0 The Fool
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We begin. The enlightenment journey begins with the Fool. The Fool card is numbered zero, which represents nothingness. Everything comes from nothing.
At this point we are not yet in the material world. This card represents the spirit world. Here all is possible. Nothing is manifested. The Fool is the idea. The Fool follows his sense of passion, bliss, joy, undirected potential, and the infinite energy of life.
The Fool is spirit energy on the move. Fool energy powers the journey through the entire Major Arcana. He is the character in the Tarot that is responsible for movement. The Fool card is one of only two in the Major Arcana that depict characters moving of their own accord—the other is the final card, XXI The World.
The Fool symbolizes engaging a new reality, moving from the spirit world to the material world, into the field of opposites, into the field of duality. He’s all about deciding to take the leap.
Let’s look at some of the symbolism in the card.
We see his pack, which he carries over his shoulder. It represents his previous life experiences that he carries with him into this new world, this new life. This is not baggage that he is carrying. There are no great trunks or giant suitcases. He just carries his essential experiences.
His pack is borne by a wand. (Wands will come up multiple times throughout the deck.) They normally represent action but in this case the wand is passive in that it only carries his pack. It passively carries these life experiences.
The dog in the corner represents the animal forces of nature in harmony with someone who acts by instinct.
As I said, the Fool powers the whole deck. Every time we move from one card to another, or from one row to another, we invoke the Fool. We could not advance through the deck (or through life) without the energy, without the optimism of the Fool. He powers the whole journey.
The flower in his left hand is a white rose. The color white symbolizes purity and spirit, and the rose itself represents the beauty of life, the beauty of the experience of life. That is the thing that he is pursuing. He’s pursuing a new experience of life, a new beauty in life. He holds the rose delicately in his hand, indicating that he really reveres this experience, that this is the thing that he seeks above all else.
He’s headed for an experience of life. And, as we can see, he’s not even looking where he’s going. He’s not planning to jump off the cliff. He’s just following his experience of joy, his experience of life, his faith in life and bliss, and it leads him off the edge unaware.
He journeys down from the snowy mountains, which represent a place of wisdom and remoteness. And we see the Sun! At his back, it lights his way. It represents enlightenment. The grand irony of this card is that the character shown in the card is starting his journey of enlightenment by leaving an enlightened state. Who would do this? A Fool!
But the Fool is perhaps not as foolish as he seems. Any time we take a chance, any time we leap from a known experience into a new experience, we contribute to the energy that keeps the Universe in motion. In this card spirit incarnates seeking the experience of being alive. We begin again the infinite cycle.
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