Anna K. 0 Fool

Ann K. 0 Fool

This card is the first, 0. in the Anna K. deck. It shows a bare foot young person skipping on top of a mountain's edge, happily with nap sack on shoulder. A blue sky, few lower clouds, but none to bother this Fool.

The book reads this card 'represents the Innocent Child...openess, playful approach to life...being naive and obilvious to danger.' 'Starting point, beginning of personal developement.'

Excellent representation of the card, and also a wonderful description by the Author, Anna Klaffinger (proofreader Rodney Carter, many thanks) as the book was translated from German into English.

To construe this card, I see the Fool does look like he is starting out, but not without some intrepidation. Surely to me the Fool is wearing a scarf so some caution has been taken against a chill, and perhaps to show some individuality.

I miss the dog in the card!

0- The Fool

Thanks, Briar Rose.
The first thing I notice is the big smile on his face, his hair blowing in the wind, and his body makes it look like he's dancing rather than walking.
He's young, not even close to adulthood. He's barefoot and there's a big hole in his left sleeve. It looks like he is in a cold environment, and he doesn't have much protection from the cold, but it doesn't seem to bother him at all. He may not even notice it. He doesn't have many belongings but he doesn't need a lot. He has his knapsack and he's on an adventure. What matters to him are the experiences he's going to have, not material possessions. It looks like he's completely "in the Now", with no thoughts of past or future. He's happy, joyful, and carefree, without concern about what's ahead of him. While some people might look at him and think he's really a fool (he's so unequipped and seemingly unconcerned about it), others would resonate with his spirit of adventure and discovery and his risk-taking spirit (he may not even know he's going to be taking risks, but we can see that he is).
To me, the interpretation of this card would be the same as the RW, except for the absence of the dog. I wonder why Anna K. chose to leave the dog out ...

Hallo everyone,

I hope it's okay for me as the artist/author to add some thoughts of my own. At first I'd like to say it's really, really, really interesting for me to see what you think about my cards; I'm learning a lot! Thanks!
Since the missing dog was mentioned 2 times:

I know 2 different interpretations of the dog in the Fool card.

One is rather speculative and says that the dog represents death/the underworld. This interpretation is probably owed to the idea that Tarot originates from ancient Egypt where the dog was indeed a symbol for the underworld and death. I never really liked this interpretation - the Fool is the beginning, not the end, and he is NOT afraid of death, he doesn't even think about it. He is pure life, the promise of more life.

The other interpretation I know is that the dog symbolises the instinctive nature of the Fool which warns him of danger (e.g. prevents him from falling into the abbyss).

So, although leaving out the dog was more or less an unconscious decision of mine it's probably owed to these 2 interpretations which I knew about at the time I created the card.
Because as I write above I always felt the dog as a symbol for death rather contradicted the the Fool's meaning. And the dog as the Fool's instinctive nature, well: I think that the Fool is very much "one", I mean "not-devided", not able to abstract, not able to view himself from a distance. I wouldn't have felt comfortable to put some part of his self OUTSIDE of his body, where he can see it. Because something you can see, you're also conscious of, you think about it with your rational mind. And I don't think the Fool is conscious of his instinctive nature.

Excellent reply Anna K. The more I read about this deck and the more I work with it the more I see how deep and wonderful it really is.

I am eager to post more cards today.

Anna,
What a great honor to have you contribute to our study of your deck!! I'm very excited to think that you'll be adding your voice to our discussion of your awesome creation.
Another interpretation of the dog and the one that I've mostly considered is that of a "familiar": an animal, often dog or cat, that is an embodied supernatural spirit and is supposed to attend to and serve a person (this is paraphrased from definitions I got from Googling the term).
For me, personally, it's just comforting to think of the Fool having this spirit companion with him on his journey, probably because I myself always have a dog or two at my side, and just having them there gives me such great comfort and companionship as I go through my own life path.

Briar Rose: I plan to catch up with you today!

i miss the dog, although i am a novice in tarot and havent mastered the archetypal meanings and history.
i always felt the dog was the fool's companion, and that makes sense when thinking about the dog representing death, memento mori and all .
also,
i felt as though the dog was nipping at the fool's heels, get started buddy etc.
or warning him.
i love the anna k. deck!

This is a lovely Fool card.
I love the crisp, coldness of the sky and the snow-covered wilderness in the background. I love the way he's dressed in raggedy clothing, harking back to the Tarot de Marseille's Fools who are beggars, jesters or outcasts from society. I don't really miss the dog at all and it gives a new twist not having the dog there - there is absolutely nothing holding him back from leaping from that cliff, although if you look closely, he isn't actually about to step off the edge. It looks to me as if he's just on a very narrow ledge which he could easily fall from if he doesn't look where he's going. He doesn't look though because he doesn't have to... He's The Fool and he has faith that he'll be OK so he will be OK.
I'll bet his feet are pretty cold.

I prefer to not give The Fool a number so that he can be placed anywhere within the Major Arcana but Anna's choice to give him the number '0' makes me think that he is empty and open for anything.

Here's an image of the card: http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r298/tarotsulis/Anna K Tarot/TheFool.jpg

I see in this card pure joy to be alive. Pure happiness to have physical form and be on the move, regardless of circumstance.

This is a moment of elation, of happy feet, and of knowing you are alive and that you have this moment to celebrate LIFE.

It is really just magnificent. Behind him on the path could have been starvation or plague, ahead of him might be no path at all...crumbling rock, thieves whatever. But right now, there is joy, there is life and there is a beautiful world to see and explore.