers are indicative or the element of Air.  The colored buttons on the vest represent the Chakras, the energies of the body.  The red rose on the Fool’s slipper symbolizes the driving force of desire.  The white rose in the Fool’s right hand represents purity, clarity, faith and trust – the Fool’s highest aspirations.  The crown of lotus petals indicates the influx of Divine Light.

The black box that the Fool carries represents the mysteries of creation.  It is the enticement of Pandora’s box: perhaps it contains the answers to the mysteries of the world, or perhaps opening it will release destructive chaos.  The Fool begins the journey to understand the mysteries of creation, without realizing or caring that the answers may be within all along.  It is the journey into the mysteries itself that is the key to the Fool. 

The wolf running alongside the Fool represents both the primal instinct in leading the pack and also the playful joy of simply being.  The Fool exuberantly leaps onto the path, confident and carefree.

Divinatory Meaning:
(from "Tarot of the Spirit" companion book, by Pamela Eakins) 

• All is movement, all change

• This is a precarious time, take a risk

• Have faith; trust that you will cradled; every fall moves you closer to your own target of perfection; you are in the cradle of perfect love

• Use this opportunity to create

• Concentrate on the present

• When walking, place one foot in front of the other; no matter how high the mountain, the peak is reached one step at a time 

• You are in the first mode of empowerment: detachment from outcome; undertake the present enterprise because you must, but detach yourself from outcomes; the process is critically important at this time, do not concern yourself with the ultimate product.

Personal Reflections:

GO FOR IT!  is what The Fool says to me.  Similarly, Pamela Eakins stresses the Fool’s keywords are: “Detachment From Outcome”.  The Fool is the Journey.  The Fool is Zero the Hero.  0 = circle = all possibilities = the Whole = the Hole = the Void = Holy Noneness = the Hole in the Head = the Fool.

Pamela Eakins states: “As the universe breathes, the Fool blows out of the void.  Then, for the Fool, everything becomes possible.  The task of the Fool is to understand everything that is and then to return to the source.  This is the complete circle of the zero.”

Be the Fool.  GO FOR IT!