The Fool, first or last?

Abrac

I thought I'd take a look at some of Waite's comments on the Fool in chronological order and see what he has aid about it. First, from Manual of Cartomancy, 1889 (the section on "The Book of the Secret Word and the Higher Way to Fortune," after the descriptions of the trumps in the three worlds):

"As regards the Fool, this card, which has been sufficiently explained already, signifies the consummation of everything, when that which began his initiation at zero attains the term of all numeration and all existence. The card which bears no number passes through all the numbered cards and is changed in each, as the natural man passes through worlds of lesser experience, worlds of devotion, worlds of successive attainment, and receives the everlasting wisdom as the gift of perseverance."​

This is pretty self-explanatory. The Fool is described as starting at 0 and passing through the whole series.

Waite's article "The Tarot: A Wheel of Fortune" in the Occult Review, Vol. 10, No. 12, Dec. 1909:

"Last or first, as you please, in its own series, is the card which represents Zero and is entitled The Fool. It is in no sense, though it has been called, a type of humanity as the blind slave of matter, though in the common traffic of fortune-telling it may, and does, stand for extravagance or even for enthusiasm and the folly which its name implies. It is said by Eliphas Levi to signify eternal life; it is a card of the joy of life before it has been embittered by experience on the material plane. On the spiritual plane it is the soul, also at the beginning of its experience, aspiring towards the higher things before it has attained thereto."​

Here he describes him as at the beginning, but also says he can be seen as either first or last.

Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911:

"He is a prince of the other world on his travels through this one—all amidst the morning glory, in the keen air. 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."​

Though he doesn't state it specifically here, the language implies he's starting his journey.

Pictorial Key to the Tarot, "Conclusion as to the Greater Keys":

"In conclusion as to this part, I will give these further indications regarding the Fool, which is the most speaking of all the symbols. He signifies the journey outward, the state of the first emanation, the graces and passivity of the spirit. His wallet is inscribed with dim signs, to shew that many sub-conscious memories are stored up in the soul."​

He's clearly described as at the start of his journey, at least this is what he commits to writing. In the descriptions of the trumps, the Fool is in the number 21 position hinting that there's another way to look at it. This is consistent with what he's said about the Fool's position being flexible. His other statement, "to shew that many sub-conscious memories are stored up in the soul," is interesting in itself for what it reveals about the contents of the wallet.

In Shadows of Life and Thought, Ch. 20, Waite discusses the classification of the trumps as allegorical, symbolic, or doctrinal. For the Fool he says:

". . . .while the Fool is very difficult to class. On the surface he may be referrable (sic) to that estate which inhabits the low-life deeps—the mendicant and vagabond type. He suggests the Italian Lazzaroni, except that he carries a wallet, as if he were on his way through the world."​

Again, this shows how Waite saw the Fool as in a class by itself. It also sheds light on what he may have meant in the previous quote; the "stored memories" in the wallet are memories acquired as he passes through this world.

All this speaks for itself, but to sum up, Waite saw the Fool as belonging anywhere. :)
 

parsival

" She knew where the golden light came from among the images; it came from the figure of the Fool who moved so much the most swiftly, who seemed to be everywhere at once, whose irradiation shone therefore so universally upward that it maintained the circle of gold high over all, under which the many other rays of colour mingled and were dominated now by one , now by another". ( Charles Williams : " The Greater Trumps" ).
The "she " referred to here is Nancy , the central character of Williams novel , and in this extract she is contemplating the dance of the Tarot images.
Williams of course was a member of Waite's FRC for many years .
Abrac this appears to support your take on the Fool that he is ubiquitous and touches all the other cards weaving in and out of them as in a dance, seeming to be " everywhere at once ".
 

Abrac

That's a nice quote. Williams was definitely an original! :)
 

Barleywine

"As regards the Fool, this card, which has been sufficiently explained already, signifies the consummation of everything, when that which began his initiation at zero attains the term of all numeration and all existence. The card which bears no number passes through all the numbered cards and is changed in each, as the natural man passes through worlds of lesser experience, worlds of devotion, worlds of successive attainment, and receives the everlasting wisdom as the gift of perseverance."​

This is pretty self-explanatory. The Fool is described as starting at 0 and passing through the whole series.

This interests me for a couple of reasons. In Tarot Triumphs, Cherry Gilchrist likens the sequence of the Major Arcana to a medieval pageant, with each card representing a "float" in the parade. The Fool moves throughout the procession, popping up here and there.

The words "term of all numeration and all existence" caught my eye because I recently created a spread with the Fool at the center, and I discovered that a number of the axes in the spread added to 78 at their intersection, right where I had placed the Fool. So I called 78 the number of "the Fool in extension." Not exactly what Waite had in mind, but a parallel idea.
 

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Richard

In most of the "historical" decks, such as the Marseille, the Fool was unnumbered. In most tarot games, it is neither a trump nor a minor. It was played when one didn't want to follow suit or play a trump, but the Fool couldn't win the trick.

In the Sola Busca, it was numbered 0. The GD used the Hebrew alphabet as ordinal numbers, and made the Fool first by assigning it the letter Aleph.

In PKT, Waite wrote that the Levi placement of the Fool (between trumps XX and XXI) didn't make sense, nor did thinking of it as final trump. Significantly, he doesn't discuss its placement as the first trump. However, by numbering it 0, it is the first trump by default, since 0 is the first non-negative integer, followed by 1, 2, 3, etc.


In PKT, Waite writes,


I have also not adopted the prevailing attribution of the cards to the Hebrew alphabet--firstly, because it would serve no purpose in an elementary handbook; secondly, because nearly every attribution is wrong.​

The "prevailing attribution" of the Hebrew alphabet was probably Levi's, since the GD attributions were secret. By saying that "nearly every attribution is wrong" implies that Waite indeed had a firm idea of what the attributions should be. Comparing the GD attributions with Levi's, they only agree that XXI, World, is Tau; so from the GD perspective, all of Levi's atttributions are wrong except for the single card, XXI.

Thus it is likely that Waite favored either Levi's or GD's Hebrew attributions (and thus the ordering of the trumps). Since he ridicules Levi's placement of the Fool, he probably had adopted the GD's attributions (and thus their ordering).

It is unfortunate that it is so often necessary to read between the lines to ferret out Waite's ideas.
 

kwaw

Italian style TdM usually depict the fool with a zero, but as the old Italian saying has it: "Essere come il matto fra tarocchi (esser per tutto)":

Like the fool of the tarot - here, there and everywhere!

Many have already noted that 21 is a triangular numbers, in relation to which we may also note that 56 is the sum of triangular numbers 1st-6th (1 - 21):

1*1
2**3
3***6
4****10
5*****15
6******21


1 + 0 = 1
2 + 1 = 3
3 + 3 = 6
4 + 6 = 10
5 + 10 = 15
6 + 15 = 21

0+1+3+6+10+15+21 = 56

& 0+ 21+ 56 = 77 (+0)

Or as Etteilla various structured it :

21(+0) + 56 (+0) = 77 (+0)