The Fool

For me "The Fool" card in a Tarot Deck is "un-numbered". Most decks call The Fool "Zero," but I believe this is totally misleading. Think of a regular playing deck that has descended from the game of Tarochi played by nobles in Europe so long ago. The Joker is the wild and un-numbered card. As a property in the hand of a player it can be used as a substitute for any card, or chosen cards in the deck. This inheritance of information about the meaning of the Fool came from somewhere. In truth, I believe that The Fool is the interchangeable, ever expanding, "all" nature of the One that is expressed in infinite combinations.

When we are children or beginners at something it is true that we are foolish and innocent. We don't understand how anything is going to work, and we just leap with the faith that it will work in the end. This is as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz begins her journey not by tornado, but by simply being foolish on the fence and falling and bumping her head. We go through many moments in life that draw on the core issue of the human race - VULNERABILITY. Why would "vulnerability" be the issue that fundamentally represents the "wild" card?

There are two sides to vulnerability that play themselves out in our lives. One way is the darker side of ourselves that we tend to create elaborate subterfuge around -- shame. The ego is constantly warning us about the shame we will experience when we fall and bump our heads -- which only happens to fools. If we listen to that ego then we are likely to shrink away from so many opportunities to grow and evolve though, and that is the flip side of "vulnerability." Without taking a risk and being vulnerable to mistake (or sin) we simply cannot grow.

Therefore, at any twist and turn on our life's path the Fool can show up as the "wild" card and ask us to confront our vulnerability issues. When we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and don't pin our self-worth on circumstances, appearances and outcomes, then we have taken on the evolved persona of the Fool. We have become The Fool who is not afraid, cannot be held back by some domesticated self from risking it all in a constant evolutionary folly.

So next time you get the Fool in a reading, don't assume that it means you're simply an innocent beginner. Sometimes it means that you are the ultimate Master.

Kosmic Egg Tarot

I've been reading Tarot Cards since I was 15 or 16 years old. Today I got the greatest complement ever from a querant, "You're the only reader I know who sees a reading at both a microscopic and a macroscopic level." What he meant was that when I look at cards, I look at each card individually, but then I look also at all of the cards in relationship to each other, and to the whole in answer to a question. I believe my ability to do this is part of my art, but also it is my belief in the containment of a reading.

I am not a reader who will pull card after card after card to try to get a querant to feel that the question has been fully explored. What you see is what you get. The number of cards for a spread is kept to the number of cards to a spread and we will fully explore the reading at hand. The exception I am willing to make is to pull two further cards only if the last card is not a Major Arcana Card. The reason for this is to only get to the possibility of the next major jump a client is likely to make, but if the next Major Arcana card is not within those two cards, then I tell the client the truth -- there are a lot of habits that have to change before you'll have closure on this issue.

I believe Tarot is a system of training to understand the cosmological meaning of our world. If you work with Tarot long enough you begin to see the pattern of life in which we live. It is possible to see symbolic meaning in our own life, but only if we are willing to look past the literal, obtuse and obvious. Tarot is a first step.

Every Tarot Reading should feel more familiar than surprising. One should recognize immediately the unfolding story as her or his own. Occasionally this doesn't happen, but it is not often. Most of the time when I read cards for someone there are tears of recognition. That feels good to all of us -- being recognized. Once we know we've been seen then it makes it easier to get to the next steps without feeling so very much alone. Tarot is a tender experience, though often also intellectually exciting.

In this blog I hope to share some of my philosophy and creativity in Tarot. I hope you'll enjoy exploring symbolism and cosmology with me.