The Fool; Number Zero
Part 1
From “The Tarot; A Spiritual Art, Twenty-two Steps to Enlightenment” By Raymond Castrogiovanni
The first card of the Tarot deck is also the last card of the deck. The Fool. This card is therefore sometimes unnumbered. However, in most interpretations of the Tarot deck, The Fool is marked “O” (zero). It is both innocence and wisdom and everything in-between.
The Fool card depicts a man in the garb of a court jester. The fool or jester being an integral and important part of court throughout the medieval and early renaissance period. Sometimes, he is depicted as part of a troupe of troubadours and as being highly skilled. More often as a member of the court servant’s family. Fools of these types were objects of fun because of how they looked or behaved. Either way, they held a special, if not important, place at court. A fool could consequently even satirise his master and ridicule members of the court. This was a way of allowing descent to a point and giving an illusion of tolerance and sophistication to the master of the house or court.
Some fools and jesters were actually very talented. Acrobatics, music, poetry, political satire and writing; in all these arts they gained great repute. They could hence travel across many lands, such was the demand for a good entertainer. The celebrities of the medieval world demanding princely fees from royalty and nobles.
His appearance
The Fool of the tarot is mainly represented as a youth regaled in brightly coloured rags, jaunting freely through the countryside, with a small dog as companion. With a wooden staff in one hand, supported over his shoulder and a bag or net hangs at the other end of the staff. In his other hand carries a daisy. In some decks the flower is replaced by an inflated pig’s bladder like a balloon tied at the end of a piece of string.
More often than not The Fool is seen to be following a butterfly or dragonfly that flutters before him. He is so captivated by the bright flying creature, that he seems to be unaware of his surroundings. He is therefore even at risk of stepping off a cliff top and into an unknown abyss. Thankfully, his only companion, his loyal little dog is yapping and snapping at his heel. Bringing The Fool back to reality and making him aware of the impending danger. (Does The Fool journey with a little dog, or is it an analogy for his intuition?)
So who is the Fool?
Every culture, every epoch has its wise fool. The misfit the rebel, the wonderer, individuals who exist on the fringe of society, misunderstood or feared and shunned. It is nonetheless these same wise fools that can become the teachers, mystics, shaman and soothsayers.
The Fool is the Green man of the Beltane celebration (May Day festival), the bringer of joy, fertility and sunshine. Hope and possibility is the energy; the chance for a fresh start. A reminder that innocence is good and each and every one can be or do anything they endeavour. The essence of the child becoming the adult. He embodies the journey full of excitement, the life lessons both wondrous and dangerous.
And what does the Fool mean to us?
To embrace the persona of The Fool is to immerse oneself in the moment, to exist in the reality of the now! Tapping into mindfulness, connecting past, present and future, recognising all you are and who you will become. In a fusion everything you have experienced from your first breath and all that is to unfold in time. The Fool is marked zero or unnumbered, the card can be at any point in the Tarot deck, a link betwixt the major and minor Arcana. It’s essence being innocence and wisdom as well as everything in-between.
The Fool is therefore the part of us that can create, dream, hope, invent, wish and push the boundaries. If you can imagine, you may realise your ambitions. Sometimes you will fail but once in a while you will succeed. Here is the lesson of The Fool. First there is ignorance, then the process of learning followed by understanding the acquisition of knowledge.
The Fool is the only card of the major Arcana which appears in a deck of playing cards. We see him metamorphosed into the Joker. Once the joker is played it becomes anything you want it to be in your hand. This is also true in a psychic or Tarot reading. If The Fool is in the spread, its appearance is most auspicious. The presence of this card will indicate a meaning within the spread and an additional aspect of wondrous possibility too!
Meaning
The Fool has evolved from vagabond troubadour into wise fool who can create endless possibility out of the smallest of opportunity. He can be an empty glass that appears to be full or the full glass, which appears empty! With this card in your spread anything is therefore possible. Change movement and new beginnings. It may feel like a leap of faith as the steps in front of you are uncharted. Importantly they are the steps of a journey you choose. It may be hard to feel confident, you may even be fearful of what awaits. Lay your fears to one side and trust the universe. For you and I are the very stuff of the universe. Thus, if you are dealt The Fool card you can tap into abundance and achieve anything.
“The fool on the hill sees the sun going down and the eyes in his head see the world spinning round”
The Beatles
This Page written especially for you by Raymond Castrogiovanni
http://psychictoday.uk/reader/4765/raymond-castrogiovanni