The Dog in the Fool

How do you interpret the dog (or animal companion, depending on the artwork of the deck) in the Fool's card?

I'm sure that many of you embrace different approaches to this symbolism. I'm looking for the all the different insight you may provide. Theories, ideas, initiatory connections, symbolism, speculation...

I couldn't find it but if there's already a developed discussion about this detail please point me in the right direction.

Thank you.

I don't know about other threads, but....

Nagging issues holding him back or distracting him.

OR warning him of the precipice/pulling him back - like a guide dog.

OR - just simply a pet companion (though I think that would not fit really old decks, from the days when I think that wouldn't have been something "normal".)

Basic "Pay Attention!" message

gregory said:

OR - just simply a pet companion (though I think that would not fit really old decks, from the days when I think that wouldn't have been something "normal".)

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True! In older decks the Fool seems to be showing us he's a fool not by heading off a cliff but by being harried by that dog. Any rational person would avoid a dog that was coming after him, nipping at his heels or getting a bite into his trousers. But the Fool doesn't even notice the animal, he's so distracted.

When I was a child, I daydreamed a lot--I think more than most, but it's hard to know--and some older teachers got very upset at this. I never quite understood why. Letting the mind wander seemed a very good thing for inventing, creating, etc.--and articles I later read backed this up. But I also read a lot of history later on, and what life was like back in the bad-old-days, well, it made a lot of sense for those teacher to be impatient with kids who weren't paying attention. Bad weather, wild animals, rough terrain, and, yes, other people trying to steal your stuff, all these old-time dangers, some of which these old teachers had gone through, needed a person's full attention. Or else, the person could very easily and quickly be dead.

This is still true today depending on what you're doing; but we're pretty lucky. We live in a time when we can stroll through a park and let our minds drift. No danger that, if we do so, we'll get lost in the woods, fall into a ravine, miss signs of a coming storm or get eaten by a wolf. So the dog, to me, is at it's most basic a throwback to this message. As in old fairytales, like Little Red Riding Hood, it's warning us to "Pay attention!" Don't be stupid. Don't be a fool and let your mind wander. Not because daydreaming is "bad" in and of itself, but because there are so many dangers out in the world. If you let yourself become distracted while on the road/out in the wide world, you're a fool. And fools don't end well.

The versions of the Fool that show the dog frolicking behind him, just a faithful companion on the road, don't do very much for me. Those that show the dog chomping him on the calf seem more to the point. It's a warning, a wake-up call. Some writers say it's The Fool's conscience hailing him, others that it's his subconscious, and a few mix them together. A bite would seem to be a more potent corrective than a yip, if that was the intention. Some simply see it as the primitive animal nature that the Fool is about to leave behind as he "space-walks." The dog is certainly far too small to drag the Fool back from the precipice that the next step will carry him over, so perhaps the dog is just a passive symbol with a limited active role to play. In truth, if the Fool stopped in his tracks and prudently went the other way, the rest of the "Fool's Journey" story wouldn't have to be told. (Or maybe he would just take the bus )

In the Ukiyoe deck, the dog represents the disastrous results of the man's foolishness. The deck's description tells of an historic figure in Japanese legends who was traveling and rested under a tree with his dog. The dog suddenly started barking furiously, and in his foolish impatience, he beheaded the dog. Then immediately realized the dog had been trying to alert him to a poisonous snake in the tree overhead.

Barleywine said:

The versions of the Fool that show the dog frolicking behind him, just a faithful companion on the road, don't do very much for me. Those that show the dog chomping him on the calf seem more to the point.

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There are several that show it chomping on something FAR more risky....

gregory said:

There are several that show it chomping on something FAR more risky....

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Ha! I suppose it depends on which part of his anatomy the Fool is doing his thinking with.

This is what the dog means to me, which probably isn't historically or symbolically accurate at all. Bear in mind, I'm a RWS girl.

To me, the Fool and his dog are one and the same. The dog is there to show how alike their behaviour is. In the RWS, the dog isn't biting or tugging or attempting to stop the Fool (it's behind him, not in front of him) so although I may see it as a warning depending on the context of a reading, the majority of the time I think of it as a symbol of the Fool's attitude.

A dog chases butterflies and cars, welcomes strangers with a waggy tail and sometimes follows them into vans never to be seen again. A dog follows its nose and licks its bottom, and always cherishes a meal or its walk like it's the first and last it will ever have. Like the Fool, a dog can be trained but before that it - in its puppy-like state - it greets the world with pure, unleashed joy and doesn't always see the dangers. The dog in the RWS is small and may be a puppy. It may be jumping at a butterfly or a cloud.

I take into account the personality of dogs in general.

They are loyal, enthusiastic and always up for fun or mischief. I look at the Fool's dog as being excited to be on an adventure. He is encouraging the fool, even trying to make him go faster.

It would be quite a different card if the companion animal was a cat.

Mittkait said:

It would be quite a different card if the companion animal was a cat.

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Heh. A cat wouldn't be a companion animal. You accompany cats (usually chase after them, search for them, or vainly call for them), they don't accompany you