Contents | Inner Book | Next
The Fool card of the Waite-Alban or Rider pack symbolizes the even described Cayce 10 million years ago, when human spirits first incarnated on Earth. However, the fact that he is called the Fool, and the fact that he comes in the beginning suggest a number of symbolic ideas not found in the Rider pack. First of all, there is a whole sequence of differentiations of opposites over the 12 billion years which precede the indwelling of man, which are symbolized by the Tree Yggdrasil in Nordic mythology, by the three lights of dawn in Hopi mythology, and by the abstract sequence from the undifferentiated to heaven to sun and then moon and finally the ten thousand things in Chinese thinking, and by the 10 sephiroth of the Kabbala. All of these are correct and profound symbols and be incorporated into the Fool card. The tree Yggdrasil (fig. 8) is the universe spirit, the roots of our being, with major branches being galactic spirits, minor branches being stellar spirits, twigs being planetary spirits, twiglets the various races of human spirits, further subdivided and subdivided until we get the living leaf, which is the present ego or personality.
The older parts of the tree constitute the unconscious, because Brahman and its droplets confines itself to the growing leaves. Still, it may be that the older parts of the tree are active and important and may have their own psychonic bodies, and thus may be regarded as 'gods.' The older branches may be able to see past and future (as it exists now), but creativity and growth are properties only of the green tips, each sprouting a new leaf each year. The green tips are the entity, and each leaf or season is a life.
The Hopi myth adds another aspect. The dark purple of the north is the first feeble sign of oncoming dawn, followed by a yellow light of the east and finally a red light covering all. The purple light symbolizes the mystery, the undifferentiated. The yellow light symbolizes the psychic differentiation into yin and yang prana, the foundation of the mind and psychonic body. The red light symbolizes the material differentiation of physical passions, such as sex, anger, fear, and all the other physical energies and experiences added to our stock 10 million years ago, and necessary for our evolution.
Finally, the zero of the Fool is a circle, the inner circle of the mandala, whereas the circle of the World card is the outer circle.
The word "Fool" is sometimes misunderstood (though never by occultists). The jester, trickster or devil is part of every rational mythological scheme and is related to the Death and Devil cards. The jester is a necessary part of the Great Way, indeed, he is the hero (fig. 21) of it. It is the trouble-making unruliness of the trickster which upsets the equilibrium and initiates evolution, a point well made by Alan Watts (The Two Hands of God).
The Hierophant: We get rather misleading associations if we identify the Hierophant or key 5 with the Pope. Five, the pentagram, or pentacles, represents man dominating the physical plane by reaching up to higher realms. Five is the pole in the midst of the quadripartite mandala, or the peak of the four-sided pyramid of initiation. It is the higher center of civilization, providing more synthesis and persuasion and coherence than the purely physical power of the emperor, key 4. The Catholic church did indeed provide such a persuasive and creative center for Western culture during the dark ages and early Christian civilization. Until 1000 AD and to some extend until 1300, the church was quite innovative (the church, not usually the Pope). But it must be remembered that the five dynasties and Sui periods of China (and an important aspect of the T'ang) must also be represented by the Hierophant.
It is the establishment T'ang of the mandarins which is Hierophant, while the Lovers is perhaps only exemplified in the mystical love poetry to dragon princesses and in the adepts of the underground and persecuted golden light religion. Thus, the mandarin is as correct and exemplification of the Hierophant as is the Pope. The Chinese synthesis was more humanist than religious, although a genial and tolerant blend of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism certainly contributed to the brilliance of the civilization. Even in medieval Catholic society, it was not the Popes who provided the coherent center, but such churchmen as the Abbot Odo, the Bishops Suger and Bernard, and the saints, especially Francis of Assisi. Thus, associating the Hierophant exclusively with the Pope or with organized religion is a mistake.
The Wheel of Fortune: It is recognized that key 10 is a symbol of completion of one plane of evolution, and 10 marks the reaching up to a regenerative level of existence, a new cycle of evolution on a higher order. But what is the physical meaning of this new order? Most likely the evolution of the Hermit to the stage of the UFO travelers that visit us. At that point we will be able to visit other, non-human civilizations throughout the galaxy, by means of apportation, dematerialization, and levitation and we will keep in touch and communicate with aliens by means of telepathy. Our further evolution will be as galactic citizens. Thus, the wheel in the wheel of fortune could be a galaxy. The four astrological symbols in this key may suggest that we overcome astrological determinism. The serpent symbol may be a reference to the dragon power which we will know how to control at that stage. The sphinx with the sword is a symbol of the collective unconscious.
Judgment: The Christian conception of an external judgment and a resurrection of physical bodies is almost the reverse of the true meaning of this card. At that far distant eon, the physical expansion of the universe will have reversed itself, and the galaxies will then have to leave the physical plane and will have the choice of reintegration of the sephiroth to become the world spirit of the next phase of the universe....or some kind of individualist escape to other planes (perhaps becoming a spirit like Mescalito in the next cycle of the universe).
One comment about the chariot, which was mainly a Western phenomenon. Why? The rise of the West dates from the time the West climbed aboard the Chariot and other civilizations did not. The reason suggested by Alan Watts is that the West is much more polarized and monopole and thus unstable than other civilizations. no civilization went so far into the ethereal and infinite in the time of the Lovers, giving rise to a correspondingly sharp swing to the finite and technological. Balance and synthesis and stability requires a unity of polarities, a union of opposites which does not destroy the polar contrast. Western civilization has been one or the other, extremist, pure in the sense of Puritanism. This is undoubtedly due to our ignorance of the supreme identity of god and man, angel and devil, good and evil.
Contents | Inner Book | Next