The Dog in the Fool

Thirteen said:

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

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Hmm, Crowley's "companion animal" was a tiger. Does that count? (As Viv Stanshall once sang: "How many tigers can you find with forks and serviettes? Don't care in what part of you they fix their fretwork sets.")

Barleywine said:

Hmm, Crowley's "companion animal" was a tiger. Does that count?

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Unlike a cat, a tiger will certainly accompany you...so long as you look like dinner Which, indeed, seems to be the tiger's reason for being in the Fool card. He's taking quite a bite there.

Do you suppose Crowley knew the story of the tiger, cliff and strawberry?

While out walking one day, a Zen Master is confronted by a ferocious, man-eating tiger. He slowly backs away from the animal, only to find that he is trapped at the edge of a high cliff; the tiger snarls with hunger, and pursues the Master. His only hope of escape is to suspend himself over the abyss by holding onto a vine that grows at its edge. As the Master dangles from the cliff, two mice – one white and one black – begin to gnaw on the vine he is clutching on. If he climbs back up, the tiger will surely devour him, if he stays then there is the certain death of a long fall onto the jagged rocks. The slender vine begins to give way, and death is imminent. Just then the precariously suspended Zen Master notices a lovely ripe wild strawberry growing along the cliff’s edge. He plucks the succulent berry and pops it into his mouth. He is heard to say: “This lovely strawberry, how sweet it tastes.”

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Certainly the Fool's perspective, like that of the Zen Master at that moment, is "Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero," which translates to: ""Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future." Or "Take life as it comes."

I have a concept of the dog in the Fool cards (I usually use more modern decks) as a reminder that, while you may be happy to take the chance of falling off a cliff for not looking where you're going, there's a little dog there who is so devoted to you that he'll follow you right off that cliff. I can see that as saying you need to think of others outside yourself who trust you enough to follow you off a cliff, too, like your children or close friends. You're an adult now and skipping through the tulips without a care in the world might not work for those who depend on you.

Grizabella said:

I have a concept of the dog in the Fool cards (I usually use more modern decks) as a reminder that, while you may be happy to take the chance of falling off a cliff for not looking where you're going, there's a little dog there who is so devoted to you that he'll follow you right off that cliff. I can see that as saying you need to think of others outside yourself who trust you enough to follow you off a cliff, too, like your children or close friends. You're an adult now and skipping through the tulips without a care in the world might not work for those who depend on you.

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That's an interesting concept.

Grizabella - I really like that!

And if we're talking about tigers..what about the children's tale (that would never be on a shelf at a bookstore in current times) where three Tigers end up chasing each other around a tree, each holding onto the tail of the one in front of it, until they turned into butter because they were jealous and foolish?

I did get that book for my daughter because it's a really good story,

animal instincts?

Pipistrelle said:

To me, the Fool and his dog are one and the same. The dog is there to show how alike their behaviour is....A dog chases butterflies and cars, welcomes strangers with a waggy tail and sometimes follows them into vans never to be seen again.

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While I agree that the Fool is very puppy-like, I'm not so sure they're one-in-the-same. Both can be distracted, or fooled, but while a dog may or may not be very smart, it does have instincts. Fight-or-flight type instincts that come into play. Consider this puppy that can't get down the stairs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAQzNBaAPAs

It takes an adult dog showing the puppy that it's safe, several times, before the puppy gets up the courage to go down a stair. So, I don't think a puppy who actually saw the cliff would go over it. I think that if the puppy saw the edge, and was able to stop, it absolutely would stop before going over. But the Fool, being human, can ignore his instincts. Thanks, ironically, to his intellect, he might even be able to convince himself he fly. The dog can't imagine that. It's instincts tell it that it will fall.

So, yes, a dog can take a misstep like the distracted Fool. But I'm not so sure they're one-in-the same even so. The dog is both not as smart as a man, nor as capable of folly. And that might, in this case, make the difference.

Grizabella said:

I can see that as saying you need to think of others outside yourself who trust you enough to follow you off a cliff, too

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That's a really interesting way to look at it. Still..and I know I'm being a little too literal minded here--my gut feeling is that any dog would scramble away from the edge of that cliff. It's not a matter of loyalty, but simply the dog's primitive instincts. We humans, we'll jump off cliffs with someone we're attached to for all kinds of weird reasons. As I said, we can circumvent our instincts, often to our benefit, but sometime to our folly. But a dog has a harder time doing that.

So while I like this message for the Fool, I have a hard time attributing it to the dog. Perhaps the message is that we shouldn't always dismiss our animal brains in favor of our "higher" intellect. Those raw, primitive instincts can often be more right than we imagine—or want to imagine.

Thirteen said:

So while I like this message for the Fool, I have a hard time attributing it to the dog. Perhaps the message is that we shouldn't always dismiss our animal brains in favor of our "higher" intellect. Those raw, primitive instincts can often be more right than we imagine—or want to imagine.

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Yes, I do recall reading somewhere a long time ago that the Dog represents our native instincts, which are more reliable than our reasoning brains in some situations (such as the "fight or flight" reaction). The Dog is instinctively wary of the precipice which the Fool is blithely ignoring. Maybe I can dredge up a reference.

Thirteen said:

Perhaps the message is that we shouldn't always dismiss our animal brains in favor of our "higher" intellect. Those raw, primitive instincts can often be more right than we imagine—or want to imagine.

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That's actually a very useful insight. It can definitely relate to a valuable meditation on an element the card. Thanks for that.

I agree that most dogs would probably know better, but I've had a lot of dogs and most of them are clumsy enough that if they get excited about their owner they could fall accidentally.

The animal brain thing is really good, too.

I was trying to find one of the discussions from the Historical or Marseilles sections, that discussed whether it was a dog or a "civet" in the earliest decks, and yes in those decks, it showed the animal taking a swipe at the Fool's genitals, or at least his backside. In some of the old decks, it does look a lot like a large cat, not like cougar large, but larger than a domestic cat.

I haven't yet found the thread about the cat, but I did find this one that talks about the fool being driven away from civilization by the people, children and lastly by the dog(s) of a town/village. http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=68800&highlight=dog+cat+fool It's a very good read and gives you a glimpse at what the earliest fool card may have meant, before it was altered by more modern day tarot creators. To me it gives more credence to the idea of mad man, or someone acting outside of the norm, maybe a bit crazy, off the grid, possibly not a great contributor to the town/civilization in which he had been residing.

If I were to try to explain what the dog is doing in this card, as it has been portrayed across time and many different decks, I'd say the dog may be driving this person off the cliff or out of the town, the dog may not be a companion at all, but part of that mob that has decided the fool needs to leave, once and for all. The dog gives the last nip on the butt before you have escaped completely.