a question about the fool's dog, help please!!!

ravenest

Maybe the dog is saving the Fool from a precipitous downfall
Yes ... as in post #39 - Good dog! Here is biscuit! :)

or maybe, as I read once, it is the dog of conventionality hindering the Fool from being open to wider possibilities.

Bad dog! Go home! :(

- Whatever happened to that ArcanoMáximo guy (at the top of the last page) ? He was a hoot :laugh:
 

Richard

As the path from Chokmah to Kether, the Fool is "Wisdom (which is Folly) stepping off into Nothing" [Liber Θ]. To the dog (unenlightened consciousness), it just looks like a fatal accident about to happen. Like a good dog, it is trying to alert the Fool to the danger.

ETA. The divinatory meaning therefore might be something like
.......the dog of conventionality hindering the Fool from being open to wider possibilities.
 

treedog

Perhaps in older decks the annoying canine let us know that the "fool" was a stranger in town, a juggler, a traveling minstrel who did everything from pull teeth to play dice. The menacing dog also feels like untamed passions.

In newer decks I like the feel of the friendly companion as the intellect becoming more integrated, a more intimate relationship between conscious and subconscious. But in a reading I ask, "So who's the dog?"
 

Zephyros

As the path from Chokmah to Kether, the Fool is "Wisdom (which is Folly) stepping off into Nothing" [Liber Θ]. To the dog (unenlightened consciousness), it just looks like a fatal accident about to happen. Like a good dog, it is trying to alert the Fool to the danger.

I like this. I am at present studying Death, a card that is closely connected to the Fool through its parallel on the Tree of Life. In a nutshell, the Fool could be thought of as something from nothing, while Death is something from something (putrefaction). It could be that the dog is an amalgamation of two separate symbols, that of fire (the tiger or cat seen in some decks) and water (the crocodile). The tiger I take to mean Leo, the spark of creation, fire. The crocodile is connected to Death, especially since the Fool is the "death of nothing," the end of the pure unmanifest, i.e., Nothing will never be the same again, as it is has transformed into Something.

In addition, it is impossible to see a dog and not think (if you're pretentious like me!) of Canis Major, the Dog Star, Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, seen in the Star. I can't really say why the Star would be on the Fool, but I like it on a certain, inexplicable level.
 

ravenest

Well ... on that certain inexplicable level ... Canis major is the hunting dog of Orion. so that makes Orion the Fool in the tarot ... more 'proof' that constellations are the base of Majors in the Tarot ;) (and I can say that here because we are not in the history forum. :)
 

ravenest

Especially for you;

Wiki; “The Bible mentions Orion three times, naming it "Kesil" (כסיל, literally - fool). Though, this name perhaps is etymologically connected with "Kislev", the name for the ninth month of the Hebrew calendar (i.e. November–December), which, in turn, may derive from the Hebrew root K-S-L as in the words "kesel, kisla" (כֵּסֶל, כִּסְלָה, hope, positiveness), i.e. hope for winter rains.) “
Taking 'fool' as the meaning we have Orion as the Tarot Fool and Sirius the dog at his heels. (Better than a Scorpion ;) )

In Greek it equates to urine ... weird stuff about urine in a bag and burying it ... is that what the Fool is carrying tied to his stick ... with the 'jester' (similar to fool) he has a bladder on a stick.
 

Richard

Mary K. Greer has mentioned that Waite refers several times to the 'apocryphal' book of Tobit (or Tobias), in which the hero and his dog go on a journey.
 

Zephyros

Well ... on that certain inexplicable level ... Canis major is the hunting dog of Orion. so that makes Orion the Fool in the tarot ... more 'proof' that constellations are the base of Majors in the Tarot ;) (and I can say that here because we are not in the history forum. :)

This is interesting to me, immersed in Death as I am present. It does show the connection between Death and the Fool, as any new endeavor carried within it the seeds of its own termination (for better or worse, of course). Orion is also an example of Hubris, as he boasted that he would kill all living things, and was eventually killed by Scorpio, i.e., Death.

Wiki; “The Bible mentions Orion three times, naming it "Kesil" (כסיל, literally - fool). Though, this name perhaps is etymologically connected with "Kislev", the name for the ninth month of the Hebrew calendar (i.e. November–December), which, in turn, may derive from the Hebrew root K-S-L as in the words "kesel, kisla" (כֵּסֶל, כִּסְלָה, hope, positiveness), i.e. hope for winter rains.) “
Taking 'fool' as the meaning we have Orion as the Tarot Fool and Sirius the dog at his heels. (Better than a Scorpion )

In the old calendar, Kislev was indeed the ninth month, as the month of Passover was the first. However since then, Tishrey was set as the first month, the month of the harvest. There is probably a reason for this, but I don't know it for certain.

Mary K. Greer has mentioned that Waite refers several times to the 'apocryphal' book of Tobit (or Tobias), in which the hero and his dog go on a journey.

Probably unrelated, but I wonder if the Inquisition has any connection to the dog, through the Dominicans, who were powerful in the order, known as the Domini Canis, a play on words.
 

Richard

......Probably unrelated, but I wonder if the Inquisition has any connection to the dog, through the Dominicans, who were powerful in the order, known as the Domini Canis, a play on words.
Can you believe that to this day there are people who defend the role of the Dominicans in the Inquisition? The nastiest, meanest dog in the world is a sweet little puppy compared to the Domini Canis.

This is a little off topic, but I once read a post in another forum in which someone was defending the Inquisition. She wrote that it wasn't bad at all because they had strict rules. For example, they couldn't torture children or the elderly. (By golly, that was really considerate of them! That surely opened my eyes to how nice the Inquisition was. I always thought it was a bunch of bad guys. Silly me!)