You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2008.
In most tarot decks, the Fool is numbered zero. In the Reader’s Handbook, Rachel Pollack writes:
“Of all the symbolism in the Fool card, the most important is the number 0. Zero means nothing or no thing – no fixed category or rigid belief, no rule, no preconception, no boundaries and no role. We write zero as an egg shape, to signify that all things come from it. The Hindus wrote zero as a point, the nothingness out of which all things emerge into reality. Zero, the Fool, means the perfect beginning of any phase or activity, the moment when everything is possible.”
If you multiply any number by zero, the number is unchanged. The same goes for if you add or subtract any number from zero. Zero has zero effect. So is zero – and therefore the Fool – merely passive? Is he just an observer of life, a blank slate, a sponge?
Perhaps. The Fool is too young and too inexperienced to be discerning – to judge before acting. His reaction to anything he encounters is both raw and unchecked. Perhaps this is why the expression on the face of Haindl’s Fool is so difficult to read. Is it sadness, wonder, joy? Or is it just an expression of observation? The world is full of beauty and cruelty and the Fool experiences both with the same detached curiosity. Later, he will learn to tell good from bad but for now, as the Fool, he merely bears witness. He soaks up everything he sees and stores it for future use.
Number: 0
Element: Air
Hebrew Letter: Aleph (“ox” or “bull”)
Rune: Wynn (“joy”)
Astrology: The planet Uranus
Title*: The Adventurous Child
Motifs: Wounded swan, jester’s cloak and bells, six planets.
*from The Reader’s Handbook.
My card today is the Ace of Stones in the West. It’s a very simple and deeply spiritual image that, for me, really sums up the philosophy of the suit of stones as a whole. The card is dominated by a large, perfectly round stone – in itself, an unusual find in the natural world. An eagle descends to land on the stone. Beyond, a rainbow traces the curved outline of the stone in a blue sky.
Rachel Pollack writes that Haindl painted the eagle to represent Watan-Tanka. As I understand it, to the Lakota people, Watan-Tanka is the creator, god and great mystery of all there is. As I was trying to find out more about Watan-Tanka online (not an easy task) I came across this quote, which seemed appropriate for the card:
“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round….. The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours….
“Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.”
– Attributed to Black Elk Oglala Sioux Holy Man (1863-1950), found here.
The eagle coming down to touch the stone is like the spirit or the divine blessing the material world. This is why the Haindl Tarot is the only deck in which the earth suit is my favourite suit – because it closely links the everyday world of work, money, shelter, food, clothing, and the physical body with our spiritual wellbeing, instead of seeing the two as separate and incompatible.
2 of Swords – Peace
Last night, I had a couple of hours to myself so I turned off the computer and sat down to read. Before I started reading, I drew the 2 of Swords from the Haindl.
The 2 of Swords is not only one of my favourite Haindl cards, it’s one of my favourite cards in most decks. I find it very calming. In the Haindl, it is called Peace and it shows a winter scene. Everything is stillness. Two swords are suspended in the centre of the card, between two rock faces. Beyond the swords, tall cypresses line a snow-covered path that leads into the distance and a small, cold sun (or moon) hangs low in the overcast sky.
Despite the cold, the card invites me to go for a walk down that snow-covered path. It is a card of time-out and contemplation. Choosing to spend my time reading instead of working or aimlessly surfing was a deliberate choice made in favour of the kind of peace shown in this card. Over the last day, my online interactions had become confrontational – a storm in a tea-cup which had quietened down but not altogether disappeared. Things were peaceful again but the tension was still there, like the two opposing rock faces in the card. It felt like a good time to let it be.
Interestingly, the card on the bottom of the deck was the 2 of Cups. Whereas the beautiful peacock can represent attraction, the 2 of Swords shows the opposite – like two negative poles, or oil and water, the rock faces seem to repel each other. And the two peacekeeping swords hang in between.
Haindlicious 