The outfit of Mr. 2 of Pentacles

ravenest

I think the hat is seen by most as a jester's or dunce's cap. However, that's just a guess. Except for a few cards, I think most of the image details came from Pixie Smith and don't have any esoteric symbolism except what each individual gives them. You could look through her art to see if that style hat appears anywhere else. http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/the-art-of-pamela-colman-smith/

yeah ... thats how I see it. he definitely looks like a juggler jester and the cap fits, as you say.

Why a juggler on the 2 of D ? .... thats another story . I think it involves a reference to the Magician juggling ... but here the aspect of 'Tao' is realised by the magician ... the 'fluctuations of harmonious change' , the interplay and controlling of energies that 'want' to change :

'The black and the white are harnessed to his car'.
 

Teheuti

A whole other possibility is that Pixie used an image of a whirling dervish as her model, although not the religious connotation. Although most modern dervish hats have a flat top, pictures of older hats from a variety of places are more conical. Also most old paintings and photographs show the dervish, when whirling, with raised hands outspread. I found dozens of old examples on the net. Here's just one:
http://www.onlineauction.com/auctio...uscript-miniature-painting,Whirling-Dervishes

or here: http://www.onlineauction.com/auction/images/1618970/20440709.jpg
 

Sandalwood

A whole other possibility is that Pixie used an image of a whirling dervish as her model, although not the religious connotation. Although most modern dervish hats have a flat top, pictures of older hats from a variety of places are more conical. Also most old paintings and photographs show the dervish, when whirling, with raised hands outspread. I found dozens of old examples on the net. Here's just one:
http://www.onlineauction.com/auctio...uscript-miniature-painting,Whirling-Dervishes

Oh wow, I absolutely love that association. Thank you so much for posting those and the earlier link. It would fit the imagery of the card so well. Someone mentioned on another thread this card actually showed up for dancers for them :) It's a bit of a dance, combining all in life.
I would have never thought of that, seeing a dervish in it.
 

Teheuti

Someone mentioned on another thread this card actually showed up for dancers for them :) It's a bit of a dance, combining all in life.
I would have never thought of that, seeing a dervish in it.
I've seen it come up for both dance and play, in addition to the more usual meanings. The juggling is also reminiscent of the Sufi idea of receiving and releasing energies, letting them pass through you, without holding onto anything except the still center in the heart. This is not to say that AE or Pixie were alluding to this.
 

Sandalwood

I've seen it come up for both dance and play, in addition to the more usual meanings. The juggling is also reminiscent of the Sufi idea of receiving and releasing energies, letting them pass through you, without holding onto anything except the still center in the heart. This is not to say that AE or Pixie were alluding to this.

I've not had it come up as a dancer for me personally yet, but I will start checking each and every time I draw it. No, I understand that it's unsure if they were or were not meaning that. I will however take it into my meanings. If a character is dancing and we are looking at the card as the perspective from the dancer, wouldn't that cause the waves in the back ground? Are those weird waves in fact there or is it just the balance organ (inner ear, not sure what it's called) after "spinning"/"dancing". Either way, it sparked me :) Have been looking into this card the last days and it always feels like I'm missing something.
Thanks!

Just did a quick search, I don't know much about Sufism, only read one literary work on it. But this "What does the Sema, the dance ritual, signify? Jalaluddin Rumi, the founder of the Mevlevi Order in the thirteenth century says that the dancing dervishes represent the solar system and the planets that revolve around the sun. At the same time that they are immersed in their own microcosmos, they create new worlds and make contact with eternity."[12] fits so well with the eternity symbol. Also, I get this card often (depending on the combination) for someone who passed. So this gives much better understanding.

Green in Sufism is the highest colour, opening the mystic gate. So that would fit a green eternity symbol. Although I may be stretching it here, but it's interesting to contemplate on.
 

ravenest

I've seen it come up for both dance and play, in addition to the more usual meanings. The juggling is also reminiscent of the Sufi idea of receiving and releasing energies, letting them pass through you, without holding onto anything except the still center in the heart. This is not to say that AE or Pixie were alluding to this.

No ... of course not ...

but I will :)

For me juggling is a good analogy for natural magick ; when we learn the laws of the Universe we can use them ... we dont have to control things so much ... we dont have to watch every ball and trajectory and think about how we are going to catch them all.

We set it up' the laws of motion, trajectory and gravity do all the rest, all we have to do is catch one ball and toss it to the other hand and toss it up the right way. Seems impossible at first ... after a while it is second nature ... a good juggler, eventually looks like he is doing magick, he isnt (well he is ) he is using the forces of the Universe ( hence Magick).

Since change is constant, that needs to be part of the formula we operate under; a good magician (or Sufi) utilizes and even seeks 'Harmonious Change' as part of our operational environment. - 'outward environment' or 'hard reality' may be the Ace of Pents, but that is the 'ideal' level, the 'purest form we can know' is in the dualistic manifestation of the two; the two sides of the coin and the concept of fluctuation... the character in the 2 of pents may even be hopping from foot to foot .
 

3ill.yazi

People always hate on the hat. I'd love a hat like that. :)