H R Giger Tarot ~ The Fool

This is one of the most disturbing cards for me and it becomes even more disturbing as I realize what I'm looking at.

So, let's begin.

The fool is an old man, with no legs, wearing a diaper. He has an umbilical cord around his neck and he is in a urinal. He has a gun in his mouth and, I think, his thumb on the trigger. We see the bottom half of a woman bent over in front of him. She is nude so I assume he has a clear view of her genitals.

I don't know what is on his head, headphones? or a hat? Nor do I understand what the staircase is all about. I mean, he has no legs, how's he gonna get up stairs? These things are not mentioned in the book.

I'd really like to appreciate this image. I suppose there is something to be said about what I find disturbing and the reasons behind why I am disturbed by them.

I think what bothers me most is the gun in his mouth. Is it suicide that bothers me? And why is he in a urinal? And why no legs.... I could go on and on.

Perhaps that is why I love this deck so much. It is so far from what I normally think tarot to be. This Fool is so much different than any other Fool, or even from what I've come to understand this card to mean.

I'm going to sleep on this image and try to figure out just what bothers me so much about it!

It's as if he is a child and and cannot take care of himself or control the circumstances around him. The combination of having no legs and a diaper makes me think that he is treated as a child. Also, although he looks like a child to me, the fact that the book says that this fool is elderly makes sense to me, since I learned from my art therapy studies that depression and suicide in the elderly is pretty common. Especially when they have to go into nursing homes and have to leave their homes and are unable to do things for themselves. The red things on his head look like some of Giger's biomechanical imagery he does so well. And the woman is there to shame and dominate and control him. Maybe the gun is his one way of controling his life.

Yikes.

I always find Giger's work conveying something very primordial and deep (on the unconscious and dark side) This image is one of the few that I am unconfortable with. Maybe it's the elderly that have nothing to hold on to, not even sexuality.

the fool

This is one of the cards that I connect with most. When I first saw this image I felt like I was standing very still watching someone's entire life flash through over and over and over. Somewhat like I was standing outside of time watching lives begin and start all at the same time, all around me.

This is a juxtaposition, stuck in time trying to come up with a reason for deciding his next action. Or at least that is how I feel about this.

The guy is looking at where life begins, where we take our first breath, while positioned to kill himself at that same moment. This is an automatic wow factor for me, every time I look at this card. My head feels like it might implode if I gaze too long, lol.