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The Fool

After taking the "Your Tarot Reading" quiz on Facebook and "pulling" The Fool, I wanted to clear up some unfounded ideas about the fool as a personality card for some folks.
I'm going to type in a excerpt from Angeles Arrien's book, The Tarot Handbook; Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols which I have owned since forever. Angeles Arrien is an anthropologist who specializes in cross-cultural myths, symbols and ritual, and with this book allows you self-discovery through the cards. The book was published in 1987 and is still a comprehensive guide to the much debated Aleister Crowley's Thoth deck.
".........the Fool as your life-time personality symbol reflects a person who is seen as highly creative and in need of of variety. Fool people are not foolish or fool-hardy. They are courageous and risk-taking. They come across fearless even though they might feel fear gnawing within them. They are drawn toward and tend to explore the mystical, transcendent, and trans personal realms of consciousness. They inspire the sense of adventure and courage within others. Their sense of wonder and anticipation is contagious.
The Fool is an excellent symbol to use as a visual affirmation to enhance courage, risk-taking and the creative expression that is needed to give birth to new parts of one's life. The Fool represents the energetic essence of who we are, the essence of ourselves which is always whole, healthy. and without fear. This symbol reveals the spirit of who we are, that spirit so often expressed and experienced in those states of wonder, awe, curiosity, and anticipation. This is an excellent card to meditate upon if one is experiencing a lot of fear."
Arrien also lists a few sample affirmations to use while focusing on the Fool.
1. I am a radiant Being.
2. I am a living treasure.
3. I deeply honor and value the unlimited resource of courage that is within me.
4. I respect the nature of who I am.
5. There is nothing to fear.
Arrien also gives us a special reminder about the fool in this book; "The Fool is the state of ecstasy and wonder experienced by all humankind. It is an inherent resource we all have that is waiting to be remembered and utilized".
So, as you can see, the Fool is a wonderful card to have as representative of your personality. So be proud and use this powerful card to your advantage!
For those of you interested in reading more from Angeles Arrien, please follow the link below. Angeles Arrien has written other wonderful books such as, The Second Half of Life; Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom, The Four Fold Way; Walking the Paths of the, Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary, and Signs of Life. There are a multitude of other books both on her own and in collaboration with other great authors. Here's her page on Amazon; http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b_2_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=angeles+arrien&sprefix=Angeles
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  1. PeninaJuly 1, 2009 at 8:04 PM

    Hey Ellie Sista!

    I loved our talk tonight. We are in sync, we are learning together. The quote from the Bhagavad Gita hits the bull’s eye on all the reasons not too worry…and you know I can be the queen of worry. In fact, I remembering visiting my friend Susan. Susan had a lot of younger brothers & sisters like too. There was eight in her family. It was a a few days before Halloween and her little sister, I think she may have been about 8 years old at that time was drawing her family as pumpkin heads. She named each pumpkin head and gave them personalities. She called Susan her big sister - Pretty Pumpkin (And Susan had a figure that wouldn’t quit, she had blue eyes almost as pretty as Kristy’s green eyes and the men went crazy for her). Since I was visiting her little sister also drew me a pumpkin, I was: "Worry Pumpkin" - I felt really sad when I looked at the pumpkin with those worried eyes and stressed-out pumpkin hair...I thought WOW I didn’t know that I worried that much. But her little sister was right. I don’t like to worry, its just natural for me to immediately go to the worse scenario place…but that’s a book I’ll write someday, if I can stop worrying and start writing that would be excellent!! And, before this turn into a book I wanted to comment more on the quote from the Gita is that - What is real can never be destroyed. This is true. But I also liked that the fool seems like she is fearless, but underneath there is definite fear, however she knows how to manage fear. She doesn't let fears destroy her. Like I shared earlier in our talk...in my morning mediation I felt the fear in my hands and in my legs. I could feel the tightening of my muscle vessels, it was strange to have such deep awareness of how tight my hands and legs were...I thought about how I could release and relax? I had to breathe deeper. I also started to Om…but it was a raw noise, not beautifully sounding like chanting, but I let it go...wow so much tension in the body because of the worrying and the fear over things that are not real, and could never be real and that I have no control over the unreal, but I do have control over the real. I can be real. I don’t have to accept the unreal gifts in my JOB! What a relief! What a day! I hope I am succesful tomorrow at work channeling such Gita wisdom...because everyday is a battle.
    Love,
    Penina

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