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Druid Craft Tarot-0-The Fool
Every card in the Tarot Deck is an aspect of THE FOOL-0.
In this fact the magnificent Druid Craft Tarot is no different than any other Tarot Deck. The Druid Craft Tarot, is admired for its intrinsic worth as a connection to , Druid "old craft", Wicca and Western Magic. All of which have been combined in the Modern Qabalistic Tarot of the Hermetic Qabalah. The art work on these cards is exceptional, making a very attractive Tarot, that pleases not only the reader, but the querent as well. I will not go into long detail on the various Druid and Wicca attributes, philosophies, etc. For that has been done admirably well by the authors; Phillip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm. These cards are easily purchased on Amazon.com.
On the attractive Fool of the Druid Craft Tarot, we have the ubiquitous dog, as the faithful companion which in traditional tarot, represents the intellect of the human animal, as a faithful companion of the Spirit. The Fool, is innocent of fear, and traditionally strides along unaware of the pitfalls, or cliff edges, as his trust is complete in the power of Spirit. He is seen as staring at the bright sky while walking off a cliff into the abyss, implying absolute faith in spirit and the fearlessness of the truly innocent. All of this combines to symbolize the unknowable beginning. His head is "in the clouds", as he is oblivious to fear, and trusts his feet will carry him wherever spirit desires.
The Fool, created by artist, Will Worthington, is dressed in the greens and browns of the woods, a druid traditional grouping of color for the "Great Fool" of the Celts, or the Green Man of the Druids, as the very personification of Spring.
He has the staff and bag of meager belongings, slung over his shoulder, representing his Arcane secrets and magic tools usually attributed to the traditional tarot. The attractive feathered hat, still uses the feather as a symbol of the Yod force, or Spiritual Fire of the Higher Self.
In the language of flowers and/or plants, the mistletoe, Viscum album, with its white berries, represented not only the Druidic Oak God, but the white berries were considered the Oak God's semen. Hence, the mistletoe acquired phallic significance. To the Nordic pagans the mistletoe represented Guidhel, the same "guide to hell "that led Aeneas through the underworld as his Golden Bough(when withered, mistletoe is of a golden hue). Hence, the Ancient Fool is often considered a guide to the "other side" of the Life, that we call death.
According to the booklet authored by Phillip and Stephanie Carr-Comm the message of the Fool card is: "Trust in your inner knowing. Life is an adventure-a journey of discovery to be enjoyed. "
As a Path of Aleph, THE FOOL connects Kether (Crown) with Chokmah (Wisdom). To the Qabalist, Kether is known as the Source of All, and Chokmah is known as Father God. The Path of Aleph, meaning OX, is about the "flowing of Life Force and creative power", showing the "SPIRIT'S aim to be, manifested information as is organic material of earth and/or Sensual Being.
Thoth-0-The Fool
Crowley symbolizes this "Holy Spirit" ( The Spirit on every level of the Tree of Life) as a dove in the Thoth Deck Card.
The Ryder-Waite deck, the one most people are familiar with, suggest the Holy Spirit in the wheels of spirit on the Fool's robe. However, the concept of the Scintillating Intelligence is implied in the Druid Craft Tarot, in the radiant sun.
In the Ryder-Waite -Smith, the wand, the symbol of Will, is elongated to support the wallet that displays the eye of Horus; the All Seeing Eye of Spirit. In the Druid Craft Tarot-The Fool- has the wand, but an undecorated bag, as the Fool image himself, is Horus.
Crowley and Lady Freda Harris were more prolific in their illustrated explanation of the Fool and also called The Letter Aleph, a phallic symbol.....but then so is the Projected Will that is THE MAGUS; one wonders if Crowley and the Druids, were so besotted with the Phallus, that they were unable to see anything else. However, truth be told, by reference to Sexes and sexuality do we come to the minutest glimmering of understanding about the Universe.
In Crowley's defense, to even begin understanding THE FOOL, we must entertain a multifaceted and fluid interpretation of Force and Form.
Dr.Paul Foster Case calls this Eleventh Path of Aleph, in his book THE THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM, the fiery or Scintillating Intelligence. Which makes sense as The Path of Aleph boarders on the Limitless Light (Ain Soph), which is "not" or 0, Light without limit which is darkness to us who need a beginning and a end to see. Infinity has no measurement. So here we try to explain what can't be seen as The Fiery Darkness which is the possibility of vibration or motion and the First Perception of the One having potential for activity. In the context of Masculine sexuality, the Fool is the Testes, and the Magus is the Phallus,(represented by the three flowers beneath the spread legs of THE FOOL) as He directs active first flow from the Fool rather than potentiality doing so. However, I fear that is a rather limiting concept of the ONE-----as the Ain Soph is 0, but then, all concepts are less than the potential for conception.
We may reason that the potential for Thought, comes from the Dark Energy as Dark Matter (The First Material). The appearance of Thought emanates Mind, which is the vessel for Thought and/or Womb of Thought Forms, i.e. The immeasurable I-magi-nation, transcending all reason. Thus, our reason, leaves us with more questions than answers.
Limitlessness is a very difficult concept! To say that THE FOOL represents the initial potential for thought which transcends reason, is about the best I can do with words.
The special reality we may touch in sleep, often gives us images that do not correlate to our mundane understanding of reality, so our dreams seem to be so much abstraction and are considered as nonsense to our waking condition. However, the Great Work (As above so below) involves the assimilation of The Real, not a reality conceived of mundane ideas implied by words. The Real Concepts are from "what is Not'... making "What is" from Dreams of Potential- Self measurement! To think of the Universe as "God Dreaming" (Darkness Dreaming it is Light) is very difficult to grasp, and the fact that you are a "Lucid" Dreamer (Image of the Divine Creative), who has been given the "Power of Observation", meaning you can change the Perspective of "Things", is just about as mind boggling as it gets....and just such a glimmer of insight requires a "beyond the Mundane" understanding of Self! Thus, your Divinity is not often acknowledge by the mundane; However, your Womb/Mind, the conception of "the image of God", is the invisible Sephira, Daath (knowledge), which is the Path Where the Creatrix , the Understanding of The Divine Creative and the Creator -Wisdom, meet face to face (Yab Yum) and is known as the Path of Gimel-THE Priestess, your Spiritual Birth Mother, whose womb is the invisible Sephiroth-Daath, meaning, Knowledge!
Hence, all the Paths leading upward to Kether,THE FOOL, THE MAGUS, AND THE PRIESTESS, must be approached with a certain understanding of whimsy, as we realize that by crossing the Abyss and approaching Kether (As above, so below) means the total annihilation of Self as we perceive it. Therefore, presenting us with the irony of our attempt to grasp such esoteric and refined principles from an earthly-mundane perspective.
Often,when teaching the Major Arcana and knowing what I speak, cannot truly convey what I am saying, brings a smile, if not outright laughter to my face. To me, The I AM potential is ironically displayed as a limited/measured conception--a Me. Being a "Me" must never be taken too seriously, for that concept will change daily, when one enters the Higher Self.
To reiterate, THE FOOL- 0, in both Tarot Decks, is the initial potential for thought, transcending all reason. Thus objectifying the Upper Regions, the Supernal Triangle is seen as a futile endeavor. However,once we recognize the impossibility of the human intellect consciously approaching the Highest Levels of the Tree of Life, i.e. The Universe, in a direct manner, we are forcibly driven into the key Principles of the Mysteries/Metaphysics of As Above, So Below.
We may even begin seeingthat the Below is a mirror reflection of the Above since The Divine Spirit is all we know, we breathe it, we live within it, it is Our Greater Self. Because we know this Divinity to be "the One Energy that cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed", we know that everything is of this One, as symbolized by THE FOOL; that is the Path of Aleph.
In this context, Aleph is attributed to Air and means Life-Breath. Just as Spirit is from the Greek root word Spiro, which means Breath. The One Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is then the Life-Breath. This is well known in Eastern cultures, and Prana Yamas (Breath yoga) are a major if not primary part of all Spiritual development. The Sanskrit word Prana, is the Life-Breath energy, the shimmering, warm and bright fire that burns in all Life.
Now I have described the Magus as relating to "Words" (vibration), the underlying sonic of patterned manifestation. However, it is the power of breath that expels the sound. Thus THE FOOL activates THE MAGUS.
Crowley, considered the Universal element of Space to be a vacuum (it is actually full of atomic particles), as related to THE FOOL who is the Fertile Nothingness and egg of Spirit. The universal Egg of Spirit is known, by Qabalists, to be the EGG OF AKASHA; the zero of THE FOOL, also represents this egg of spirit, and is the mathematical formula of one Male, minus one female= 0 . Therefore, the understanding is that the Egg of Akasha, is a fertilized ovum of undefined sexuality, but having the potential for Both!
THE FOOL, is the very expression of the god name of Kether, Eheieh, which means I will be. This is the Divine Child as yet unborn, who is all potential and who is our Psyche's very beginning!
The Thoth Tarot displays a Tiger "fawning about" THE FOOL'S leg, as an archetype representing the Animal Nature of Survival thinking, as related to the less restricted Higher Spiritual process.
The Horns on the Thoth Deck figure represent those of Dionysus Zagreus, the green clothing is that of the Green Man of Spring, the grapes at his feet are a tribute to Bacchus, the Greek God of Ecstasy, and the Crocodile , representing great creative energy, a swimming at his feet in "the Nile" (Crowley quote). The images referring to the Godhead, are the dove of Venus and the vulture of Maat.
Then there is the triple egg shape created by the caduceus in motion, symbolizing the Ain Soph Aur (The three states of No-thing).
As you may realize, the imagery is so subjective that I haven't the space to detail all of a book that would be required to explain all of the knowledge contained in the Fool for you. If you need more detail, and you do, I would recommend reading Crowley's BOOK OF THOTH, Robert Wang's Book: THE QABALISTIC TAROT and investigating the Mythology of the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians.
When THE FOOL Tarot card is thrown during a reading:
- The querent is in or experiencing a state of ecstasy and/or a state of Peek experience.
- Fearlessness.
- Courage.
- Is completing all motion by Faith, absolutely trusting THE SPIRIT.
- A feeling of being protected, and that everything will work out.
- Being open to what the future brings!
- Youthful optimism.
- Taking a risk by trying something new or unconventional.
If ill defined by accompanying cards:
- The Fool, is then the harbinger of folly, mania, extravagance and even negligence.
- Negative dissolution of structures and compulsions.
- Vagueness of goals.
- Daydreaming.
- Irresponsibility.
Thank you for your interest, comments and supportive donations. May you live long and prosper.
