Fool

57. The Spirit of Ether. / א / Air（“Book T”）

“Tabulated Rules”

Idea, thought, spirituality, that which endeavours to rise above the material. (That is, if the subject which is enquired about be spiritual.) But if the Divination be regarding a material event of ordinary life, this card is not good, and shows folly, stupidity, eccentricity, and even mania, unless with very good cards indeed. It is too ideal and unstable to be generally good in material things.

《PKT》

Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, betrayment.

(Reverse) Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.

“A Manual of Cartomancy”

As regards the Fool, this card, which has been sufficiently explained already, signifies the consummation of everything, when that which began his initiation at zero attains the term of all numeration and all existence. The card which bears no number passes through all the numbered cards and is changed in each, as the natural man passes through worlds of lesser experience, worlds of devotion, worlds of successive attainment, and receives the everlasting wisdom as the gift of perseverance.

“The Quest of the Golden Stairs”

Architect of the Bridge of Harmony, the Golden Stairs—harmony, testament, blessing, life, the chain of things: “To dissolve the outward sign is to find the inward grace” (Quest, 175).

“Steps to the Crown”

Folly hears out many arguments to the end; common sense breaks away in the middle; wisdom seldom listens. Even at the beginning.
How many paths seem to lead to nowhere; to end in cul-de-sac; to be lost suddenly amidst rank vegetation, and come to a startling stop at the brink of a precipice! And we follow them all our days! Yet there is some consolation in the ruling of the common judgement against these and the other appearances: that which seems to lead nowhere may end in the infinite; the wall of the cul-de-sac may have a postern which gives upon fairyland: and on the steep sides of precipice there may be rough and adventurous steps, going down to a great sea, where ships can be hired for crossing.

《絵的な鍵》

【ロマ】 【旭日旗】僥倖、ハレ、めでたい、能天気 【太陽】 【黄色】 【雪山】 【崖】 【高所】 【バッグ】貴重な財産、魂の経験 【イーグルヘッド】 【花】 【白色】 【リース】 【白いバラ】サイレンス、献身 【赤い羽根】 【高価な杖】力を引き出す、お守り、ガイド 【犬】 【尻尾】 【帽子】 【緑色】 【オレンジ色】

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👉 ラベル：愚者

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“The Tarot Trumps”

This card as usually presented shows a man in motley striding along, heedless of the dog which tears his garments and threatens to attack him. In this is seen only the lower aspect of the card, giving no hint to the Divine Folly of which St. Paul speaks. But in the Order pack, an effort is made to reveal the deeper meaning. A naked child stands beneath a rose-tree bearing yellow roses — the golden Rose of Joy as well as the Rose of Silence. While reaching up to the Roses, he yet holds in leash a grey wolf, worldly wisdom held in check by perfect innocence. The colours are pale yellow, pale blue, greenish yellow — suggestive of the early dawn of a spring day.

《PKT》

With light step, as if earth and its trammels (= gravity) had little power to restrain him, a young man in gorgeous vestments pauses at the brink of a precipice among the great heights of the world; he surveys the blue distance before him—its expanse of sky rather than the prospect below. His act of eager walking is still indicated, though he is stationary at the given moment; his dog is still bounding. The edge which opens on the depth has no terror; it is as if angels were waiting to uphold him, if it came about that he leaped from the height. His countenance is full of intelligence and expectant dream. He has a rose in one hand and in the other a costly wand, from which depends over his right shoulder a wallet curiously embroidered. He is a prince of the other world on his travels through this one—all amidst the morning glory, in the keen air. The sun, which shines behind him, knows whence he came, whither he is going, and how he will return by another path after many days. He is the spirit in search of experience. Many symbols of the Instituted Mysteries are summarized in this card, which reverses, under high warrants, all the confusions that have preceded it.

In his Manual of Cartomancy, Grand Orient (it is actually a fictitious name of A. E. Waite himself) has a curious suggestion of the office of Mystic Fool, as a part of his process in higher divination; but it might call for more than ordinary gifts to put it into operation. We shall see how the card fares according to the common arts of fortune-telling, and it will be an example, to those who can discern, of the fact, otherwise so evident, that the Trumps Major had no place originally in the arts of psychic gambling (= fortune-telling), when cards are used as the counters and pretexts. Of the circumstances under which this art arose we know, however, very little. The conventional explanations say that the Fool signifies the flesh, the sensitive life, and by a peculiar satire its subsidiary name was at one time the alchemist, as depicting folly at the most insensate stage.