The Fool * Tarot Key 0 * Hebrew Letter Aleph *

[KittyWampus]

No Limits
Superconsciousness
Uranus


The Fool is our Inner Self, the Immortal part of ourselves, about to engage in another adventure. :)

Beyond the facade of our observable universe is some sort of Agency/Power/God/Life Power. Some have fun calling it the Flying Spaghetti Monster :D

Call it what you will, The No-Thing, or Void that lies beyond our comprehension is pictured in Key 0 as a Fool.

The symbolism of the Fool:

The Hebrew letter Aleph means Ox and, in ancient days, oxen were the motive power as they pulled the plows and carted produce to market. Oxen also were seen as wealth. The word pecuniary comes from pecus/cattle. And in every culture, bulls are seen representing the creative life energy or vital principle which comes to plants, animals and men in the physical form of light and heat from the sun.

The vital priniciple itself is called Ruach or Life Breath. It equals Sprit, Pneuma and Prana. The element we would associate this concept with is Air. Following this thought, we note the word Fool is derived from the Latin follis meaning a "bag of wind."

"The number 0 carries this idea a step farther. It is a symbol of the limitless, unconditioned Life-Power. The 0 is shaped like an egg, hence it symbolizes that which contains all of the potencies of growth and development.

The Sun refers to the ONE FORCE. It is white to indicate that it is the Universal Radiant Energy which is concentrated by and radiated from all of the suns in the universe.

The mountains represent the abstract mathematical conceptions which are behind all knowledge of Nature. As such, they are cold and uninteresting to many. But the melting of the snow upon the peaks feeds the streams that make fertile the valleys below. So will the principles of Ageless Wisdom feed your consciousness and make fertile your mental imagery, thus transforming your life.

The Fool is Eternal Youth. He shows that the ONE FORCE never ages, is always at the height of its power. His attitude expresses confidence and joyful aspiration."

The wand is Will, the wallet Memory, the white rose represents purified desire.

Questions:

*Where is the Sun in the card, what color is it and what does it represent?
*Are the garments the Fool wears removable? What 3 colors are they and what do those colors represent.
*Is the Fool male or female?
*Is there a difference between our personality and sense of personhood and our true Being or Immortal Self?
*If our true Inner Self is all powerful and beyond limits, why not learn to use that force consciously in our daily lives?

[Why Syzygy]

1. Thanks

Your post has given me some new thoughts!

I never knew the origination of the word, "fool".
Here's a little more:
Its source, the Latin word follis, meant “a bag or sack, a large inflated ball, a pair of bellows.”

Now look. The fool is carrying a BAG! Double symbology there. More than that! The fool is walking on Air.

Is the bag empty or full? I never thought about that.
I now think it is empty, being open to all the experiences life has to offer.

I love Tarot.

[KittyWampus]

3. The Wallet Refers to Cosmic Memory.

:)

And the Fool certainly seems to be holding it very lightly.

He doesn't seem to toting around a lot of emotional baggage.

[kayob1]

2. Thank you for posting

Interesting read. Look forward to more.

[Matariki]

4. Last night was thursday

will you post similar information for The Magician card?

[wildhorses]

5. yes, I read about

the magician this week...any insightful comments?

[KittyWampus]

6. Dear Kineta, So Few Had Responded To The Fool, I Kicked It Back Up

it was the autumnal equinox... so next Thursday... I'll post the Magician.

Is there something that can be done better here?

ANYONE, please instruct if there's something that could be improved!

[Matariki]

7. I thought the info you provided was great

As straightforward information, it wasn't easy to get a discussion going with it. I was hoping you wouldn't get discouraged.

Any thoughts on how we can discuss each card? I'll post some related info on the Qabala - how the card relates to the particular path on the Tree of Life and the nature of the Sephiroth the path connects.

If the above paragraph doesn't make sense, perhaps we could do a quick Qabala 101 (as a side thread) - if anyone is interested?

[KittyWampus]

8. Heck, even if it was just the two of us... that'd be great! I finished

the course on Tree of Life and have been procrastinating on the 32 Paths of Wisdom.

Sounds like a great thread.

Could we start with the Sephiroth starting with Ein Soph Aur before getting into the Paths, pretty please? :)

[Matariki]

9. that would be awesome.

i really hope you to continue posting the info on the major arcana. it was good information.

maybe we could start separate posts about the qabala and sephiroth? in some ways i prefer studying them from Malkuth to Kether, as that direction represents a path of 'initiation', or spiritual unfoldment. A way of looking ahead to 'what's next' on the path. you know? Whereas Kether to Malkuth represents the manifestation of spirit into matter. I see the first as more 'practical'.

[Why Syzygy]

10. If someone could

make Qabala understandalbe, I would be interested.

I've studied a whole lot of Tarot, and just barely scratched the surface. I don't have time to dig into something else right now.
But I would certainly be interested to read what ya'll have to say about Q.

[Trillo]

14. I read your posting close to the first day, didn't have much that came to

mind. I have a mild interest in tarot, occasionally shuffling for myself, but I use Crowley's deck, I like Harris's artwork, mostly. Crowley's writings, at least for me and my simple mind, are tortured and obscure. And I'm not a tarot deck collector, like someone I know is ;).

Well, here's my question. Crowley's "fool" or "0" is much different in artwork from the Ryder-Waith version, which is similar to some others like de Angelis's Universal, except perhaps for coloring. How much crossover will there be from deck to deck? What significance can one derive from the differences?

[jokerman93]

11. A Fool Synchronicity

Thought I'd jump in here since a synchronicity occurred with this thread last night. I caught this (thread) the other day and was interested to see how the topic would develop. The Fool archetype fascinates me, so I found myself meditating on it again.

Anyway, last night I was reading a mystical poem I occasionally return to called "The Saviors of God - Spiritual Exercises" by Nikos Kazantzakis. At one point the Tarot image of The Fool stepping off the precipice suddenly "leapt" at me from lyrics off the page. The Fool of the Tarot was right there in the poem! The Fool, the Precipice, and the Naught!
:think:

As I read the lines that followed, I could see how the archetype reveals itself in K's work in a highly specific and intimate way, as the speaker of the poem describes the mystical condition of the Fool - and what arises...(!)

...And it occured to me, maybe in parts, it's instructive for our times too?

Here's what I read:

7. A command rings out within me: “Dig! What do you see?”
“Men and birds, water and stones.”
“Dig deeper! What do you see?”
“Ideas and dreams, fantasies and lightning flashes!
“Dig deeper! What do you see?”
“I see nothing! A mute Night, as thick as death. It must be death.”
“Dig deeper!”
“Ah! I cannot penetrate the dark partition! I hear voices and weeping. I hear the flutter of wings on the other shore.”
“Don’t weep! Don’t weep! They are not on the other shore. The voices, the weeping and wings are your own heart.”
8. Beyond the mind, on the edge of the heart’s holy precipice, I proceed, trembling. One foot grips the secure soil, the other gropes in the darkness above the abyss.
9. Beyond all appearances, I divine a struggling essence. I want to merge with it.
10. I feel that behind appearances this struggling essence is also striving to merge with the heart. But the body stands between us and separates us. The mind stands between us and separates us.
11. What is my duty? To shatter the body, to rush and merge with the Invisible. To let the mind fall silent that I may hear the Invisible calling.
12. I walk on the rim of the abyss, and I tremble. Two voices contend within me.
13. The mind: “Why waste ourselves by pursuing the impossible? Within the holy enclosure of our five senses it is our duty to acknowledge the limitation of man.”
14. But another voice within me – call it the Sixth Power, call it the heart – resists and shouts: “No! No! Never acknowledge the limitation of man. Smash all boundaries! Deny whatever your eyes see. Die every moment, but say: ‘Death does not exist.’”

The Saviors of God
Spiritual Exercises
~Nikos Kazantzakis

All Yours,
citizen J
:dunce:

P.S. I know I have some stuff around here somewhere on The Fool. I'll try and dig it up if anyone's interested...

[Why Syzygy]

12. wow

just wow.

[KittyWampus]

17. But the body stands between us and separates us. The mind stands between

"But the body stands between us and separates us. The mind stands between us and separates us."

The Fool, or Superconsciousness is Without Limits or otherwise known as the Limitless Light. The Fool doesn't differentiate between "this or that".

Sanskrit saying "Tat Tvam Asi" or Thou Art That.

Our body and the our minds which percieve ourselves as limited in/by space-time must be transcended. Little by little, of course.

What comes after Rational Thought?

After we have studied a problem and pulled it apart and considered all options. What happens when we reach a dead end after focusing for a long time on a problem?

Often we can empty our thoughts or fall asleep and find THE ANSWER in a dream or in a mediation. From the Void, we become a channel for information that had not been present in the equation before.

Many times Scientists and Artists say that after working on a project for a long time and reaching an impasse... a dream will come to them with the answer.

So the Fool's cliff might be the end of Rational Thought (symbolized by the purple Mountains).

BTW, a friend once broached the notion that Aleph/The Fool alludes to the Alpha state our minds enter when mediating.

[KittyWampus]

18. Tat Tvam Asi

Tat Tvam Asi, a sanskrit sentence, translating variously to "thusness", "Thou art that", "That thou art", or "You are that", is one of the four Mahāvākyas (Grand Pronouncements) in Hinduism. It originally occurs in the Chandogya Upanishad.

It is generally taken to mean that your soul or consciousness is wholly or partially the Ultimate Reality. That is to say, even before the creation of the universe, a unitary, divine consciousness existed, and that this consciousness is identical to your deepest self.

[Why Syzygy]

13. I could probably look this up

but would anyone be interested in explaining why the "hebrew" alphabet is associated with Tarot? Why not the "greek" alphabet for example? Or any other?

I'm curious.

[jokerman93]

15. The connection between the Tarot and the Hebrew Alphabet

The connection between the Tarot and the Hebrew Alphabet comes primarily I think from the Jewish mystical tradition called Kabbalah. One version of it goes that a non-Jewish 19th century French occultist named Eliphas Levi, gave kabbalistic attributions to the Tarot.

The possibilities are endless!

Here's a good one if anyone's interested:

The Qabalistic Tarot - A Textbook of Mystical Philosophy, Robert Wang, 1983 Samuel Weiser, Inc.

[KittyWampus]

16. Wang's Book Was The First I Purchased! :-)

after that, I got Paul Foster Case's "True and Invisible Rosicrucian Brotherhood" and returned THAT shortly after trying to read it. I wasn't sure it was "safe". But then, I read in Wang's book a reference to Case's group B.O.T.A and decided to try their correspondance course... and some time later repurchased Case's book on Rosicrucianism. :)

Anyhow, speaking of Rosicrucianism...

there is a correspondance between Hebrew-Greek-Latin alphabets and gematria.

Latin Simplex is included in my studies but I've a hard enough time to get the Hebrew gematria.

Then there are the Alchemical references. That is one reason why it's really great to have a deck to study. Our Subconscious Mind recognizes all the images and allusions even if we are not aware of it consciously yet.

[jokerman93]

21. Have you seen Wang's Tarot

It's a Jungian archetypal deck - very beautiful, I think. Unfortunately I've only found one companion book for the deck that covers the major arcana only.

[Matariki]

19. Actually the connection predates Levi

The first(known) published essay connecting tarot with the Hebrew alphabet is in 1781 by Comte de Mellet (a Freemason, btw), titled 'Le Monde Primitif'.

The fact that there are 22 trumps and 22 Hebrew letters is the likely explanation as to the connection (as opposed to say the Greek alphabet which has 24 letters).

Tarot began (supposedly) as a game in Italy in the 1400's. (The decks were hand painted and affordable only to the nobility). It (supposedly) wasn't used for divination until much later. There's no evidence for the common myth that tarot originated in Egypt or with Gypsy's or Jews, etc.

Waite and the Golden Dawn did much to further and deepen the connection between Qabala, the Western Mysteries and the tarot in the 1800's. His redesigned deck being rich with symbolism from those traditions.

[jokerman93]

20. Yeah

That's why I was careful to say "One version of it goes..."