Thoth - The Fool

Dryope

Very interesting to read this thread!
I've started writing some things down about every card in the Thoth deck (hoping to gain a better understanding of the cards), starting offcourse with the fool so reading this thread really comes in helpfull, reading about the different ideas/interpretations about the symbolism of this card really get's my 'thinking process' going ;)

My thoughts about the idea that the fool may be falling is that I don't think he is... he is in a vacuum, there is no above or below, that's why in my opinion he couldn't be falling and that's probably also why he is depictured in such an unusual position... although on the other hand it could also be that he is falling; he just entered the atmosphere of the earth, leaving the vacuum of space behind, maybe that's what crowley means when he writes; "He is shown against the background of air, dawning from space, and his attitude is that of one bursting unexpectedly upon the world"... that's probably it (!) because it is offcourse very symbolic for the transformation of the fool from the negative to the positive / antimatter into matter ... this ia a good example off what I meant when I wrote earlier that this thread gets my thinking proces going ;) lol

negative <->positive
antimatter <-> matter
creation <-> destruction
male <-> female
innocence <-> divinity

These all exist at the same time in the fool I guess...
 

Dryope

An unrolling piece of what looks like fabric emerges from the rings between the dove and the butterfly, and points towards the Fool's androgynous breast - does anyone know what that represents?

I think that it's the wing of the vulture...

Are the zig-zags near the bottom sides significant, or just an aesthetic design emblem? Presumably those edge designs were painted at some time by Lady Frieda Harris?

Do you mean the vertical lines?
I think these are the lotus stems which the book of thoth reffers to?
The lotus is a symbol of the mother and the nile is a symbol of the father, fertilizing egypt, according to Crowley

P.s. I see that there's also a sub-thread on the fool card in the Thoth study group thread:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25875
I haven't read anything in the thread yet but maybe there will be some answers there?
 

Aeon418

I also counted 20 rays, each ending in short golden bars, around the dove, and I could;t explain the rays.
20 is Kaph the letter of the All-Father, but it is also the value of the letter Yod spelt in full - YVD = 20. The letter Yod is emblematic of the creative "seed". The dove itself is a feminine-Venusion symbol, but is also symbolic of the descent of Spirit. The element of Spirit is neither male nor female, but both in one. Like the Fool, Spirit is hermaphroditic.

If you remember the biblical fable of the Holy Ghost is said to have descended upon Mary in the form of a dove and impregnated her.

It's also interesting to consider the connection between Mary - Maya - Matter. Spirit plunges into Matter and impregnates it. Look at the Princess of Disks (Earth of Earth) to see the result. She is pregnant with Spirit. By the way, she is also holding the Wand you can't seem to find on the Fool card.
 

Dryope

I can't locate in the Fool's right hand 'the wand, tipped with white', mentioned by Crowley. There are a series of vertical rods, and 7 white tips emerge just below the centre spiral, at the left. Do you think that's the Wand?

It's weird, I always thought that the white 'pyramid shaped' thing in the fools right hand was the tip of the wand and that the wand itself was hidden behind the rainbow colourd spiral... but now I found out that the fool is holding a reversed cup in his right hand, it's not a wand at all ! :S
So why does Crowley write that there is a wand in the fools hand? is this a miscommunication between Crowley and Harris (afterall Crowley did make her redo some of the paintings several times, did this lead to confusion?) is this a mistake or is there more to it?

I think that the vertical rods which Zezina refers to in the quote above are supposed to depicture wands (edit: after taking a closer look I'm not so sure if they are wands at all: it seems it is the water wich plunges from te cup into the nile below...) , since all of the suits are present in this card, but these are not in the fools hands and there are more then one so I don't think that these are what Crowely means when he writes about 'the wand tipped with white'...

As for what Aeon418 writes in the post above about the wand being at the card of the princess of disks; I think that this is a very interesting observation, but I still don't understand why Crowley writes that the wand is in the fools right hand when it is not...

P.s. or could it be that the thing in the fools right hand is a combination of a wand and a cup symbolizing vertillity -> creation?

I'm quite confused :S