I'm re-discovering this deck after nearly 4 years of keeping it buried in my collection. I'm not usually keen on 'theme' decks as I tend to think of them as pretty shallow and lack any ‘meaningful symbolism’ (sounds very pompous I know
), but this one is so well-done and chock-a-block with symbolism, that I felt I needed to give it another go (especially after reading all the new threads on it by rwcarter). I re-read Barrett’s book over the weekend, and was very impressed by his commentary on these cards.
I love this Fool card too. I shuffled the deck this morning and drew this card, so it felt very appropriate to me to begin studying this deck.
One phrase from the book which stuck in my mind was that Amun ‘is the hidden god, the god behind the universe, the power beyond the sun’. I tend to think of The World as the ‘god card’, so the idea that the Fool is the actual ‘creator god’ in this deck is a fascinating concept.
The Fool represents naivety, innocence and ‘foolishness’, so is ‘the god behind the universe’ just a Fool? Does he act without purpose, or just on a whim?
In this deck, The Fool is numbered 0 and is placed at the beginning of the Major Arcana sequence. However in other decks, The Fool is sometimes placed after The World. So perhaps the idea of The Fool being the last step in the sequence (i.e the ‘God’ card) can give us an alternative view of this card? That being ‘godlike’ is akin to being ‘foolish’ (and vice-versa)? Or that to reach God is to reach absolute purity?
Also...what does the white dove signify (beyond the idea of purity)?
Barrett doesn't mention it in his description of this card, and no-one else has commented on it. It re-appears on the High Priestess card, and Barrett says that it's “one of the sacred birds of Isis…”.
So what is the connection (if any) between Isis and Amun?