Bohemian Gothic Study Group - The Fool

Dancing Bear

When i very first got this deck and the fool sat on top, looking at me, My first thoughts were of taking that leap into the dark side,
and the fool being the first character i bump into lurking up behind me..what a haunting warped creature he is, i get a sense of a creature with no conscience..ready to do his evil deed no matter who you are, luring you in deviously and then he pounces. he would be like the shadows in the corner of the room , you swear it is someone there,but when you investigate , he has slipped away in a secret corridor, only to come back later to observe while you are asleep, ....To me this would be a warning Not to take that leap..
 

firefrost

Dancing Bear, I love your view on The Fool :)
 

HearthCricket

Nice, Dancing Bear! He/she is like the shadows in the dark, or the shadows we make on the walls with our hands, thus the crispness of the image, the pure black against the sky and the oddly long and pointy fingers. It is the hands that get to me in this card!! They seem somewhat unnatural!
 

6 Haunted Days

I have to add this is one of the cards where there is a huge difference between the Silver card and standard.

The Silver Fool is just stunning and alive, amazing highlights!! I do like the standard Fool, but the sliver image is so alive and eerie, the clouds and moon actually seems to move.

(and I mentioned long ago in March the Fool looked like the Karate Kid doing that crane stance, I still think it does! Though I've gotten over that "uhg" association, it took awhile.)
 

sharpchick

I think he is turning away - from traditional, from the trappings of a life he wants to reject.

And to me, the position of the hands and feet makes it look as if he is getting ready to dive - head first into something he thinks will be better.
 

Grizabella

For some reason, this reminds me of my boy cousins I grew up very closely with. Whenever our families would have a big get-together, us kids were pretty much just left to our own devices as long as we didn't show up around where the adults were and that meant we could stay up really late. For me, that was a wonderful bit of freedom because my home life wasn't very good. Mostly miserable, in fact. In this card, I'm reminded of one cousin in particular who was such a clown and would take chances, making me both scared to death for him and laughing at him, too. We always lived in big old haunted looking houses because everyone was very poor and these houses could be gotten for almost no rent back in those days. They had Victorian "fancies" around the roofs that my cousin could have acted the Fool on if he'd chosen to like in this card. I don't know why he sprang to my mind with this card since he never did anything on the roof like this.

But certainly a little boy who is nimble of foot but naive about danger is depicted in this card.
 

HoneyBea

I was looking at this card today and I was taken by the image and how it expresses both sides of the Fool.
We see him here posed high above the roof tops, indicating action and yet suspended in time. I noticed how brightly the moon shines to the back of him, which to me indicates two courses here, either it signifies that he has allowed his imagination and intuition to take a lead and help him see beyond the obvious, or he has allowed his fears to hold him in suspension.


So is he balanced on this gargoyle high above the roofs of a moonlit town because he is about to take that "leap of faith" and look beyond the obvious in his quest to experience the unknown, or is he frozen in time by his own fears? Is he being open to life and all its possibilities that he recognises that one needs to gain knowledge and learning through physical experience and not just the written word — here we ask ourselves is this Fool so foolish that he is serious about his play or is he playing in a foolish way?

One of the main aspects of the Fool is that it represents for us that deep urge that lies within and wants to experiment in a way that allows growth and expands knowledge, but more than just that it leads the way to break free from restrictions in one's search for new enlightenment...... At this point you should be able to hear me shout JUMP GO ON JUMP!


The other aspect of this card and this image shows us the possibility of being frozen in our steps! Has the moonlight bought to the surface all those fears and anxieties that holds one back, stops you having the spirit of adventure where you can in fact lack a sense of direction. Or does it only dimly light his view so that he cannot see clearly and that may well make him act with reckless behaviour , be impulsive and pursue things his own way regardless of how or whom it may affect.


The Fool at his best is serious about his play, and therefore becomes calculating foolish whereas the Fool at his worse is impulsive and naive, and lacks responsibility for himself in order to fully explore his potential.

The BG Fool certainly does for me illuminate what range of possibilities there are in the Fool card, and I guess how we interpret it will depend on the surrounding cards.

Leap of Faith or Reckless behaviour — only you will know

~HoneyBea~
 

bumble bee

Bohemian Gothic Fool

Until read this thread I thought he was on a ship. Something about the moon that keeps grabbing me almost hypnotically. There are like 6 rays I think coming out of it. There is a turquise light surrounding it which is grabbing my eye and causing me to stare into it. Maybe it is the eye of the higher power
watching over this young soul. Its almost 3 dementional if you stare at it like it could take you out of this universe into another.
I too need to use a magnifying glass the pick up details on these cards.
That moon is really calling to me. I will need to meditate on it.
Beautifully done card.
 

Thirteen

Just joining this study group--way late, but I'd still like to add in my thoughts on this deck as I'm really taken with it.

You know, I wonder a few things. First, is the Fool a boy? The face looks like that of a girl to me. Second, with the hat on his/her head and his/her head angled as it's angled, it mirrors that of the gargoyle he/she stands on. Third, his/her position, hands in an almost Kung-Fu stance, as if about to attack....

Maybe he/she isn't running away, per se. Maybe he/she is going toward something in particular. The job of Gargoyles was to frighten off evil spirits. Thus, we enter a deck with a Fool boldly leaving the safety of the church, stepping out atop the gargoyle as if wanting to come face to face with the evil spirits that the gargoyle faces every night; The Fool takes on gargoyle stance, as if that will protect him/her. But does he/she know what they're really getting into? Is it foolish to think that by mimicking the gargoyle he/she will fool the spirits he/she is about to encounter?

Maybe the gargoyle isn't the actual cliff. Maybe whatever the Fool thinks he/she sees hovering beyond the gargoyle is the real pitfall; maybe that's lure here, what in other decks is sometimes a butterfly that the Fool is chasing. And there's that dog-like other gargoyle, there to warn the Fool. Trust the gargoyles, they've been tackling such spirits for a long time. They know better than you how to deal with them.

The rest of this deck is all about things that lure us, about supernatural encounters. It's apt to start this deck with the Fool going out on the gargoyle to foolishly meet the supernatural. Are we, perhaps, doing the same and being equally foolish as we take on this deck?
 

Thirteen

*bump* in hopes of more discussion on this deck.