Red feather in Fools' Cap/Hat

[gloria]

The Sun shows a child riding out of a walled garden on a horse. The child here wears a red feather.
I see the Sun as breaking loose, liberation and freedom, moving forward very much like The Fool.
There are some that say Waite may have seen The Fool as having been transformed through Death and then reappearing as an innocent child in The Sun.
Although I’m not so sure Death has the same red feather, unless he got caught out in the rain!

G.

 

[WalesWoman]

RED: The color of blood and the planet Mars, life, force, strength, vitality, courage, vitality, passion, action, energy heart, soul, willpower, vitality, love, passion, courage, passion, earthly desire, action and the need to use direction, optimism and cheerfulness.

FEATHERS: The Egyptian Goddess Maat, her emblem is the feather of Truth and Justice who stands in the halls of the under-world ready to place her feather of truth on the scales, if the heart balanced with the feather they would have eternal life. If she didn't then the waiting monster Amemait would eat their heart. (Found on the FOOL, DEATH, the SUN, 9 OF CUPS, PAGE & KNIGHT OF WANDS)
from http://www.geocities.com/tarot_r_us/Symbolism.html

Another short list of symbols can be found here http://home.earthlink.net/~yvonr/tarot/further/symbdict.html

I've also seen that the red feather represents faith.

 

[TemperanceAngel]

Thanks WalesWoman!

I had forgotten about Ma'at. Great links, too!!!

XTAX

 

[Bonnie37]

Other Page About Red Feather in Hat

This might be the page you were looking for:

http://www.tarotforum.net/archive/index.php/t-11296.html

If not, well, it's just some more info for you.

 

[Curtis Penfold]

The color red can be associated with blood.

I've read somewhere that some Egyptian texts make references to Ra (the sun god) dieing at night and being reborn out of Nut's womb (the sky goddess) in the morning. They say the red of the sky is the blood of death and the blood of childbirth.

Whether any Egyptians actually looked at life that way or not, it certainly goes without saying that birth, death, and rebirth are all bloody affairs.



red=death/birth

 

[KingofCups]

When considered in relation to the symbolism of the rest of the card, the feather and wreath on the head of the Fool are closely related. They represent the animal and vegetable kingdoms respectively, in terms of temporary, limiting manifestations of limitless life-power (symbolized by the white sun). This in itself can elicit many different other associations, depending on the system of thought one is using.

 

[Curtis Penfold]

When considered in relation to the symbolism of the rest of the card, the feather and wreath on the head of the Fool are closely related. They represent the animal and vegetable kingdoms respectively, in terms of temporary, limiting manifestations of limitless life-power (symbolized by the white sun). This in itself can elicit many different other associations, depending on the system of thought one is using.

I never noticed that was a wreath! I thought it was some funky green hat thing...

Well, your interpretion does make sense. Since we've mentioned the connection Death has with the Fool in this thread, I do want to mention that Osiris was depicted with green skin, sometimes considered a symbol of his resurrected corpse, other times a symbol of his connection with vegetation. See, as god of the underworld, he was not just in charge of the dead, he was in charge of the plants that grew from the ground. Thus, he was in charge of both death AND the continuation of life, the renewal of vegetation (symbolic of the renewal of our own souls).

This webiste has some neat stuff on Egyptian mythology in a very simple format: http://www.egyptianmyths.net/colors.htm