Rosetta Tarot - the Fool

[velvetina]

is this how we start? This is how I'm starting anyway -(St. Tib's Day too, so auspicious!)- the tiger who accompanies this Fool is Calvin's familiar daemon, Hobbes.

Discuss.

(drawing upon ancient archetypes prevalent in contemporary media perhaps?)

[Babalon Jones]

Here is a picture for you of The Fool.

Hah, I won't say anything about Hobbes, but he (the Fool's tiger here) is a rather silly looking tiger at that! Crowley describes the tiger in the Thoth deck as "fawning upon" the Fool. It may also help to reflect on where else in the cards a tiger appears. There is the tiger in the Princess of Wands, and extending the feline family outwards, the lion of Leo or Lust. Perhaps the tiger is passion attempting to distract him - or push him onwards.

[frac_ture]

Originally Posted by velvetina

is this how we start? This is how I'm starting anyway

This is exactly how we start! Oh, and if you haven't done so already, please just send Sulis a PM to announce the formation of this specific thread so it can be added to the index -- anyone who kicks off a thread should please try to remember to do that if possible... But definite thanks are in order for getting the actual discussions going, velvetina -- it's much appreciated! I was out all day and evening, and I really need to head off to bed, but will try to join in the actual conversations very soon...which will be made easier by the fact that my Rosetta Tarot and Book of Seshet were awaiting me in my mailbox upon my arrival home a little while ago! Today has been auspicious indeed. I feel so much more equipped now...

Originally Posted by Babalon Jones

Here is a picture for you of The Fool.

...It may also help to reflect on where else in the cards a tiger appears. There is the tiger in the Princess of Wands, and extending the feline family outwards, the lion of Leo or Lust...

Thanks for posting a link to the card, Babalon Jones -- and this will officially be one of the first things I look for as I take my introductory stroll through the cards (and the idea of Hobbes being present in the Fool card is so charming! I guess Calvin had some Fool-like qualities in some ways...)...

[Asbestos Mango]

The Fool has ram's horns. Does that mean he's horny? Also, there is the sun over his, er, nethers...

This is the most passionate fool I've seen. I think the passion is both trying to distract him and urge him on at the same time, varying from moment to moment.

[GoldenWolf]

I looked at this card last night and scrawled out whatever came to mind in my journal. By the time I was done, I was too tired to post this. So here's what I got. I hope it's a bit more coherent and structured than the way it came to me.

First, I noticed the red butterflies which relate to air and Aleph.
Next, the green snake/serpent/dragon/ouroboros biting its own title in a figure that I am accustomed to seeing in the World/Universe cards.
The Fool has a cup in his right hand spilling a straem of water that travels around the inside of the ouroboros to join up with stream of fire arcing around from the pine cone(?) in his left hand. A butterfly (air) joins the two streams.
This Fool has a sun (fire) over his groin that extends up to his solar plexus. NOTE: Not only did I misspell this in my journal last night as "son", I just did it again here and corrected it!
In the lower left corner is a crocodile (Sebek?) with a small crescent moon over the crocodile's head. There's a dove in the lower right corner (Holy Spirit). There's a cadaceus with a winged solar disk (Mercury).
I think the tiger is urging him on. It looks as if it's make that same half playful, half exasperated swap that my cat does to me at times. The tiger also looks as if he's ready to bound after the Fool who is starting to step out of the ouroboros into the world of manifestation.
I think the ram horns and the four (like the four elements) grape clusters around the neck of the Fool show him as a Dionysus figure here. The ouroboros is a womb so their is a birth/rebirth motif going on here.
I also looked up a comment that Crowley made about the Fool being a glyph of the other atu. That's all going on here-ouroboros (Universe), crescent moon (Priestess), four elements (Magus), the cup with water (Art), the tiger (Lust), ram horns (Emperor), dove (Tower) and the Sun. I know that the pine cone is on another atu, but blanking on which one. i'm sure i have missed others lol.
Oh yeah, the teeny tiny black sperm headed for the white ovum inside the ouroboros behind the scenes or the veil so to speak. I had to get out the magnifying glass to be sure of that one.

Sorry if this is totally off base. I haven't gotten the book for this deck yet.

[Babalon Jones]

Originally Posted by GoldenWolf

This Fool has a sun (fire) over his groin that extends up to his solar plexus. NOTE: Not only did I misspell this in my journal last night as "son", I just did it again here and corrected it!

Very appropriate! Typos like that are sometimes so revealing.

I'm impressed with how well you did, book or no book, you have nailed the imagery not off base at all!

(And yes, the fire is trailing from a pine cone, and the crocodile is Sebek.)

[frac_ture]

I'm finally getting a chance to sit down with my new deck and book today, and I wanted to join in on the Fool discussion!

I have to say that while I first encountered the Fool in the Rider-Waite context, and have long associated the card/character with stepping off of a cliff, I really like this spin on the concept, with the Fool stepping through a portal. It occurred to me while reading the thread that the ouroboros (one of my favorite symbols) not only serves as the very portal through which this Fool is stepping, but it also pictorially represents both the first letter of its own name ("O") as well as the Fool's trump number (if we go with 0 here rather than 22, of course...). That may all be incidental to the portal concept, but I thought it added some interesting levels of symbolism in a sort of metatextual way, maybe...

I also tend to be weak as of yet with respect to Egyptian mythology, and Greek myths are my far stronger suit, so Greek associations were jumping out at me, primarily in the form of three figures from Greek mythology: I know the ram horns are meant to be a reference to Aries, but I thought of Pan immediately upon looking at the card, which makes me wonder about possible connections with the Devil trump...the caduceus calls up Hermes for me...and I, too, associated the grapes with Dionysus.

In addition to having that momentary thought about ties to the Devil card, a couple of other Major Arcana cards also popped up in my head when I pondered this image. For one, the Fool's wielding of both fire and water made me think of the Art card (and Temperance images from the RWS school), and as GoldenWolf pointed out, the ouroboros calls up thoughts of the Universe card. I can totally see how passage through the Universe tableau can lead one back to a brand new Fool's leap, so that connection makes sense to me without too much work, but I want to see if I can connect the Fool up now with either the Devil or Art...

I'm also a passionate devotee of the Mobius Strip/lemniscate as a symbol, and I think it works well in conjunction with the ouroboros in general. And then more specifically here, using butterflies -- creatures that often symbolize metamorphosis -- to outline it really adds some great commentary on the nature of the Fool's journey, I think!

[Catmoon]

Probably I'm totally off, but just occured to me...
"wolf disguised under sheep skin" or "fool disguised under leopard skin"
In medieval bestiary: The pard has a spotted coat, and is extremely swift. It kills its prey with a single leap. The offspring of a pard and a lion is the leopard.
Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 2:11): The leopard is the degenerate offspring of the adulterous mating of a lion (leo) and a pard.
Bartholomaeus Anglicus [13th century CE] (De proprietatibus rerum, book 18): The leopard is a beast most cruel, and is gendered in spouse-breach of a pard and of a lioness, and pursueth his prey startling and leaping and not running, and if he taketh not his prey in the third leap, or in the fourth, then he stinteth for indignation, and goeth backward as though he were overcome. And he is less in body than the lion, and therefore he dreadeth the lion, and maketh a cave under earth with double entering, one by which he goeth in, and the other by which he goeth out. And that cave is full wide and large in either entering, and more narrow and straight in the middle. And so when the lion cometh, he fleeth and falleth suddenly into the cave, and the lion pursueth him with a great rese, and entereth also into the cave, and weeneth there to have the mastery over the leopard, but for greatness of his body he may not pass freely by the middle of the den which is full straight, and when the leopard knoweth that the lion is so let and holden in the straight place, he goeth out of the den forward, and cometh again into the den in the other side behind the lion, and reseth on him behindforth with biting and with claws, and so the leopard hath often in that wise the mastery of the lion by craft and not by strength, so the less beast hath oft the mastery of the strong beast by deceit and guile in the den, and dare not rese on him openly in the field, as Homer saith in the book of the battles and wiles of beasts. ( Steele edition of 1905)
Maybe that's why he needs to cross the Oroborus gate, and rebirth. To "grow" from a deceitfull behaviour to a fearlessly, strong and speedy tigger.

Edited to add: And as probably I'm totally off base (and I haven't got the book for this deck, nor the deck, yet. But I intend to have it really soon) just would like to add, the tigger like the "Tigger" from "The Tao of Pooh" (wich is a book written by Benjamin Hoff), who's so fast than doesn't see details and often overrun his friend, not on porpose of course, and needs to reach the state of the big hearted and simpleminded "Pooh".

[velvetina]

there's a mimickry in the pose of the tiger, he is shadowing the fool - but as it is behind him, the Fool doesn't see this bit of tom-foolery...also,when I encountered this for the first time, & met the tiger's eye, I felt the humour there...and thought he was taking a bow to the audience as he stepped out from behind the curtain.

It was a warm and excellent introduction to this deck.

[Starlily]

Not a whole lot to add to what has already been discussed but here are a few observations.

The tiger brought William Blake to mind:

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

This ties in well with the whole idea of creation and the untamed nature of the Fool--or perhaps even more significantly--the Fool's Maker.

The Fool is associated with the element of Air. The idea of air or breath is significant in several creation myths. From Genesis: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul."

In the Norse myths, Odin shaped each of the trees into a man and a woman, and gave each of them breath.

Even the phrase, "breath of life" is completely appropriate.

As for the Fool being oblivious to the Tiger pushing him through the portal, I think there's something to be said here about blessed foolishness. It's one of the paradoxical gifts of youth and inexperience that often makes us take a blind leap of faith. So many journeys would not be undertaken without this quality.

I love the energy in this card, the vitality, and the recurring theme of cycles. It truly is the beginning and the end. Lots and lots of circles contained in the imagery.