Arcus Arcanum - THE FOOL

A link to image:

http://taroteca.multiply.com/photos/album/122/Arcus_Arcanum#1.jpg

This card appears to be alot like the one in the Rider-Waite pack. It is styled in the same manner. The young man has a limb of a tree to support his hobo sack unlike the Marseille pack in which he utilizes a large spoon. It would appear he has all of the four suits on his person. He has a knife and hip flask on his waist, a rod holding his bag and a golden coin type of pendant around his neck. The pendant kind of looks like a peace sign from the 60's or 70's.

His rod is flowering maybe to symboloze his youthful spirit. His bag has a moon and stars design on it, maybe to show he can travel on on an astral level and through deep dark areas. He has butterflies around his head which may symbolize the holy guardian angel or spirit (maybe higher self) for protection / guidance.

I like this card alot, because it speaks deeply about the journey of the Fool and it offers much hope to all of us on a spiritual quest. I think if we all could embrace the idea of taking risks that we all would all increase our happiness in our everyday lives. We often lose touch with important spiritual things in life, because the material earth bound things (like making tons of money..looks...status...) that end up not meaning much when we become old just keep us at bay from doing many spiritually enriching things that we would like to do. The fool isn't worried about anything scary happening to him, because if he was he would never be able to embark on his journey. He has hope and I guess many of us (including myself) have found that feeling hard to embrace, but this card is here to remind us all that there is always hope. It's offered to us all for free if we are willing to let go of our negativity and accept its' embrace.



How about that cat & rainbow?


Freddie

The colors on the deck are very vibrant, the rainbow sticks out before the person in the card.
I like how he's turned looking at the reader and his right hand is open as if to say
to come along wtih him.
He seems to be more running than walking too, the way his body is leaning, like he's rushing.
The dark clouds show that there could be some trouble brewing.
Doesn't seem to be something really serious, it's just a small part of the sky.
The waterfall is interesting. Water symbolically usually means rebirth but in this case,
it has a sense of fear attached to it when you look at falling over that cliff.
You would wind up in that waterfall.

The red flowers are sort of odd just stuck there up on the cliff.
It appears to be rock so how are they growing?
It seems summer but he has a fur trimmed hat on?

The cat is interesting (there aren't many decks that have a cat on this card instead of a dog). It's looking over its shoulder, sort of up in the air, as if it's watching the weather, or for birds of prey, or whatever. It's ahead of the Fool on the cliff, though cats being so sure-footed it seems rather unconcerned about how close it is. It cares more about what's up there. The Fool himself is looking toward the viewer, not up where the cat is looking. I'll trust the cat! The Fool had better do so too.

karen0205 said:

It seems summer but he has a fur trimmed hat on?

Click to expand...

There's a lot of fur worn in this deck. I guess it's because there are a lot of mountains in Germany, and even in summer it gets pretty chilly on the heights everywhere. There are certainly a lot of heights in this deck!

The castle in the background brings to mind the Perceval, or Parsifal, myth, a similarity with the Legend Arthurian fool.

This card has more scenery than many Fool cards. I think the castle and the waterfall show that there are goals out there, or at least things that draw the Fool towards them, though the way to them is going to be anything but direct! Other Fool cards just show him standing or walking on a cliff top, without a visible prospect. Thus they're more open-ended in feel. This one shows some specific possibilities.

There's definitely soil on the cliff-top; not only are the red flowers growing there, but also the shrub in the left background and the tuft of grass in the right foreground. Even where he is, it's fertile; but still he'd better watch his step.
BTW, I wonder if that cat is looking up at him, wondering what he's going to do?

The black cat reminds me of Christine's black cat, Magick, and even more so because Magick's favorite pastime is catching butterflies. Christine is very much like the Fool character, bless her, because she's very simple in thoughts and very impetuous. Magick wouldn't be very much help to her if this were them, because she'd be after the butterfly and they'd both go over the cliff.

If I remember correctly, the scenery seem to be everywhere on many cards. It is one of the reasons I like this deck. For the colors also. And it's true that the fool in in heights. It's also give vertigo!