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I decided to start an esoteric card study series beginning with the Major Arcana.

While the series is available in video form, this written version may prove useful for those who would like more detailed notes.

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Zero is the number assigned to The Fool, who assumes its place as the first card within the Major Arcana…or is it? When you count, you might start from 1 and ascend, but before there’s one, there’s zero. There’s the void.

This is where we begin, where life begins: the luminous void.

Welcome to Esoteric Tarot, a deep dive series where I share various details about tarot card meanings and history to impart additional wisdom to the collective apart from the easily accessible traditional meanings. This series is meant to encourage you to do supplemental research so that you do the necessary work to deepen your own understanding of the cards on a personal and intuitive level.

I am not going to argue the age of tarot or its purported origins, because that debate doesn’t serve a significant purpose here. What matters most to me is connecting the dots from what was once an attempted unified system for interpretation that references several deities, several faiths, several pantheons across cultural bounds.

My current belief is that there is a singular consciousness of the All that we refer to by many names and ascribe many faces to but it is a singular essence with variable energies that manifests in myriad ways and frequencies, and in any necessary capacity, to communicate messages for our betterment. If you believe that energy appears to you as Hecate and someone else believes it appears to them as Erishkigal and yet another believes it appears as Lord Krishna, there’s room for it all in my opinion.

Within the tarot, I believe that there are hidden references that connect the cards to the oldest of all conceptions of deities; those boundless primordial energies that revealed themselves to humanity before we recorded those signs or wonders with written word, during the ages when movement or speech were the only forms of information transference we possessed. Do I believe that tarot is older than the speculated age of 600 years? Yes, but I suspect any record of that information was lost to us with the burning of Alexandria as yet another grave loss to the ambitions of conquest.

Still, it is there within that ancient area of the Fertile Crescent, along with the additional cradles of civilization, where we have our earliest recorded histories and establishment of religion or spirituality. However, there is evidence of ritual practices that are as old as the Middle Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age, Era, which would be from 50K to 300K years ago. These practices were likely shamanic in nature and dependent on spiritual leaders entering trance states to receive channeled wisdom and other esoteric knowledge. They might have included experiences of religious ecstasy, animism, burial/death rites, ancestral veneration, and other traditions that persist today.

There is truly nothing new under the sun, under the sphere, under the zero, under the all. So, let’s turn our focus to The Fool, to Zero, to the beginning and examine it to the best of our ability.

Setting our attention towards the lands of the six cradles, we are focusing on Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, and Ancient China which comprise Afro-Eurasia, and Caral-Supe of coastal Peru as well as the Olmec civilization of Mexico. When I say that I believe these divine energies derive from a single consciousness, it is because throughout the world, you will find them referred to by equivalent names. Commerce, cooperation, and religious pilgrimage brought the faiths of other traditions to each other, particularly in areas within close proximity to Greece. Artemis was identified with the goddess Nanaya through her associations of the moon and archery, a shrine to Artemis was present on their lands, the cults of Apollo and Artemis were present there, and Athena was identified along with Artemis with Atargatis, who is an incredibly significant figure as you explore the Major Arcana in greater detail. Atargatis also shares iconographic similarities with Tyche.

My point here is that their shared qualities made it easy for other cultures to adopt them into their practices and that flexibility in faith strengthened those communal bonds for purposes beyond spiritual growth. Shared faith meant shared resources like medicine, agriculture, mathematics, and astronomy. Babylonian astronomy is the foundation of what Greek, Indian, Central Asian, and Western European civilizations would adopt and adapt over time, leading to our own advancements here in the U.S. and globally in the present day.

While there is no known creator to thank for the origin of tarot, we have Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela “Pixie” Colman Smith to thank for the popularized images that are used today. Both members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, they developed the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck.

Rider is the name of the publisher, William Rider & Son, who published the deck and also takes credit for spreading Bram Stoker’s Dracula across the world. So, mild celebration for that!

The term Major Arcana was coined by French occultist Jean-Baptiste Pitois aka Paul Christian, and the order of the cards was influenced by Eliphas Levi, a French esotericist, poet, and writer who has published over 20 books on magic, Kabbalah, alchemical studies, and occultism, among them, the very influential Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual and The Key of the Mysteries. Beyond membership to the Golden Dawn, Waite belonged to the Freemasons and Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, and went on to establish the Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn which was eventually disbanded. He then went on to form the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross which still exists and has temples in the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, and New Zealand. If you want to be nosy, they do have a website and they do have prerequisites for membership.

As for Ms. Colman, she was an artist by heart and by trade. Her membership in the Golden Dawn began through introduction via Irish artist Jack Yeats and continued until personality differences led to its decay. She followed Waite when he founded the IRRGD and eventually converted to Roman Catholicism. An inheritance she received allowed her to lease a home and begin generating income through a neighboring property which she ran with “longtime friend” Nora Lake. During this time period, it’s easy to speculate what that means. She had a history of supporting women’s rights via the suffrage movement and personally, I love that there is some queer fabric woven into tarot history.

There’s no facet of life where that rainbow doesn’t shine.

With more understanding of the background of the creators, we can unpack the work of Ms. Colman and Mr. Waite by examining the companion text. Within the illustrated guide, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, there is an interesting detail. The Fool does not begin the Major Arcana. In fact, it’s not even in the front of the text at all. It is nestled between Judgement and The World. I want to offer this excerpt from Pictorial Key.

“21–which, however, in most of the arrangements is the cipher card, number nothing–The Fool, Mate, or Unwise Man. Court de Gebelin places it at the head of the whole series as the zero or negative which is presupposed by numeration, and as this is a simpler so also it is a better arrangement. It has been abandoned because in later times the cards have been attributed to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and there has been apparently some difficulty about allocating the zero symbol satisfactorily in a sequence of letters all of which signify numbers. In the present reference of the card to the letter Shin, which corresponds to 200, the difficulty or the unreason remains. The truth is that the real arrangement of the cards has never transpired. The Fool carries a wallet; he is looking over his shoulder and does not know that he is on the brink of a precipice; but a dog or other animal–some call it a tiger–is attacking him from behind, and he is hurried to his destruction unawares. Etteilla has given a justifiable variation of this card–as generally understood–in the form of a court jester, with cap, bells and motley garb. The other descriptions say that the wallet contains the bearer’s follies and vices, which seems bourgeois and arbitrary.”

A.E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot

We’ll revisit the description of The Fool in time, but I want to address a few things first, namely defining a cipher card along with the allocation of numbers to letters and the Hebrew alphabet connection.

A cipher card is a card that is meant to serve as the starting point for the decryption of a cipher when one uses a playing card deck. This deck of cards would be like the standard variety one uses for playing Solitaire, Spades, or Poker. Just an average deck, but the placement of the Joker and the organization of the cards would reveal a coded message for someone to discover. This system was popular within secret societies as it allowed the exchange of information in plain sight, even with the company of eavesdroppers, because they wouldn’t be able to understand the cards. The arrangement of the cards and suits would hide details. I will note that while Wikipedia asserts Bruce Schneier was the developer of the Solitaire cipher at author Neal Stephenson’s behest, the novel Cryptonomicon was released in 1999 and Pictorial Key, which references a cipher card for use in this manner, was published in 1910. Playing cards themselves can be dated back to Ancient China before 1000 A.D. and were found among nobility. This one reason why I believe tarot is far older than speculated as cartomancy can be done with playing cards in a system that assigns the suits to their Minor Arcana equivalents. I do love how playing cards remind me of Geomantic figures, which you’ll want to become familiar with because they are hidden within the tarot as well.

When I began the post, I stated that life began in the void. “Out of nothing, everything.” Creation ex Nihilo, the doctrine that matter is not eternal but had to be created by some divine act, or if you prefer a scientific approach, Quantum Vacuum. The space is never empty but teeming with potential and this is where we draw a connection to Hebrew antiquity and will examine Hebrew Gematria, or when a word or phrase can be given a numerical value.

Gematria, from the Greek word geometria, refers to a process by which numerical values are ascribed to the letters of teh Hebrew alphabet. The earliest source for gematria is the Baraita of the Thirty-two Rules written by Rabbi Eliezer ben Rabbi Yosei HaGelili, who lived in Judea in the 2nd century CE. This text lists gematria as rule 28 of its 32 rules for interpreting the Bible. This system, which does not use the Arabic numbering system, means that numbers are words and words are numbers. This could easily be the origin of what some people utilize as bibliomancy, which can be done using any text whether it is sacred as the bible, Qur’an, or Torah, classical as The Iliad, or individually meaningful as The Secret. As a simple example of Hebrew Gematria,  א (Aleph), the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, has the value of one; and ב (Beit/Beis) is the second letter, with the value of two. When they join together to form the Hebrew word אב (which means “father”), they have the numerical value of three, since 1+2=3.

When two words or phrases have the same numerical value, this may indicate a connection. The first 10 letters each correspond to a number, one through ten. The next nine letters represent 20 through 100, and the final three letters are 200, 300, and 400. Similar to Roman numerals, letters are added together to equal a given number, and the letters retain their essential worth no matter where they are placed in a sequence, so Tav, Khaf, and Aleph, for example, equal 421. With this system, any word or phrase can have deeper significance. In fact, one of the most popular commentaries on the Torah, called Tur, uncovers additional hidden layers of meaning in the text by means of gematria and other close analysis of the texts.

In Hebrew, there is no representation for the number zero which leaves the closest translation to be ‘no’ or ‘nothing’, but those words don’t have the best equivalent meaning in the language because a common word for ‘no’ or ‘no’ is לֹא ‘Lo’ and is spelled Lamed, Aleph read right to left. What I’d like to point out here is that ‘zero’ as Efes, is the perfect number and term for The Fool because that’s a part of what it can mean! In crass terminology, it can mean, and I apologize in advance for any perceived offense, “an idiot”, an unintelligent individual, a lay-about, someone who does nothing, and is used to denote a lack of something when it is in assorted word combinations. In short, someone who is a loof; fool spelled backwards. This can sound like דפר אפס Dapar Efes, but also in the sense of bittersweet emptiness of having naught but your faith like אפס זולתו  Efes Zutaloh, which roughly translates to “There is nothing but God.” Lamed, Aleph produces the words for Almighty God when the positions are reversed. “Out of nothing, everything.” Out of the void, Source.

This is the significance of zero.

We’re all familiar with the opening song of Big Bang Theory:

🎶The whole universe was in a hot dense state🎶

Zero is that state before becoming. Zero is what is limitless, unknowable, and has boundless potential. It is eternal and infinite. It is simultaneously the first card of the deck and the second to last card of the Major Arcana. As the first, it is the Alpha. It is Aleph. It is the divine. It provides a connection to Deutoronomy 6:4, “The Lord our God is one Lord.” Many things, many names, infinite, but still one. Some belief systems give God 72 names and I believe there is a face, an aspect, an archetype that is assigned to each one. Just as there is a name, an aspect, an archetype that is assigned to the 72 higher energies and 72 other goetic energies practitioners connect to.

So , why? Why zero? Why The Fool? What does it represent?

The Fool is often read as new opportunities. It is the new opportunity of consciousness of incarnation. It’s the exit from a high holy place to embark as a spiritual bring having a human experience. It is the start of life. Its position between Judgment and The World, between death and the closure of a cycle, and the inevitable manifestation on a new one, is potential. To modernize it: you die, the game ends, and it returns to a character select screen for you to choose your next adventure, like Samsara- the Buddhist, Hindu, or Jainist concept of the wheel of life, death, and reincarnation.

Now that we have examined zero as a number and the connection to gematria, let’s actually look at the card of The Fool itself accompanied by another excerpt from The Pictorial Key:

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 has a curious suggestion of the office of Mystic Fool, as apart 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, 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.”

A.E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot

As I stated before, the Rider Waite Smith deck was created by Golden Dawn members. The elemental weapon of that order is a dagger which must be painted yellow as expressed by Israel Regardie in Golden Dawn. That work was published because he feared the system of ceremonial magic would be lost as the order had, in his opinion, fallen into disarray. So, he shared this information hoping to preserve their traditions. Within the RWS tarot, the color yellow can be associated with the intellect, the mind, and by association the air element and signs of Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. This does not negate any other color psychology interpretation, but it adds depth to it. For example, the 7 of Swords is a card with a golden sky. Considering the other color psychology association of the color yellow, I’d like you to explore what additional meanings that card may have beyond what you think you already know.

As referenced in The Key, the uppermost item in the card is The Sun. This is Source, the light of creation. In the Mesopotamian era, this would’ve been recognized as a solar deity named Shamash. To the Greeks, Helios or Apollo. This would be Surya or Aditya in Hinduism, Dyeus or Father Daylight in Proto-Indo-European mythology, or even the eye of the Lord, Ayin Adonai, providing divine providence and protection, faithful mercy. Apart from a new beginning, The Fool is associated with blind faith.

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”

2 Chronicles 16:9

As a note, many of the deities mentioned will have similar epithets. For instance, Dyeus is the origin of equivalents like Zojz in Albanian, Zeus in Greek, Dyaus in Hindu, Jupiter in the Roman pantheon, Tyr in Germanic, and on and on. As I proposed, many names, one source. What I find is that each area derived deities that share these archetypes and purposes and epithets but the narrowmindedness of humanity saw us create division through identity politics in a way that prevented us from accepting that these are all the same thing and we are recognizing them differently because some people need their goddesses and gods to look like them to feel connection or their power. Humanity placed a limitation on the divine by attempting to define its appearance and I feel that mars our ability to connect.

Continuing to study the card from the top down, we find that The Fool is wearing headwear. I believe this is the Crown of Immortality and can also be interpreted as the wreath that surrounds the central figure in The World. Recall the significance of The Fool’s position between Judgement and The World. To me, it is as if The Fool is incarnating with the wreath serving as an artistic rendering of labia. This is because in Egyptian antiquity, the frown was known as the Crown of Justification and it was placed upon the deceased to represent victory over the afterlife in emulation of Osiris, the god of the afterlife, dead, resurrection, fertility, agriculture, vegetation, and life.

The Crowns of Immortality and Justification were traditionally made from various materials including:

• Laurel, signifying victory & achievement, glory & honor, immortality & eternity, wisdom & prophecy, and peace
• Palm, signifying victory & triumph, peace & blessings, resilience & strength, salvation & divine connection
• Papyrus, signifying life & rebirth, order versus chaos, divine connection, purity, creation, protection & vigor, and the journey to the afterlife
• Roses, signifying divine universal love, beauty, spiritual growth, balance & wholeness, purity, innocence, new beginnings, and remembrance
• Feathers, symbolizing freedom & ascension, protection & care, intuition & awareness, divine connection to deities, ancestors, angels, and the bridging of physical and spiritual worlds.

Both the color of the feathers and the color of the roses would bear additional significance. In this crown of laurels, the feather is red, associated with passion, love, energy, courage, and vitality. There are a host of other meanings associated with the color red. Simply invest some time into studying color psychology and you’ll find them.

Occasionally precious metals are included in the construction. Those would bear their own significance. Because the tarot incorporates several mystery institutions, it would behoove you to research the alchemy and the seven primary metals associated with the classical planets and other celestial bodies. For example, the Sun is linked to gold and represents the soul, perfection, and the final goal of the Magnum Opus or Great Work.

This crown is nor too dissimilar from the Grecian laurel wreath often placed upon victorious athletes or poets. Among the Romans, a similar crown would be awarded to generals celebrating triumph. However, the Romans reminded their awardees of their humanity during presentation because they valued the prioritization of humility and focusing on serving Rome and not oneself. To accomplish this, an enslaved person who accompanied the triumphant leader in their chariot would say, “Memento Mori”, during the crowning as a reminder that they are only a man and are immortal only within memory.

Within Christian symbolism, this crown would be connected to martyrdom, associated with champions of Christ, and a reward for those who remained faithful until death. This is referenced in the following Bible passages:

“And every man that striveth for mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we are incorruptible.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

James 1:12

“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”

Revelation 2:10

I’ve drawn a connection before between the wreath from The World, The Fool, and the process of birth or spiritual inhabitation of a physical body. I view the area The Fool occupies as a liminal space. Here, they exist in a transitional realm between life and death. I associate this space with the tunnel of light many people who have had Near Death Experiences recount. The radiance about them and the sun serve as intense, bright, loving light of the presence and protection of the divine and their pose suggests the levity of an out of body experience. The Pictorial Key says The Fool has a countenance that is “full of intelligence and expectant dream”, perhaps displaying a certain sense of peace and awareness where they are in this rare position of abiding among the unknowable and limitless bliss but their name hints that there is an inability to grasp the fullness of that knowing and an ineptitude to articulate it. Like trying to describe the sunset to someone who has never seen it and suddenly feeling as if you lack the substance to put such beauty into words. Like the inability to recall and decipher a dream.

The Fool occupies a territory that is inherently holy. Throughout many cultures, temples, monasteries, and other holy ground was found in high places. Consider Moses ascending Mount Sinai to receive the commandments, Greek gods residing upon Mount Olympus, Hindu deities upon Mount Kailash, temples constructed to replicate Mount Meru also known as Sumeru where, etymologically, ‘meru’ means ‘high’ in Sanskrit. Mount Meru is revered as the center of all physical, metaphysical, and spiritual universes and there are certain photos that do mirror the topography of the mountain range within the card. Those temples and excursions for holy pilgrimage exist in those high places because our very souls long to cross that metaphysical bridge and return to that space, that loving and radiant environment where we felt a sense of spiritual attainment. To me, the mountains serve as a partition. They divide the feet, ruled by Pisces, from the divine. Though they are clothed in yellow, they are still not in the same shade and not truly receiving that light, the emanation and awareness of that holy consciousness. We wear clothing to “hide our shame”, and so The Fool, with their back turned to that divine truth is not fully drawing in all that is around him.

So, we have the sun, the sky, the mountains and we’ve started to look at The Fool’s attire. First, we examined their headwear. Note the shade of their hair as well. There’s often the stereotype of blond hair being linked to dimwittedness. However, we would do ourselves a disservice if we didn’t acknowledge the double-standard of acceptance for such a feature. Western culture links blonde hair to beauty, purity, innocence, and vitality. Within certain mythologies, blonde hair is associated with the presentation of female deities like Sif, Aphrodite, Demeter, and even male deities who are deemed handsome like Apollo or warriors like Achilles who were revered for their prowess on the battlefield. Blonde hair was even prized in ancient Greece by sex workers who dyed their hair to attract better business. Romans also associated blonde hair with that line of work for a time. When doing a reading, I associate blonde hair on certain figures as evidence of lust, envy, or desire for that reason. Astrologically, I align it with Cancer, where the fair tone can be connected to the hue of the moon or Leo, where it can be connected to the sun or a proud lion’s mane.

Modern day stereotypes of blonde hair being associated with a carefree and flirtatious nature can allegedly be traced back to a French play titled Les Curiosités de la Foire which satirized Catherine-Rosalie Gerard Duthe, a celebrated French courtesan who is noted as the first officially recorded dumb blonde. Yikes!

Behind that head of hair and between the beaming sun, The Fool is carrying what the key refers to as a “curiously embroidered wallet.” Upon closer inspection, you’d see that the object etched into what I assume would be leather is a pinecone. In my opinion, I think it is obvious that The Fool has already embarked on a soul journey before. This refers to Samsara – the wheel of life, death, and reincarnation that comes from Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. It’s clear that this is not The Fool’s first incarnation because they carry a bindlestiff, or burden, upon their shoulder and the sleeves of their tunic are tattered. The pack itself is emblazoned with the symbol of a pinecone, referencing the pineal gland which regulates one’s circadian rhythm, the rhythm of our awakening. Within the pack is all of their past karma from prior incarnations, all of the things that The Fool was unable to process, and they are still carrying that baggage with them as they prepare to begin a new cycle.

They were unable to clear all of their karma or learn all of their lessons in the last cycle, and they begin this cycle with all of those former burdens in tow, prepared to take the plunge into a new experience. Some readers will examine the pack and say that they are carrying all of the tools that appear on the workspace in The Magician, and I hold space for that interpretation when it applies, depending on the surrounding cards and the context of the reading. However, the only tool that The Fool is openly states to have is their wand which is holding the wallet. I called it a bindlestiff because The Fool is often given a connection to transience and it reminds me of the old bundle on a stick that you’d see unhoused people carry when they were depicted in old media, like wanderers who snuck onto trains or hitchhikers. The Fool carries this wallet as if it were light, but that is because of where they are at that moment. The gravity of reality makes it a burden, makes it a heavy load, which is felt once they descend.

To impress upon you why I see it that way, I want you to look at the alignment of the sun, the bag, and The Fool’s head. Look at how that limitless knowing would shine directly upon them and illuminate their path if not for the wallet obstructing its light. With The Fool carrying their pineal gland pack and equipped to go on another soul journey, the bad is aligned with source consciousness and the soul to project that reality, but also barring divine understanding because those burdens obscure direct access to source and we are rooted in those burdens.

Think about how frequently humans ruminate on their troubles.

The pack is brown, which is the color one gets when all of the primary colors are mixed. However, that can also be achieved when you mix them in complementary pairs. I think of this as an amalgamation of the chakras, all of them stacked upon each other in that wallet and when the burdens within them are made manifest, we must deal with them. Brown is the color associated with the sefirot Yesod upon the middle pillar of balance in the Tree of Life according to Kabbalah. Within this space, the soul has not materialized into a body and remains unblemished apart from their past karma which still lies within the wallet. It is only once that wallet is opened and The Fool begins to sift through that baggage that the effects alter the appearance of the soul.

This is where our hands get dirty and where we see what real work must begin.

Continuing to examine The Fool’s accessories, we come to their tunic. The sleeves are tattered, so we can observe that their hands have been busy with works of the past. Upon their chest, we see a white undergarment and the tunic itself. In addition to seeing Geomantic figures and Hebrew script hidden in the artwork of the tarot in its entirety, I believe there may be Ogham written in the cards as well. Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write Irish language and is formed by 20 characters written in parallel strokes on either side or across a continuous line. Within The Fool, I believe it may be hidden upon the collarbone, the sleeves, and the left boot which is planted firmly on the ground; with this language creating a cross, a crossroads upon the body itself. You’re invited to decipher that riddle at your leisure.

The tunic features red, yellow, green, and black. We’ve discussed the significance of yellow, how it represents air within the Golden Dawn system, and other themes associated with tis color psychology. Yellow is also connected to the sefirot Hod within the Tree of Life, aligning with splendor and glory, but what about the other colors? We know red represents fire, and within alchemy is the fundamental masculine energy that must unite with the feminine to complete the Great Work.

Red is tied to Gevurah, the Kabbalistic sefirot of strength, and divine judgment that breeds discipline. Green is associated with the sefirot Tiferet for beauty and harmony, but some align Netzach, representing victory and eternity, with that color as well. Green represents earth, nature, and the lower astral planes. Black in color psychology is associated with secrecy, mystery, power, and the unknown among other concepts, and within Kabbalah, it is connected to the sefirot Malkhut, and some theorists align it with Binah as well.

So, what is Binah?

Binah is understanding. It unites a pillar of the Tree of Life containing itself, Gevurah, and Hod, the left pillar of judgement and severity Malkhut, the sefirot of connection, is the kingdom of God, the divine empty vessel representing the physical world and manifestation. Black is the boundless limitless void of our origin, Ein Sof. So, within some schools of thought, black can be connected to Keter, the crown, or infinite divine will. In the Song of Songs, or the Song of Solomon, there is mention of the curtains of the temple of Solomon being black.

It is interesting to note the presence and the absence of certain colors here — we complete the pillar of judgment and severity in color, but not the pillars of balance or mercy, which I feel is an apt interpretation of the human experience. It’s unbalanced as The Fool is imbalanced. Anytime a figure doesn’t have both of their feet on the ground, depending on the circumstances, it can be read as instability, especially if their feet are a significant distance away like the figure in the Two of Pentacles. Here, it isn’t so severe. It’s like they’ve almost got it figured out, but there’s still a chance it could go either way.

The Pictorial Key says that the card if covered with symbols of the instituted mysteries. So, what are instituted mysteries and what are their symbols? Examine the tunic more closely. Look at what you think might be leaves. Observe how they are inconsistent in shape, how some golden objects have what look like hands. In fact, one of them looks like a golden pomegranate. Another looks like a golden quince or pome…but one of them is holding something different.

Is it a flower? Perhaps.

There are several flowers in our beautiful world that contain eight petals. The cosmos, mountain avens, jasmine, morning glory, eight o’clock flower, and four o’clock flower stand out in mind, but so does something else. Something that isn’t a flower at all.

The bottom of a mushroom. The lamellae or gills.

We often use mushrooms in cooking, but there are over 200 species of mushrooms that produce psilocybin, a psychedelic compound that produces hallucinogenic effects by binding with the serotonin receptors in the brain. When a mushroom grows, it pops up as a spindly, finger -like bud and later opens into what we recognize, but when it does –when it tears a membrane on the bottom –it fills with that compound.

From the point of the tear, the mushroom grows, but the hallucinogenic content will not and may even decrease. So, the mushroom is at the peak of its unrealized potential the moment it tears.

The Fool is at the peak of their unrealized potential in that void.

Before the soul incarnates, it is not yet clothed with the burdens of the pillars of judgment or severity, but as it prepares for birth, it dons them. The feather in the crown of immortality represents the production of DMT, a hallucinogenic substance derived from various plants, fungi, and animals. There is fervent speculation about whether it is produced naturally during birth and death, but also during near death experiences, potentially in small amounts during dreams, and I hypothesize that it may be released during pregnancy, particularly during childbirth. However, there is not enough research to validate the claims. One of the sources of DMT production is ayahausca, which has historically been used by certain indigenous groups during pregnancy and during labor in controlled doses.

Circling back to the flowers I mentioned earlier, I am going to briefly list their names and associations:

• Cosmos, Greek for ordered universe but also meant to arrange, establish, or adorn, representing harmony, joy in life, and tranquility
• Mountain Avens are flowers that bloom in harsh conditions and are associated with innocence, longevity, resilience, survival, and were used for keeping time and tracking the seasons
• Jasmine, associated with love, romance, beauty, grace, divine love like agape, purity, innocence, good luck, fortune, thankfulness, and inner harmony, frequently included in bridal bouquets or devotional rites
• Morning Glory, associated with love, affection, tenderness, new beginnings, ambition, growth, seizing the day, living in the present, spiritual renewal, impermanence, and the gentle sadness of passing things, and love in pain
• Eight o’clock flowers, associated with transformation, transience, dramatic change, and fleeting beauty
• Four o’clock flowers, associated with wonderful surprises, diversity, unexpected beauty, and anticipation of good things. It blooms late into the afternoon, so I associate it with delayed blessings. It has a connection to nocturnal magic as the Queen of the Night, ‘malkat halayla’, where it is prized for its sweet scent, resilience, strength, and ability to thrive in difficult conditions.

The way you read the significance of the flowers may change over time, so it is nice to know a few and their associations.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the imagery of the tunic, I also see those wheels as a few other things:

• The Wheel of Fortune
• Wheel of Karma
• Samsara
• Bhavacakra
• Dharmachakra
• A representation of the eight-fold path, Buddha’s guide to ending suffering and achieving nirvana.

Note that The Fool is holding the wand, the instrument of creation in their masculine band, their dominant hand, while the white rose is held daintily in an OM hand gesture in their feminine hand, their receptive hand. OM is considered the sound of creation, the universe’s fundamental vibration, and encompases all sounds and existence. Om, when written, represents the states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, not specifically death, but I draw a connection to it since white roses are usually given for mourning. Consider how Death carries a flag with a white rose. I also think there’s a heavily shadowed segment of the cliff where you can almost see OM drawn out, just beneath the dog.

This brings me to the final detail: the dog.

The dog is often read as if he’s offering a warning, but I want you to truly observe the expression on the dog’s face. It is mirroring The Fool. Its tail is in a playful position, not a defensive one, and it is rearing up in excitement and not fear. I believe this is The Fool’s spirit guide, or guardian angel, beside them, their constant companion or assign protector who never leaves their side. It is loyal to them, bound to them.

Inseparable.

Could this spiritual companion be a Qareen? Perhaps.

In that case, it would be the spiritual double of The Fool, operating independently from them and making contact from another dimension. In Islam, it’s said that we’re given an angel and a djinn. We see this in secular media with an angel on one shoulder and a devil other, offering their commentary, advice, or influence, but not directly interfering. However, within certain spheres, there is no differentiation between the angel or the djinn and there is a desire to merge the two. In this way, we see a figure preparing to turn away from divinity and descend only to work to return again.

Jiva Jago. Wake up, sleeping souls.

Remember your true and eternal nature and relationship with the divine.

There’s a significant amount of ebb and flow within the tarot where care reference each other. It is a cohesive story, a tapestry of details that, when set before a competent reader, can reveal much and more to an individual beyond superficial inquiries.