Greater Arcana Study Group—The Fool

Richard

Now I really should hit the sack. I drank coffee late yesterday afternoon, in order to be alert for a rehearsal last night, but as usual it kept me wired all night. I will rejoin the discussion later today.
 

Yelell

Yes, indeed! If he had intended to use the Levi ordering, he surely would have left Justice at 8 and Strength at 11, as in the historical deck that Levi used.

The only conceivable reason for interchanging Justice and Strength would be to associate Teth with Strength and Lamed with Justice so that they would correspond to Leo and Libra as in the Sepher Yetzirah, but this would not line up unless the Fool were in the first position.

Waite sort of lied, but not overtly. He used the traditional orderings (slightly modified) in order not to reveal stuff which he had sworn not to reveal.


The historical Conver and Wirth decks of mine have the fool unnumbered, but the Waite fool was purposely numbered zero. In that way he IS being placed in the first position, just not in the book text.
 

Richard

Yelell, it's an intersting point you raised before. What exactly did you mean by ". . . the text is a bit different . . ."? Different from what? Thanks in advance.

I don't recall saying "the text is a bit different." Maybe I'm going bonkers.
 

Richard

The historical Conver and Wirth decks of mine have the fool unnumbered, but the Waite fool was purposely numbered zero. In that way he IS being placed in the first position, just not in the book text.

Exactly!
 

Zephyros

There are a number of interesting disparities between the deck and the book, among them the ordering of the Courts as as well as the placement of the Fool.
 

Richard

There are a number of interesting disparities between the deck and the book, among them the ordering of the Courts as as well as the placement of the Fool.

Mary (and I) have explained elsewhere why this was expedient, but I'm too zombied to look it up right now. :neutral:
 

Teheuti

Waite did not think that the Fool necessarily belonged to the 21st place in the ordering of the Trumps. On P. 70 of my edition of PKT, he writes,

That which hereinafter follows should be taken, for purposes of comparison, in connexion with the general description of the old Tarot Trumps in the first part. There it will be seen that the zero card of the Fool is allocated, as it always is, to the place which makes it equivalent to the number twenty-one. The arrangement is ridiculous on the surface, which does not much signify, but it is also wrong on the symbolism, nor does this fare better when it is made to replace the twenty-second point of the sequence.​
Just as there are multi-purpose games, I think Waite wanted to create a multi-purpose Tarot. At the time it cost a lot to produce and distribute a full-color Tarot deck out of playing card quality paper! Personally I think Waite wanted this to be a deck that could be used by Golden Dawn members AND a deck for the general public—in fact, one that might draw a few people into deeper study and the desire to join an order.

The core secret in the GD was the new alignment of the Hebrew letters with the Tarot beginning with Aleph. Waite believed in keeping the secret. The switching of Strength & Justice "didn't signify" anything except to someone who might come looking and therefore be worthy of joining a secret order. [Anyway, the earliest decks had the Virtues in a variety of different places.]

The letter Shin properly belongs to Trump 20 (Judgment) when the Fool is in its proper numerical order as the first Trump.
In addition to the Christ reference:

According to Eliphas Lévi (and translated by Waite): "The thirty-first letter refers to [Shin], which represents the magic lamp, or the light between the horns of Baphomet. It is the qabalistic sign of the OD, or astral light, with its two poles, and its balanced centre. . . .
The universal light [electricity], when it magnetizes the worlds, is called astral light; when it forms the metals, one calls it azoth, or philosophical mercury; when it gives life to animals, it should be called animal magnetism."

Shin magnetizes the whirlings of the wheels and the movement of the soul out of eternity and into manifestation.
 

Yelell

What exactly did you mean by ". . . the text is a bit different . . ."? Different from what? Thanks in advance.

Oh I just meant the difference in the PKT's depiction of the fool vs the Manual of Cartomancy.

In the Manual Of Cartomancy he references, the text is a bit different (and the poor fool is still miserable)

"... further extract the card which is numbered Nothing in the Trump Series and which bears the title of THE FOOL. Despite the miserable appearance and name of this symbolic figure, the student must understand that this is a very important card. It signifies in a triple sense: (a) The wisdom of this world, which is foolishness with God; (b) the folly of the Cross; and (c) the uninitiated person, which- as we shall find in the sequel- can be understood after two manners."

It's biblical, Corinthians.

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness."
"Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."
(The English Standard version of the bible has that last part as "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."​
 

INIVEA

In reading everything above, while I was searching last night on the net, for all the information that was being posted, so that I can follow what everyone is talking about. Starting with this;

From the Book of Tobit (or Tobias), “And Tobias went forward, and the dog followed him, and he lodged the first night by the river of Tigris.” (Tobit 6:1)

Here's from a typical painting illustrating this scene:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Filippino_Lippi_016.jpg

It was from the Book of Tobit that Waite got his magical motto: Sacramentum Regis: “For it is good to hide the secrets of a king, but honorable to reveal and confess the works of God.” Etenim sacramentum regis abscondere bonum est opera autem Dei revelare et confiteri honorificum est. (Tobias 12:7)

Tobias and his dog:

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/i...r-lukic-borovikovskij-stock-graphic/149278638

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hcyupmYW1FU/TxB-nK21haI/AAAAAAAAAVA/OhWi2YI3VeI/s1600/00337009060624.jpg

http://imageweb-cdn.magnoliasoft.net/bridgeman/supersize/rev326545.jpg
I admit that the cliff in this last one is very small, but we can see where the idea of a crocodile or water monster may have come from in some decks - if others picked up on the similarity to Tobit.

Here is the whole story of Tobias: Tobi

The Apocrypha: Tobias: Tobi

Reading the more of this; Chapter 6. 1 - 8, it further says:


1 And as they went on their journey, they came in the evening to the river Tigris, and they lodged there.

2 And when the young man went down to wash himself, a fish leaped out of the river, and would have devoured him.

3 Then the angel said unto him, Take the fish. And the young man laid hold of the fish, and drew it to land.

4 To whom the angel said, Open the fish, and take the heart and the liver and the gall, and put them up safely.

5 So the young man did as the angel commanded him; and when they had roasted the fish, they did eat it: then they both went on their way, till they drew near to Ecbatane.

6 Then the young man said to the angel, Brother Azarias, to what use is the heart and the liver and the gal of the fish?

7 And he said unto him, Touching the heart and the liver, if a devil or an evil spirit trouble any, we must make a smoke thereof before the man or the woman, and the party shall be no more vexed.

8 As for the gall, it is good to anoint a man that hath whiteness in his eyes, and he shall be healed.

In my search last night I also came across this, and it is interesting how this came up in discussion today, Starting at Abrac; post 36
so I thought to share what I found. this may be relevant or it may not be. I hope it is relevant :D

An Analysis of Tarot Cards

Maybe the answer lies within this text.

An Analysis of Tarot Cards said:
The diverse opinions of eminent authorities on the Tarot symbolism are quite irreconcilable. The conclusions of the scholarly Court de Gébelin and the bizarre Grand Etteila--the first authorities on the subject--not only are at radical variance but both are equally discredited by Levi, whose arrangement of the Tarot trumps was rejected in turn by Arthur Edward Waite and Paul Case as being an effort to mislead students. The followers of Levi--especially Papus, Christian, Westcott, and Schuré-are regarded by the "reformed Tarotists" as honest but benighted individuals who wandered in darkness for lack of Pamela Coleman Smith's new deck of Tarot cards with revisions by Mr. Waite.

Most writers on the Tarot (Mr. Waite a notable exception) have proceeded upon the hypothesis that the 22 major trumps represent the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This supposition is based upon nothing more substantial than the coincidence that both consist of 22 parts. That Postel, St. Martin, and Levi all wrote books divided into sections corresponding to the major Tarots is an interesting sidelight on the subject. The major trump cards portray incidents from the Book of Revelation; and the Apocalypse of St. John is also divided into 22 chapters. Assuming the Qabbalah to hold the solution to the Tarot riddle, seekers have often ignored other possible lines of research. The task, however, of discovering the proper relationship sustained by the Tarot trumps to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the Paths of Wisdom thus far has not met with any great measure of success. The major trumps of the Tarot and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet cannot be synchronized without first fixing the correct place of the unnumbered, or zero, card--Le Mat, the Fool. Levi places this card between the 20th and 21st Tarots, assigning to it the Hebrew letter Shin (ש). The same order is followed by Papus, Christian, and Waite, the last, however, declaring this arrangement to be incorrect. Westcott makes the zero card the 22nd of the Tarot major trumps. On the other hand, both Court de Gébelin and Paul Case place the unnumbered card before the first numbered card of the major trumps, for if the natural order of the numbers (according to either the Pythagorean or Qabbalistic system) be adhered to, the zero card must naturally precede the number 1.

This does not dispose of the problem, however, for efforts to assign a Hebrew letter to each Tarot trump in sequence produce an effect far from convincing. Mr. Waite, who reedited the Tarot, expresses himself thus: "I am not to be included among those who are satisfied that there is a valid correspondence between Hebrew letters and Tarot Trump symbols." (See introduction to The Book of Formation by Knut Stenring.) The real explanation may be that the major Tarots no longer are in the same sequence as when they formed the leaves of Hermes' sacred book, for the Egyptians--or even their Arabian successors--could have purposely confused the cards so that their secrets might be better preserved. Mr. Case has developed a system which, while superior to most, depends largely upon two debatable points, namely, the accuracy of Mr. Waite's revised Tarot and the justification for assigning the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet to the unnumbered, or zero, card. Since Aleph (the first Hebrew letter) has the numerical value of 1, its assignment to the zero card is equivalent to the statement that zero is equal to the letter Aleph and therefore synonymous with the number 1.

With rare insight, Court de Gébelin assigned the zero card to AIN SOPH, the Unknowable First Cause. As the central panel of the Bembine Table represents the Creative Power surrounded by seven triads of manifesting divinities, so may the zero card represent that Eternal Power of which the 21 surrounding or manifesting aspects are but limited expressions. If the 21 major trumps be considered as limited forms existing in the abstract substance of the zero card, it then becomes their common denominator. Which letter, then, of the Hebrew alphabet is the origin of all the remaining letters? The answer is apparent: Yod. In the presence of so many speculations, one more may not offend. The zero card--Le Mat, the Fool--has been likened to the material universe because the mortal sphere is the world of unreality. The lower universe, like the mortal body of man, is but a garment, a motley costume, well likened to cap and bells. Beneath the garments of the fool is the divine substance, however, of which the jester is but a shadow; this world is a Mardi Gras--a pageantry of divine sparks masked in the garb of fools. Was not this zero card (the Fool) placed in the Tarot deck to deceive all who could not pierce the veil of illusion?

The Tarot cards were entrusted by the illumined hierophants of the Mysteries into the keeping of the foolish and the ignorant, thus becoming playthings--in many instances even instruments of vice. Man's evil habits therefore actually became the unconscious perpetuators of his philosophical precepts. "We must admire the wisdom of the Initiates," writes Papus, "who utilized vice and made it produce more beneficial results than virtue." Does not this act of the ancient priests itself afford proof that the entire mystery of the Tarot is wrapped up in the symbolism of its zero card? If knowledge was thus entrusted to fools, should it not be sought for in this card?

If Le Mat be placed before the first card of the Tarot deck and the others laid out in a horizontal line in sequence from left to right, it will be found that the Fool is walking toward the other trumps as though about to pass through the various cards. Like the spiritually hoodwinked and bound neophyte, Le Mat is about to enter upon the supreme adventure--that of passage through the gates of the Divine Wisdom. If the zero card be considered as extraneous to the major trumps, this destroys the numerical analogy between these cards and the Hebrew letters by leaving one letter without a Tarot correspondent. In this event it will be necessary to assign the missing letter to a hypothetical Tarot card called the elements, assumed to have been broken up to form the 56 cards of the minor trumps. It is possible that each of the major trumps may be subject to a similar division.