Tarot Discussion Group, Card of the Week.

The Fool is arguably the most important card in the Tarot. For while TR XXI The World represents the completion of lifes tasks and learning. The Fool represents the potential of an Individual. Although Melanie has produced a beautiful card, and the UW Waite card is a true classic and one of the best in the deck. I would like to ask you to contemplate a vision of The Fool you will never see.(Mouse over the UW Card.) I would like you to consider an Image like the Universal Waite Card. The Frame, and Title are in place, but instead of The Fool, only a blank card. The Fool is each of us. Before we truly enter life. The Road Stretch's out before us, full of promise and possibility.

For an Artist, one of the most exciting and unnerving moments is contemplating a blank canvas. The moment when one begins to commit an image in the minds eye, to the page is most important. I used to draw myself, with a reasonable level of skill. The Art of drawing, naturalistic images, is deeply tied to the idea of Juxtaposition. So the first line drawn, anchors what is to come, if it is correct the drawing should almost flow from that first stroke. If the first line is flawed, error can build on error, producing an unintended Picasso. This is why drawing in Ink, is such a challenge. Ink is the most unforgiving medium for a draughtsman. Every line laid down is simply there and there is no going back.

In this way, The Fool is not quite like a new canvass. I can sit-down with a fresh sketch pad anytime I choose. The Fool at second glace finds his canvass has been marked up before he arrives at his easel. Lines have been laid down, by his parents. Perhaps, by through their genetic inheritance, certainly by thier approach to raising The Fool as a child. These lines, being the first are the most important, because everything else is juxtaposed to them. Teachers, and friends have their turn. So although The Fool is quite young, a fair piece of ones life has passed by the time The Fool is left alone with his canvass. Yet the day does come when The Fool can begin creating his own identity, and discovering his own path.

In his shoulder bag he carries? Perhaps a small savings. ROM in All Things Tarot, suggested The Fool is carrying a Tarot. This fits in with Melanie's idea he is carrying lifes lessons, but it gives those lessons a form. I think it's a very intersting suggestion and had to share.

The Wolf Dominating the lower frame. Is transparent, so I see it as more a spirit guide, or the memory of the lessons of The Fools, parents and teachers. The Staff represents the qualities of the Wands, including the exhuberance of youth. The sun behind the fools head like a halo, I think speaks to the element of the swords. At this point on the his journey The Fool is innocent, but unenlightened. Yet I think the truely innocent are more in touch with the energetic. While those of us who have been raised in the west, have to spend years unlearning what we have been taught in terms of ignoring, or debunking the energetic and magical. So The Tarots Fool, is not as foolish as some, for his ears are open to the Intent. The Fool as Melanie draws him, is not quite in the material world. Note how the legs are transparent. The scene is set against the nights sky, so Melanie I think is emphasizing the spiritual journey in her vision of The Fools Journey.

The small orb near The Fools hand, reminds me of the orb containing the Star Child at the end of the movie 2001. The Fool, Represents a young adult, but this orb ties The Fool to a new life. At least a new spiritual life. Still, it should not be glossed over that many of us, at the fools age. Just discovering ourselves, find ourselves bringing new lives into the world. Starting new works, before we have an truely completed our own. A lesson The Fool will learn, along with the rest of us is after all. That life is what happens to us, while we where making other plans.