The Fool
a.k.a. The Spirit of the Aether
Card Number: 0
Rulership: Air
Hebrew Letter: Aleph
Translation: ox (plowshare)
The path between Kether (the crown) and Chokmah (wisdom). Hence, the Fool embodies divine wisdom, which often appears as nonsense to humankind. Folly and inspiration (beacause both make us laugh...).
The number zero: the Void, The Goddess, Infinite Nuit, the Unmanifest. The number from which everything comes. Beyond Alpha and Omega--the original mind.
Aleph: the beginning, the primal fire. Humans as a collective entity--the universal WoMan, and the human genre. Unity, the central point. The abstract principle of a thing (ding-in-sich?) expressing power, stability, and continuity. Note: Aleph is ALP which hooks the Fool in with Justice (Lamed) and the Tower (Peh). Perhaps this is why divine justice often leaves the receiver in ruin...
Looking at the numerical value of ALP is 1 + 30 + 80 = 111, and this is Ain Sof Aur---The third veil of negative existence.
In readings:
Dignified: A new beginning. The forces of energy, optimism, and happiness present in one’s life. Unexpected and/or unplanned events which radically alter or overthrow the current state of things. Timely or important decisions and/or choices to made.
Reversed: Reckless and impulsive action and/or choices. Indiscretion and error. The wasting away of creative energy. May indicate someone who has many ideas for many projects, but never completes any of them. Indicative of one who is constantly unsatisfied, and so, continues to seek change in most facets of life.
Mythological links: Zeus, Jupiter, Hoor-Paar-Kraat (Lord of Silence).
The Fool is the need for the Void to experience itself through manifestation. It is divine wisdom in that it creates the illusion of many in order to express and/or obscure the One. It is folly because any reproduction of the One results in the many, and so, is less than the original perfection of the Void. The Fool is also rebellion (but unwittingly) against structure and order in so far as s/he is not concerned with outcomes but exists only for the moment: the expectation of illumination without the lust for results.
Related to the "no-mind" of Zen: the psyche without the bonds of time and space--a free-fall/flight in and from nothing. The beginning of the Fall, the descent of nothing (divine spark) into something (the worldly representation of the divine shard within). Everything and Nothing, the centre and circumference (hydrogen?) The ascent of the perfected spirit of a human to godhead.
[ 23-08-2001: Message edited by: the godog ] |
better the fool you know 
