Intuitive Tarot~The Fool 0

I have been so inspired by my newly acquired tarot deck, The Intuitive Tarot! I'd love to revitalize the study group that has already been established for this deck by starting with The Fool card.

I love this guy, he has such a *gleam* in his eye! He looks ready for anything, and like he is about to get into something good. I think what I like about the expression on his face is that it is a hopeful look, but also an assured look. This Fool looks at you as if to say "Everything is going to work out just fine, this will be fun!" He's very playful.

I'm not sure how I feel about his hand, he isn't exactly "human", perhaps he is the being that leads us to a new journey, a new way, like a little guide to set us on the right path. What I do like about this Fool is that he looks so watery, like he is about to dissolve before my eyes, or sweep away somewhere (probably to another arcana!). He also looks to me as though he is standing at the portal of the journey we're about to take.

I love the warm colors of this card, and the use of the sun. Is the sun setting on a journey...or is it about to rise?

This card for me is inseparable from Cilla's account of creating the deck, how she was doodling one evening in 1973, a year after having first discovered the tarot.

She had been to art school, a love affair had gone terribly wrong and she was anguished and lost and emmigrated from Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) and gone to England where she discovered the tarot and then one day, whilst doodling...

She created this image and it was the starting point. I wonder how many decks really do start with an absentminded creation of the Fool card?

The Fool on this card has such impishness, and yet there is something sinister about him too; the high, miitary boots and jodhpurs, the homing rooks (?) in the bacground and sinister eyes. Him pressed up against the edge of the card as if venturing out at us. But as a card it has such gentle, naive charm.

It is one of the simplest Fool cards I know and also one of the most effective. No esoteric symbolism. No dog even, or butterfly. A refreshing change...

I must admit, this is my least favorite card in this deck. This Fool gives me the willies. I believe it is the eyes, a touch of insanity. And the hands, distorted. *Sigh* I am trying not to make assumptions about him, as the author says. But I think if he shows up in a reading, the first thing that will pop into my head is "are you insane!"

The inclusion of the sun in the scene does offer me reassurance. I have a real connection to the sun. It is warmth, clarity, renewal, hope. Scarey things go bump in the night, but the dawn reveals the tricks our minds played on us in the dark.

Now, if those eyes would just stop staring at me...

That's interesting Le Fanu, thanks for posting the backstory of the Fool and the Intuitive!

See, he just doesn't seem sinister to me at all!!! I have to remind myself that he does have a dark side because I really just want to put him in my pocket. I wonder if the huge eyes are triggering some sort of maternal response in me. Anything with big eyes is supposed to be "cute" I guess, like baby gorillas or puppies. I agree, he does have a dark side, it's just this Fool is really tricking me I guess

Well, minrice, I'm actually rather glad you like this card so. I feel a little guilty about my own feelings about it - like I should be crazy in love with every card in this deck, but I have failed to do so. Of course there will be cards in every deck we just don't connect with.

Hmm, I just had the thought that maybe my reaction to this card is related to my personality. I'm quite cautious by nature, not big on new adventures. Something to think about. Or maybe it's just the weird eyes.