The Rider - Waite Tarot Deck - Starbridge Centre

Oswald Wirth' deck
CARD 0: THE FOOL.
Keyword:
Contemplation:
Higher purpose
WHERE IS YOUR WISDOM
THE FOOL is walking along with his staff in his right hand and with his eyes fixed on God
alone. The walking stick, which has the spiritual-red colour, indicates that he gets spiritual
support. In his left hand he carries a short blue club with a small orange coloured bag with
a red vertical center-line upon it.
The bag is containing his earthly belongings: the four elements: earth, water, fire and air.
He carries the blue club with his belongings on his right shoulder, meaning that he has
nothing left in his unconscious - he has brought everything over to his right, conscious
side; he carries his physicality, his body, as a purpose.
THE FOOL wears a multicoloured dress. His neck and ears are covered by a green
patterned cloth, illustrating that he obeys the Quabalistic request of keeping "dath" (the
"hidden" sephyroth on the Three of Life) related to the throat chakra, out of bounds for the
uninitiated. The green cloth is a protection, as ignorant people must not recognise his
higher creative powers because they may misuse them. He wears a huge, turban-like
headdress with many "whirling" colours, representing his fully opened crown chakra. His
mask-like face partly hidden behind a brown beard, is expressing the suffering of being in
a physical body.
His real face, his spiritual nature, is beyond comprehension for ordinary man; it is so
radically different that the animal nature in ordinary people around him feels intimidated,
thus a cat-like creature attacks from behind, having torn down his yellow stockings in order
to derogatively expose his naked posterior. Moreover, a crocodile is waiting for him behind
a fallen obelisk. The fallen obelisk is symbolising his nonattachment to previous victories in
© 2005 Starbridge Centre Ulla and Erik Sandersen
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