The Rising Sun
The Fool card
was the hardest one in the deck for me to paint. For years I
painted design after design, always with high hopes, but they
were never quite right. To me, this was the most important card
in the deck and the deck would never really be complete or right
without the perfect Fool.
The final Fool
you see is the second time I painted this particular image. I
nearly didn’t give it another shot and discarded the image, like
so many before it. But it felt right and in the end it was. I
am very happy with how it turned out and I think it illustrates
my feelings about the Fool perfectly.
This Fool image
began with a dream. I saw a beautiful landscape with a giant
mountain looming in the background. It gave away, in an early
morning mist, to a flat plain that started out brown and dusty
and became greener as it got closer to me. There was a river
flowing through the landscape, straight at me, and as it reached
the cliff the waters spilled over the edge and down into the
unknown. On one side of the river’s shore there was a tower
made of pearl with pillars and spires reaching toward the sky.
On the other shore was a red dragon. Part of him was coiled up
on the ground and the other part of him was standing tall,
still, and watchful, on guard perhaps.
Just out of my
range of vision, but still known to me, there was someone flying
in the air. He was coming from the direction of the landscape
and going right over my head and at some point I caught a
glimpse of his colorful slippered feet just like you see in the
painting.
The finished
painting deviates only a little from the dream. Some of the
images have shifted or doubled themselves in their symbolic
form. The pearly tower is also the white ribbons emanating from
the Fool like rays of light, the red dragon, which may still be
on the ground obscured by our vision, is also twisting around
the Fool along with a blue dragon who could almost lay down on
the earth and look like a winding river. The Sun, which in the
dream was obscured by the hazy morning air, but was still
obviously there because of its light, has been duplicated on the
Fools chest. The colorful slippers going over my head were the
seed for all of the butterflies that travel with the Fool in the
final painting.
I think this
painting could have been done without the Fool at all. All of
the elements were there even before his inclusion, but it feels
so comforting, transcendent even, to see him, the personified
landscape.
Let me break
down the image into parts.
The Mountain
The mountain is
the Cosmic Mountain, a giant structure that connects heaven and
earth. Mystics, shamans, and those seeking enlightenment have
climbed this mountain for untold ages. Upon reaching the top,
enlightenment, or union with the Godhead, is achieved. The
mountain is all of creation. The apex is the singularity that
is God, undivided, undefined, unexplored, and unexploded. As
manifestation occurs and God expands and grows, the mountain
eventually covers the entire landscape and is each individual
thing of the manifested material universe including you, me, a
deck of cards, a rock, a galaxy.
To my feeble
human mind, the most perfect representation of the cosmic
mountain would be a pyramid. Its base would, of course, cover
everything. Its apex would be so small it would disappear into
nothing. It would have 4 sides to represent the quaternary, the
4 elements, 4 worlds, etc. The 4 sides while flat and defined
on their outer threshold, move together and intermingle in the
center of the pyramid, blending and becoming each other. The
closer to the base you get, the more vast is the area of mixing.
Something that
is very important to know is that what is found at the apex is
exactly what is found at the base, it is just a matter of
manifestation, or even observation. Everything already exists;
we have but to experience it all. Also, as there is no
separation between what is at the base and what is at the apex,
there is nothing in that vast middle of the pyramid that isn’t
part of either extreme. The apex is God and would correspond to
Kether on the tree of life, the center is the spirit and would
correspond to sephiroth 2 through 9, and the base is the
manifested physical universe, Malkuth. There is an old saying
that Malkuth equals Kether and Kether equals Malkuth. I believe
this to be true. I also believe this describes the nature of
the soul, individual and dense at its base and non-distinct and
all encompassing at its apex.
The Flat Landscape
The middle
landscape is repeating what has already been shown in the
mountain, only more defined. The flat landscape is the element
of Earth as it unfolds from the mists becoming more solid,
discernable and full of life as it moves closer to the observer.
The Tower
The tower is the element of Air as it stretches
and pearlesces its rainbow of colors achieved by the careful
layering over a seed in an oyster. The tower, in my mind, which
is the one who generated this dream and decided on the symbology,
is strongly associated with lightning. Air is like the
lightning strike down the tree of life, the path of creation and
of re-uniting with our source.
The River
The river is the element of Water, gently shaping
and nourishing the landscape with its persistent and ever
flowing current.
The Red Dragon
The red dragon is Fire. Alert, active,
aggressive and protective, he stands out in the landscape as an
imposing, positive force.
The Abyss
The precipice is a threshold to the great
unknown. The void and the abyss, the dark mother and the womb,
in which everything grows. In Kabbalistic lore God created the
universe because he wanted to see himself. He had trouble,
however, because he was already everywhere. To remedy the
problem God created a space where he was not. He created a
vacuum or a void into which he poured himself, as other, and
thus began creation. The creation, Adam Kadmon, was as you
would expect, the image of God.
The third layer
of this painting is the Fool himself and his entourage of dragon
and butterfly.
The Fool is a representation of the soul and the element Air.
As he flies through the sky he is criss-crossed by two dragons
that symbolize Air and Water that gave him birth and also the
chaos, void, unknown and abyss, which also gave him birth.
The Dragons
On each dragon
you will see a symbol etched into a palm of their hand. These
are the I Ching trigrams named Ch’ien and K’un. They mean
Heaven and Earth and stand for the masculine creative force and
the feminine creative force found on the Taoist Yin and Yang
symbol. They shift and merge into each other throughout eternity
allowing everything to be created from their union.
In the West we
see dragons as a personalization of evil, darkness, the
subconscious, and the unknown. The Western dragon is a creature
of the abyss, a force of chaos that must be conquered so that
order and consciousness may prevail.
As far back as
5000 B.C. the Sumerians were equating dragons with the concept
of Chaos, of the dragon rising from the abyss to steal Order
from the Gods and men. The same concept has been carried
forward in many societies, personifying that which we cannot
control, which is in our subconscious and lives in the unknown,
or gives rise to the prime dual nature of the universe, an
ultimate evil or negative or void, symbolized as dark water, in
which positive creation can occur. To the Sumerians it was
dragons, to the Egyptians it was crocodiles and to Christians it
was the devil or powers of evil in the body of a dragon. There
are many Christian paintings throughout the ages depicting St.
Michael or St. George slaying the dragon, ridding us of his evil
powers.
In the East dragons
are much more benevolent. They are a symbol of good fortune,
protection, abundance and prosperity. They are wise and
beautiful and are loved by the people. Their breath is said to
be sheng chi or balanced life force energy. They figure
prominently in creation myths, art, architecture, literature and
the day-to-day lives of the people.
The dragons live in
oceans and waterways and they control the wind and the rain.
They protect treasure, people, emperors, and even the Gods.
They are made up of 9 distinct parts (compare to the 9 spheres
on the tree of life, or the numerology of 9): Head of a camel,
eyes of a demon, ears of a cow, horns of a stag, neck of a
snake, belly of a clam, claws of an eagle, soles of the feet
that of a tiger, and covering the dragons body is 117 scales of
a carp. They are capable of shapeshifting and can become as
large as the universe or as small as a silkworm.
As balanced creatures, the dragons in the Fool card have
characteristics of both East and West. They are leviathans from
the abyss that the Fool is flying over, and they are also his
mother and father, dragons of Fire and Water. They protect him
like a treasure, a pearl.
Crocodiles
The crocodile on
Fool in the Thoth tarot was part of the inspiration for the
dragons in the Mary-el Fool. Each dragon is one open jaw of the
crocodile. The symbolism is very similar between crocodile and
dragon, and etched into the Fool’s wrist is a stylized
crocodile/2 dragons, a spiral that culminates in a forked line.
It looks like a crocodile and it looks like 2 dragons emerging
from the spirals of the abyss.
Sobek was the
Egyptian God of crocodiles, fertility, rebirth, protection, and
power. He was depicted as a crocodile headed man or a full
crocodile. The Egyptians depended so heavily on the Nile, that
it was natural for them to want to appease Sobek and his
powers. He was both respected and feared.
The crocodile laid his eggs on the shore of the Nile, an act
that resembled the Nile depositing its rich life giving silt on
its shores during the yearly flood, associating Sobek with
fertility. He also protected souls as they traveled in the land
of the dead, as would be natural for a powerful creature of
water, a potent symbol for the unknown. That and the way the
crocodile cared for its young, carrying them gently in its
mouth, helped Sobek become a god of protection. There are many
statues depicting a young Horus, God of the rising Sun, standing
on the back of two crocodiles. These were believed to be charms
for protection over children.
Horus
There are many links
between Sobek and Horus. In Kom Ombo, Egypt, there is a rare
double temple dedicated to Sobek and Haroeris (Horus the elder,
the aspect of Horus that battled Set). Sobek is often depicted
wearing the atef, or crown with two plumes and a sun
disk, that Horus wears. He was said to have participated in the
birth of Horus and also saved the 4 children of Horus by fishing
them out of the water with a net.
In common with Horus, the Fool is also the rising
Sun/son and also enjoys the protection of the dragons and
crocodile.
Raphael
Another influence on the character of the Fool is the archangel
Raphael. There are many illustrations of Raphael both
iconographic and illustrating a story about Tobias, the son of
Tobit, in the Old Testament Apocrypha.
Raphael resembles the Fool very much carrying his staff with
sack on end, traveling, and even a little dog nipping at his
heels.
In the story
Raphael, disguised as a human named Azarias, is sent by Tobit to
accompany his son Tobias, and his dog, on a business trip.
Raphael helps Tobias win the hand of his wife Sarah, drives off
a demon, cures Tobit of his blindness and eventually reveals
himself as the angel.
As would be
expected, Raphael is associated with the East, direction of the
rising Sun and the element of Air. To Catholics he is the
patron saint of travelers and of good health. All are
attributes consistent with the Fool.
Monarch
Butterfly
Occasionally a
butterfly makes an appearance on a Fool card. The Fool,
oblivious to the danger ahead of him, playfully chases a
butterfly over the edge of a cliff. This is similar to many
myths in which a Hero unthinkingly follows a wild animal into
the dark forest and thus begins a great adventure. The forest
is symbolic of the unknown. Fantastical, unmapped and completely
new, it is a place that lies outside the normal experience of
the Hero. It will serve to mature and transform him.
The butterfly
emerging from its chrysalis
symbolizes transformation, resurrection, and life after death,
eternal life, a soul unencumbered by material mass or worries,
evolution, and changes. It is also a symbol for all that is
good, beauty in nature, freedom, good luck, and creative
thinking. The butterfly is a classic symbol for the human soul.
The Monarch
butterfly has the additional behavior of migration. Every fall
Monarchs from all over North America begin a long journey to
wintering spots in the mountains of Mexico and coasts of
California. Even though a Monarch will only make the round trip
once in its lifetime, it will mysteriously know exactly how to
get there and will even go to very precise spots. Often there
will be hundreds of thousands of butterflies fluttering in a
single tree.
This Fool is not
only moving with the butterflies, he is also wearing a Monarch
mask and slippers. He is a spark of divinity masquerading as a
monarch butterfly and embarking on its symbolic journey, a
migration through the experience of life. He will also
mysteriously know exactly where he is going and may end up in
very precise spots.
Caduceus
It is easy to see the similarity
between the caduceus and the Mary-el Fool. The caduceus is the
symbol most commonly seen in modern times used by medical
professionals. It is a winged staff criss-crossed by two
serpents. The Fool himself is the staff; his head with the
butterfly mask, the wings, and the two dragons are the winding
serpents. This symbol permeates the belief systems of the
world. It is the staff of Hermes, the three pillars of the Tree
of Life, the rising Kundalini from the root of the spine to the
crown chakra on top of the head, the rod of Moses, the Sumerian
Axis Mundi, the Serpent and the Tree of Knowledge of biblical
lore, Yggdrasil with the eagle at the top and the serpent at its
roots, the Minoan Labrys which is sometimes depicted as a simple
vertical line topped by a lemniscate, and the double helix of
DNA.
To separate any or all of the elements in this image
would cause imbalance and the elements would appear to oppose
one another, but together as they are here, they create a
complete living system and a divine trinity.
The Body of the Fool
The nudity of the Fool is a metaphor saying that he
is not covered by flesh; he is a creature of spirit. He is male
to represent the masculine nature of the element of Air as
opposed to the feminine nature of Earth. The Sun that is
usually very prominent in the Fool card has been placed in his
chest, as he is the Sun/son, the center, which is rising
and migrating across the sky, the child of Fire and Water. The
white ribbons radiate out from him like rays of light.
The Fool is the first card to be described, not
because he is the start of the deck, which is circular and has
no beginning, but because it reflects the life cycles we are all
so familiar with, beginning our awareness at birth, our day in
the morning, our patterns of growth in springtime. None of
these are really the beginning any more than death or winter or
nighttime is the end. The Fool is not the beginning either, but
it is a start of our awareness in this cycle. I find it fitting
that we should choose our entry point into the cycle of a tarot
deck at the point of the rising Sun/son.
Keywords for the Fool:
Innocence, newness, purity, naïveté, child-like. Journey, new
beginnings, life, migration, adventure. Leap of faith, trust,
optimism, without fear, carefree. Enthusiasm, spontaneity,
curiosity, happiness, bliss. Unconditional love. Freedom,
soul, spirit. Foolishness, folly, unorthodox, unconventional,
frivolous, oblivious, divine madness. Protection, good health,
renewal, resurrection, life after death. Soul.
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