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0 The Fool

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(2015), graphite pencils on paper, 5.5"x10.5" backed with digital frame.

The Fool is the first card of the journey of the Tarot. It signifies new beginnings, the start of a journey or a new project. In traditional decks the Fool is a young man with a knapsack on his back who strides confidently into the card, oblivious to the fact that he's perilously close to a sheer drop of a cliff and that a dog (in the Toth deck it's a tiger) is ready to bite him on the back.

In his writings about the Tarot Crowley associates the Fool with the Hebrew letter Aleph (the Ox) and with the Egyptian goddess Maut (represented by a vulture), which resulted in the degraded denomination of this card in the first Italian decks as "Le Mat" (the Fool). As the zero point the card is essentially sex-less, embodying both male and female elements. The card also has associations with spring rites and the Green Man and therefore lives in the tension between asexuality yet fertility, which Crowley embedded in his card by referencing the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek. There also is a tiger in the Crowley Tarot alluding to the externalization of aggressive impulses.

For my own card I quite liked the animal references realizing that apart from the interpretations Crowley gives them, they can also represent the four elements with the vulture standing for Air, the crocodile for Water, the Ox for earth and the Tiger for fire. I moved away from the central figure of a young man and instead wanted to represent the beginning of the journey by the new-born reincarnating (butterfly) into this existence despite the dangers it will have to face (the animals, one of which is a scavenger, two predators and even an irate bull can be lethal). I crossed the baby's legs to leave its sex ambiguous. At this point it does not matter. The egg behind the baby also hints at beginnings and potentialities, and the knotwork in the background stands for continuity, interconnectedness and the meanderings of our journey through life. It is unbroken to show that a beginning and an end are just arbitrary phases in the continuum. So the Fool is not only the beginning of the journey, and the first card of the deck, it is also the last, the end that starts a new cycle.

In a spread the Fool indicates that we are moving into a new situation in our life (a new job, a new relationship, etc.) where we have no preconceived notions and everything feels fresh and exciting. We are curious and wish to move forward exploring everything rather than stop and worry. However, even if we are a little too impulsive or if things feel chaotic there is little real danger if we trust our instincts. This is an important aspect of the Fool. William Blake put it well when he said that if the Fool persisted in his folly he would become wise.

This is not a time to be cautious, calculating or even particularly rational, but instead to be open, to go with the flow, to give and experience without tallying up the score.
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ariya-sacca's avatar

Looks beautiful!