The Fool, Imagery, and Mythology

Hey friends! Our lovely supporters and clients have often been interested or excited by certain aspects that emerge in our readings or when we talk about the Tarot, so here's a little blog where we will chat about some of these things that excite us, and to share a little about how we work and think about all things Tarot!

So without further ado...

In a reading I did recently, our lovely friend, the Fool, was pretty much the star of the show. In him held the crux of the solution my client was looking for in her little predicament. Now, each Tarot card often comes with an "archetype" or "go-to meaning" which is often the starting point to how I approach each card, but sometimes that meaning flies out the window. I think the way I would describe it is that the picture and elements of the card just "read" differently. Something that looks warm and welcoming might, in the moment, look intrusive or threatening, or a challenger may come across as an ally. Certain elements of the artwork draw my attention; certain things seem to "vibrate" energetically. The imagery in a card carries a story, which are hinted by these vibrations I pick up on. I find these "hints" the Tarot gives me are extremely important, and if they fly in the face of the usual meaning of the card, then it's like looking through a prism in a different way. It might seem a bit loopy and ga-ga writing it out like this, but the simple truth of the Tarot, in my view, is that the cards tell a story -- the client's story -- and these little hints guide the telling of that story.

The Fool card from The Dragon Tarot by Terry Donaldson and Peter Pracownik. U.S. Games Systems Inc. © 1995.

Peter Pracownik's entrancing artwork in his Dragon Tarot deck (and my go-to deck, probably obviously!) is a particularly good illustration of this: it contains many clues or "esoteric triggers" as they are alluded to by Terry Donaldson, which help with this storytelling. In the card of the Fool, there are many items one could latch onto: the dice he holds in his hand to represent chance; the marotte he holds in his other hand (the sceptre with carved head typically carried by all sorts of court jesters throughout time and imagination); the flourish of aces above his head; beneath these, the suggestion of Awen, the tri-pronged Druidic symbol associated with inspiration and creative impulse; the checkered pattern on the floor and his skin; maybe even the expression on his face: all of these things have at one time or another waved "hello!" during a reading and guided me in some way.

This time, it was the harp casually laid aside on the floor. Terry Donaldson specifically identifies it is Orpheus's harp in his Dragon Tarot book which accompanies this deck. And this is what came to mind:

The most famous tale of Orpheus, the legendary musician, poet, and hero of Greek myth, tells of his descent into the Underworld in order to retrieve his wife, Eurydice. It is said that at her wedding, Eurydice was set upon by a satyr (a woodland spirit of a man with some features of a horse and, apparently, a permanent erection); in attempting to escape it, she fell into a nest of vipers. She was bitten and shortly afterwards died. When Orpheus discovered her, his mourning was so absolute and plaintive that the songs he composed to express this made all around him weep, including the gods. It was suggested he ventured to the Underworld to plead with Hades and his wife, Persephone, to bring her back. Orpheus won over the Lord and Lady of the Underworld with his music, but they could not simply give him Eurydice. Instead, they told him:

"You must walk out of our domain back to the world above. Eurydice will follow you out a short way behind. However, you are not permitted to look back around to her. If you look back at her, even a momentary glance, she will return to us and you will never see her again. Only when you both are in the light of the world above may you embrace."

Orpheus walked the long way forward, back towards the realm of the living. He could hear his dead wife's footsteps following a mere few feet behind him. Eventually, he saw the end of the cavern, the bright light of day shining through. In his anxiety and excitement, he sped forward. The footsteps of Eurydice were getting quieter as she struggled to keep up. Outside in the light, Orpheus was triumphant. He had done it! He had done the impossible and rescued the love of his life from death! He turned around to celebrate with his newly-returned wife.

But Eurydice hadn't caught up with him. As Orpheus turned, he saw his wife just in the mouth of the cavern to the Underworld. She had not stepped outside into the light. In that moment, horror swelled on both of their faces. An instant later, Eurydice was sucked back into the darkness of the cavern. Orpheus had lost her forever.

Ugh, the story still gives me shivers. To fail at just that last moment...

But anyway, this is the story that was conjured up when I saw the harp trigger in this card. Through examining my client's predicament with the rest of her cards, the themes of the story felt like they could be applied to resolve the situation. But perhaps not in the way one would initially expect. Instead of being reflected as Orpheus, the protagonist of the story, she was encouraged to assume the role of Hades and Persephone: to implement a strategy of giving one chance only for a repeated-problem-person to sort things out. When you deal with people who continually take chances and wreak havoc in doing so (and really, Orpheus's demand to change the natural order of life and death was pretty brazen!), it seems appropriate that the Fool should encourage ways in which those chances are given, but evaporate if what is expected is unfulfilled. This is quite characteristic of the Fool to keep us guessing. Indeed, a proper Fool is often hard to read, but he possesses incisive truths, if you can cut through his creative, Awen-inspired license! Look no further than probably all of Shakespeare's fools!

And with that, the card goes quiet, and the next part of the story unfolds...!

So there's a tiny-wee glimpse into how effective one small trigger within the imagery of any one Tarot card can contain the seed of an idea and inspire some advice moving forward! It's these moments that make the Tarot so exciting for me, and there's plenty to mine in other cards as well. What's more, different decks will contain different triggers and expressions of the themes within the card; some which resonate with some readers (and clients) more than others, but with no less validity. That's the joy and the draw of possessing different decks (but also a very definite challenge). They all tell their stories in slightly different ways.

Another example of a big trigger which I enjoyed discovering is the correlation between The Hanged Man card and the tale of how Odin in Norse mythology gains the magic power of the Runes. But I will save that for another time... :-)

Be well, everyone!

Ray