The Fool is number zero. This is an interesting number because it is at once nothing, and everything. It is the alpha and the omega. Most of us do not start counting at zero but mathematicians and physicists always do. 0 is also one of the only two numbers your computer actually uses! Zero is the promise of what may be, or it is the absence of what was dreamed. Zero is open, empty, eternal. Zero, the Fool, starts the Tarot.
The image traditionally used for The Fool is one of a man walking along a precipice with a dog at his heels, smiling gaily and carrying his belongings in a sack. Often he's seen scattering coins as he goes. The dog is often pulling at his leg with it's teeth.
First I'd like to introduce the Dog. The dog is man's fool of the animal kingdom. Dogs understand instinctively the value of being foolish. They relish the laughter that it produces. They don't feel ashamed at being the object of that laughter, but rather take pride in having brought the joy and smiles that comes with it. Dogs are loyal beyond wise choice. Utter loyalty to their clan against all common sense. A very foolish thing. Usually this clan is one person or a human family but it would be anyone the dog recognizes as family. So in the tarot image, is the dog biting the fool, or holding him back from the cliff? You decide.
The cliff. Ah that lovely precipice with the world so far below. The fool walks very high indeed, above the cares of the ordinary man, he smiles and dances and breathes the rarified air of the clouds. He is ever at risk of gravity, yet does not let this deter him. He is happy against all reason. Perhaps he knows something about cliffs, falling, and flying. Perhaps he trusts the dog to hold him back. Perhaps he just trusts that he will come to no harm except if he is meant to come to harm, in which case all the care in the world won't save him.
The fool himself, he carries everything precious with him and leaves everything else behind. He walks free. He has little, including little sorrow. He casts off the worry about social status or approval. He has a child's innocence and joy. Even the littlest butterfly or sparkle on bee's wing delights him. He eagerly shares this joy with anyone who will take the moment to admit him. He forgives all those who shun him and hurt his heart because they cannot understand his gift and he walks on, head in the clouds, happy.
As Fool starts the Tarot, so too does Fool start our own journeys. When we begin our adult lives we are foolish. We go about believing that what we have learned in our short lives is the sum total of important knowlege. We trust in our immortality because we know we are at the start of what seems a very long life indeed. When we start our spiritual journey we are again foolishly naive and trusting. We soak in every learning offered and debase our own selves in our eagerness to be liked and welcomed and approved of. Fool is also at the root of all our other phases as our inevitable mistakes come through and humble us back to our beginning and we feel the fool.
Fool is a noble pursuit for some. Some make it their careers, choosing to be clowns for the joy of the world. They often travel happily across the planet living on the largesse of others in return giving laughter and amazement. Others choose it merely as a hobby, wishing to be a source of smiles and laughter and willing to be the butt of the joke to achieve it. Still others do not choose it but are fools so naturally that sooner or later they shall have to accept this role and learn to live with the reprobation it brings with it.
This is the Fool's burden. The very people whom he wishes to enlighten with laughter despise him and abuse him. This is what he really carries in his sacks. These people are his most precious belongings, his friends, family, community, and they weigh heavily on him for they rarely understand and rarely have patience for his humble brand of insight. They have no idea how much they'd lose if they lost the fool. Luckily they won't ever have to.
Suffer fools gladly, they belong here, they are closer to Deity than anyone else ever can be. They sit at the feet of wisdom and lighten it with laughter. All they ask is patience. He who cannot tolerate the fool often becomes one.
The image included at the bottom of this page is an original from my own hand painted deck. I did not include the dog because at the time when I was painting this deck I was not familiar with the dog's role nor had the decks I worked with included the dog. In this image, rather, the fool has a rainbow to step out onto and carry him safely at the edge of the cliff.
