RWS - 0 the Fool

Ophiel

Though certainly no proof, since Waite was an active member of the Golden Dawn, it might be instructive to examine THE FOOL as each member was instructed to draw it him/her self for his/her own personally drawn deck of cards. You can see this card, a baby and a wolf, in the "Golden Dawn Tarot" by Robert Wang, or "The New Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot" by Sandra Tabitha Cicero, and probably other decks.

I have this image scanned and ready to go, if I can figure out how to get it in this post.

Check back, in case I'm successful!
 

MeeWah

The yellow background is associated with the mental realm; the intellect; clarity; learning; divine intelligence; the element Air. Since the feet are associated with understanding, then the yellow boots suggest acquired understanding from learning in the physical realm.

The red feather represents the spiritual drive behind creativity; or manifestation. A possible reference to chakra energy.

The white rose is symbolic of purity; spiritual intent or goal.

The mountains represent spiritual attainment; awareness on a higher level. There are nine peaks. 9 is the number of The Hermit & refers to achievement, completion, wisdom.
 

Karenwhe

jmd said:
If one did not know that Waite, following the Golden Dawn tradition, connected this card with Alef, and hence the element of Air, correlations with Shin and Fire would probably be made to this representation.

As a beginning, I'll leave it here and eagerly a-waite other responses!

I don't want to be rude, but the letter is not SHIN it is SAMEH and that is totally different letter. SHIN is one before the last letter while the last is TAF. SHIN is the 21 letter in the Hebrew alphabet and TAF is the last one 22. If anyone has a hebrew key board you see that SAMEH stand in the X place and SHIN in the A place.

The letter that looks like 0 (zero or capital O) is called SAMEH and it is letter number 15 (I hope I counted correctly)

What does the SAMEH mean in the tarot I have no clue.

If anyone would like I will post somewhere the right order of the Hebrew alphabet so that everyone can refer to it. Just let me know if this would be useful and if yes where to post it.
 

lupo138

according to Mr Crowley Samekh is associated with Temperance. I think that his views are identical with the Golden Dawn in that area.
 

jmd

The Shin on the Fool's tunic (which is, as mentioned, the penultimate letter of the Hebrew alphabet, & which looks a little like a 'W'), is as pointed by the arrow in the attachment (though turned on its side).

Waite even placed it, following traditional positioning, as second last card in his Tarot book, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot...
 

Attachments

  • fool shin.jpg
    fool shin.jpg
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Karenwhe

You must be joking....... ok, ok, ok I know you are not. I have seen this on the picture. And I thought about it for long, and I wrote the message only after I couldn't possibly believe that this is what you meant. And as the Shin and the Sameh both stand for "S" in the English language, and after I discounted the possibility of that little thingy on the guys dress I thought that the "O" was confused with Shin because they both sound S like a Sameh.

I profusely apologize.

Though I will still find it hard to believe that this was intentionaly drawn as a Shin, particlularity when this card is supposed to be Alef, but then again, who am I to agrue this.
 

lupo138

I am really not a scholar of Hebrew, but it would be a reversed shin - wouldn´t it ? I don´t think that one would reverse a letter. So in my opinion it could be something different.
 

Karenwhe

However if the Shin is intentionaly drawn, is the eagle on his bag intentional also? I mean........ does the eagle head also mean something specific?
 

lupo138

I am quite sure that everything is intentionally drawn, as there are far smaller details in far less important cards. The eagle stands imho for air and thus the Fool´s element.
 

firemaiden

A bit of research (read: surfing) and I have found a very interesting internet site: "Sources of the Waite-Smith Tarot Symbols" http://www.geocities.com/~ninalee/oneill/ has this to say about the Shin on the Fool's cloak:
The Hebrew letter Shin can be found in one of the wheels on the tunic. This is possibly a reference to the letter correspondence used by Eliphas Levi. Levi placed the Fool between Judgment and World and gave it the letter Shin. In the Golden Dawn system, the Fool is assigned to Aleph.
p.s. I am really excited by this new study group, thank you to Ophiel for suggesting it. This is really putting fuel on the fire of my brain.

(edited to correct link)