TAROT AND THE FOOL
The cards called the TAROT have
no known origin. Yet, it is a very powerful mystical tool. From its earliest
creation (some say Egypt) the TAROT was infused with highly psychic images
meant to provoke particular energies manifesting themselves as thoughts and
feelings. Just like a dream image, the Tarot images include universal symbols
also called Archetypes.
This article is not meant to
reflect on the TAROT and its meaning but begin a thinking process about how
images are reflected in our dreams. So we begin to reflect on the FOOL or
Madman. It is the only card out of the 22 major arcana that has no number –
only 0. The FOOL cannot be pinned down to any interpretations and is an open
symbol. It may represent and unlimited energy, total freedom, holy madness,
chaos and also the primary creative and destructive energy.
The FOOL walks on an unknown
path. We may say his journey is about all paths. He is the eternal traveller
that just roams the world without a specific goal. Or perhaps he is a pilgrim
walking towards an unspecified sacred place. Or, again, he is a madman that is
walking toward his own destruction.
However, he is also a symbol
representing a young dreamer. Someone that is free like a bird. Nothing is
blocking him - he simply follows the cosmic life energy. The FOOL is also a
musician represented by the bells attached to his dress. As we look at the
figure, we may also notice the three elements of creation (manifestation):
Creation, Conservation and Destruction. His path includes danger and he may
step out into an abyss, but his dog (animal nature) is gently warning him to be
aware. The dog is contacting his master’s back, a place indicating the base
chakra (muldahara) that connects with the earth.
Here we may stop and reflect
about our dreams and dream symbols. Dreams connect us with that free floating energy
that we perceive in the FOOL. As we meditate on our dream symbols, we become interested
in the minute details of the dream symbols: what are they saying to us? So,
like in dream work, let us take a moment to ask the FOOL to speak:
“Do you know that in every moment
you may change your perception of reality?”
“Expand your field, do not rest
and keep on traveling”
“Leave all beliefs that you have
regarding others being better than you, stronger than you”
“It is not your purpose to lose
consciousness, abandon freedom or give up”
“Let your inner madness guide
you.”
“The spirit (intuition) that you
have is your best teacher/guide.”
“Until now you have lived in the
rational realm, not paying attention to other life energies. Become aware of the
great ocean of unconsciousness”.
“Live fully and totally in body,
mind and spirit”.
The Tarot is not only a
divinatory tool but it also gives us guidelines to understand our own dreams.
It gives us a clear view of both sides of human fate: the wonderful and the
nightmarish.
Dreaming our reality
Some researchers of dreams have
found that our minds naturally create stories around the facts of our lives and
those personal stories strongly influence how we perceive ourselves as well as
how we behave in real time. When recurrent themes are being felt as triumphs
over adversities and how our troubles are resolved, we feel good and have a lot
of courage. However, with stories that focus on the dark and negative results
that destroyed our happiness, we are likely to experience fears, apathy and
depression.
In addition to our personal
dreams we share a collective dream based on social, spiritual and cultural
scripts. We learned about ideas as to how we should live our lives and measure
our worth and happiness. All collective nightmares created by others (wars,
terror and evil) have a strong input into our own perception of reality.
This perception of nightmares is
based on focusing on problems in all the digital media available today. All or
most of our energy is spent on reading about, thinking about and noting world
problems. What we need is to focus on and re-imagine a world that has harmony
and wellbeing. Have a vision beyond the
collective nightmares (reflected in bad news) – we can actually dream this vision into being!
When we operate from a higher
level of consciousness, we stop perceiving ‘problems’ and start perceiving
‘situations’ and opportunities that are neither good nor bad. They are simply
here and now giving us a point of view from a creative awareness and then we
begin to note opportunities in every dark space.
When we become paralysed in a
nightmare, we lose any notion about how we can enjoy a sense of purpose and be
free, like the FOOL in the Tarot card.
Different representations of the Fool
The next post will give you a full understanding of dreams and nightmares from a gestalt perspective.
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