Zephyros
This may have been addressed in passing in other threads, but I have never seen it discussed in depth. Paul Foster Case tells why the orientation of the Fool is what it is, a Masonic reference:
However, this leaves out why the magician is oriented according to the Fool. Both seemingly point upward at the "spiritual sun," at Keter but Masonic symbolism notwithstanding, taken together they appear contrary to other representations of the Tree of Life, where the Fool is on the right hand side while the Magician is on the left hand side. This would not be an issue, perhaps, if there wasn't an actual white (perhaps the color of "brilliance" would be a better term?) sun in the corner of the Fool, who's meaning is fairly obvious. Now, while it is fairly clear Waite did not use a completely different version of the Tree generally known to the GD, the question is why this is so?
The Wang tarot has the orientation of the Fool reaching up to the right (to pick the fruit), from the left, while the Magician is standing up straight. The Thoth has both figures standing up straight. The Dowson Hermetic Fool looks up to the left (West?) while the Magus seems to be similar to the RWS figure. He faces West, too, his wand having Keter at its tip, "creating" a Fool-like figure as Mercury and showing a sort of triangle.
Waite is very vague on the positions here, although he may give a clue to this in the entry about the Magician:
The only way to correct the RWS discrepancy is to hold the pair, together with an Ace, up to the mirror. Is all this because Waite saw the Tree not as an external story of creation, but rather a representation of the Adam Kadmon, i.e., the whole deck exists within Man? Or, did he in fact create an entirely new model of the Tree, with the Chariot on the Piller of Mercy and the Hierophant on the Piller of severity (and so downward)? The latter makes no sense, either in what we know of Waite or in how the deck is arranged on the Tree. The former makes much more sense, but what would this say about the deck as a whole?
Paul Foster Case said:Always it faces unknown possibilities of self-expression, transcending any height it might have reached at a given time. On this account the sun behind the traveller is at an angle of forty-five degrees in the eastern heaven, as Swedenborg says the celestial sun remains forever in the spiritual world. The spiritual sun never reaches its zenith, for from the zenith it would have to descend, and the idea here intended is that infinite energy can never reach a point in manifestation whence it must begin to decrease in power. On this account, too, the Fool faces North-West, toward a direction which, for Masonic and other occult reasons, has for millenniums been symbolic of the unknown, and of the state just prior to the initiation of a creative process
However, this leaves out why the magician is oriented according to the Fool. Both seemingly point upward at the "spiritual sun," at Keter but Masonic symbolism notwithstanding, taken together they appear contrary to other representations of the Tree of Life, where the Fool is on the right hand side while the Magician is on the left hand side. This would not be an issue, perhaps, if there wasn't an actual white (perhaps the color of "brilliance" would be a better term?) sun in the corner of the Fool, who's meaning is fairly obvious. Now, while it is fairly clear Waite did not use a completely different version of the Tree generally known to the GD, the question is why this is so?
The Wang tarot has the orientation of the Fool reaching up to the right (to pick the fruit), from the left, while the Magician is standing up straight. The Thoth has both figures standing up straight. The Dowson Hermetic Fool looks up to the left (West?) while the Magus seems to be similar to the RWS figure. He faces West, too, his wand having Keter at its tip, "creating" a Fool-like figure as Mercury and showing a sort of triangle.
Waite is very vague on the positions here, although he may give a clue to this in the entry about the Magician:
A.E. Waite said:Fool:The sun, which shines behind him, knows whence he came, whither he is going, and how he will return by another path after many days. He is the spirit in search of experience. Many symbols of the Instituted Mysteries are summarized in this card, which reverses, under high warrants, all the confusions that have preceded it.
***
Magician:The suggestion throughout is therefore the possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit... This card signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting God, the will in the liberation of its union with that which is above. It is also the unity of individual being on all planes, and in a very high sense it is thought, in the fixation thereof.
The only way to correct the RWS discrepancy is to hold the pair, together with an Ace, up to the mirror. Is all this because Waite saw the Tree not as an external story of creation, but rather a representation of the Adam Kadmon, i.e., the whole deck exists within Man? Or, did he in fact create an entirely new model of the Tree, with the Chariot on the Piller of Mercy and the Hierophant on the Piller of severity (and so downward)? The latter makes no sense, either in what we know of Waite or in how the deck is arranged on the Tree. The former makes much more sense, but what would this say about the deck as a whole?