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The Tarot really consists of two packs in one. First are the twenty-two symbolic numbered cards - the last card being the Fool, which has no number. These are the Major Arcana.

The second part of the pack follows the usual manner of playing cards and are called the Minor Arcana; and are used in the great spreads - such as the "Great Figure of Destiny", first composed by the great diviner, Etteilla; and that very popular game, Climax, not forgetting "Travellers", and Le Grand Jeu.

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The Fool

Starting with The Fool, in the Middle Ages he was known as the Lord of Misrule. He has no number. This is no oversight, but has a deeper significance. To the student of the Occult the major Arcana symbolises the complete and orderly progression of Heaven, Nature and Mankind, through the Spiritual, the mental and the earthly planes. But this card, having no fixed place or time, being subject to no rules of reason or logic and violating all laws, will fall unexpectedly across even the most carefully ordered life and will bring unhappiness or destruction.

The Fool is dressed in tattered clothes - the remnants of the leopard skin of his ancient past, and accompanying him, snapping at his heels, Fate in the form of a wild beast or wolf; bringing echoes of the old story of the hunt, where the Hunter becomes the Hunted. His curious headgear is all that remains of the horns of the God Dionysus, who he represents.Dionysus was the destroyer of law and order, the incarnate power of spiritual revolt and rebirth against tyranny; and chaos unleashed, not subject to the rules of reason or logic, violating the decrees of the Gods and Nature.

Rosicrucian Cabalists equate the Fool with Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, meaning the beginning of all, but perhaps Alpha and Omega would be a more accurate description.

To the Neoplatonists, the Fool was the Egyptian version of the Divine Child, Harpocrates, generally portrayed as a small infant seated on a lotus, with his fingers to his lips, signifying secrecy and the magical power of concealment.

Therefore, when a Cabalist wishes to invoke the power of protection and invisibility, he meditates on the image of the Fool, often imagining himself in the form of the figure portrayed in his deck of Tarot.

According to those who have studied this art of "invisibility" the process is one of fascination - in the old meaning of the word, that is, the methods of deluding the senses of the onlookers, so that they are hypnotised and simply refuse to see the subject.

In a spread the appearance of the Fool represents carelessness and dissipation of powers. He takes the wrong turning and instead of controlling and making use of his natural forces, he has stowed them away, uselessly in his knapsack - but at the same time is obliged to carry his problems and foolishness along with him.

The Fool creates chaos wherever he goes, nothing is certain when he appears, and unless checked by a stronger card - like the Sun, he will run riot through the orderly progression of Nature and Mankind. If the card is reversed, the disorder is more intense, and presages misery and imbalance.

He is the Cosmic Cypher, the existential Everyman, all over the place, at home everywhere, at home nowhere; and as the Italians say "Esse come il Matto nel tarocchi" -To behave like the Tarot Fool.

Janus

Copyright ©1998 Janus. All rights reserved.

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