Symbolisam of the Fool card

[Occult Forum Archive]

Original post: Mia

Couldnt find anything on this subject in the previous topics,so decide to start one.My inspiration comes from the "Zelator,the secret journals of Mark Hedsel"in which David Ovason deals with the symbolisam of the Tarot Card The Fool,as many other things concerning the Great Mysteries of the old civilisations.The way of the Fool is the way of the independent traveller on the path of initiation.Such a traveler may study under a variety of masters,yet will strive to preserve his or her own identity,and rarely undertakes vows of silence which will bind him/her being to a particular school or teaching.The fact that this traveling fool is on the path is meant to reflect that he or she is following the way of experience,which in ancient greek was termed pathein.
Wanna make attention to the arcane image of the wondering Fool that is found on the early Tarot cards which appeared in Europe during 15 century.It shows a bearded man, wearing the cap and bells of the traditional jester.He s carrying on his right shoulder a stick,upon the end of which has been tied a bag.Ussually the progress of the fool is hampered by an animal,ussually dog or cat which claws at his legs or clothes.
The ego is symbolized by the face itself,which is covered in th foolscap-the 3horns and bells-traditionaly worn by the fool.The 3horns are not intended to link the Fool with the Moon,as has been sugested,but to show how the human ego is bathed in the effulgency of the 3 higher,and as yet undeveloped,Spiritual bodies of Atman,Buddhi and Manas.
This hint of spirituality is also seen in the upward gaze of the fool.The beard may pull his face down into the lower animal realm of the Astral,but his eyes look upwards to the heavens:this the archetypal duality which lies behind most arcane thought.
The animal was widely adapted in mediaeval art as a symbolic of the astral,and this dog or cat,which pursues and attacks the Fool,is no exeption.It is the Astral element in the Fool which has remained untamed,because of that has an independant existance and is a sort of an shadow being.Astral is the sourse of emotion,and also of motion:in life is very difficult to control the inner manifestation of the Astral in emotions,and its outer manifestation in movement.This e-motion,or motion outwards is expressed in the aggresive action iof the animal.
The sticks carried by the Fool represent the Etheric Body of the fool.In Latin,the stick is virga-a sound close to virgin,to suggest another role of the stick as a fertilizer of ideas.Graphic enthology of the sticks might be traced to Egyptian goddess Maat,reminding us that a French name for the fool is mat.
The physical body is off course,the body of the fool himself:it it sometimes called the ass,or donkey,perhaps to suggest that is controlled by a rider,which is off course the ego.
In the numerological magic which lies behind the Tarot designs,the fool card is generally associated with zero.Some arcanists also link it with aleph which is the first letter of the Hebraic alphabet.This might seem to be something of a contradiction,for in Hebraic numerology,the aleph is normaly accorded to number 1.With these considerations of zero and one,we reach into the spiritual paradox of the fool.This paradox is that the Fool,and the ego itself are at once a zero and one.The stick carried by the fool is also a symbol of the upright I,and thus of the ego.The stick over the right shoulder of the Fool is weighed down by a bag which may be seen as another zero form-a circle.Thus,the stick and the bag represent the altercation between being and nothingness of the ego.
The name Fool on the first tarot card is a translation either of the French word Le Mat,or the equivalent Italian Il Matto.This derivation is not without significance,as the root ma is one of the most important Sanskrit terms relatin to matter,which paticipates in several important esoteric terms,such as maya,or illusion.
So,would like to hear your view and interpretation on this card.