The Fool is the card we are starting this series with as it is numbered 0 and logic and reason says this is before the number 1. There has been debate on the Fool's placement for many years but for our purposes here it takes the lead as the first Key of the Major Arcana.The number zero is a symbol of the absence of quality, quantity, or mass. Therefore, it is a symbol of freedom from any restriction whatsoever. As a circle it denotes infinity, without beginning and without end. It is infinite potential that is No-thing, yet is the rootless cause of all things, of all actions, and of all modes of consciousness
The Hebrew letter assigned to The Fool is Aleph and its numeral value is 1. Aleph means bull or ox. In the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome, the ox held a significant place in those societies. The ox plowed the ground, it threshed the grain, it provided the strength to pull what man could not. Therefore, the ox was a symbol of power in these civilizations. To own an ox was a symbol of wealth and standing. This hearkens us back to the Age of Taurus when the bull or ox was slain as the sacrifice. This made the bull the cultural power in its day and we could stretch this even further too, it was the life-power in a way.
This is exactly what the inventors of Tarot wanted to convey with this Key. It is the Life-Power of the Cosmos. He is on a height with the Spiritual Sun at his back. I say spiritual because it is colored white the color of purity and innocence. This is conveyed by the Fool. This is the Life-Power stepping off the cliff into the depths of incarnation. It is that Life-Power that is the Soul of each and everyone of us. We leaped off from the heights and into incarnation and will return just to leap off again.
This Life-Power that is within us is the same fiery substance that is the source of illumination of the stars and our own day star. It comes from One Source and One Place. So, we can see how we are all connected in this mystery we call life. Yet we treat each other like we are separate and all evils plague us for this thinking, this foolish thinking.
We can also look at the Life-Power and its function in our consciousness. It is that consciousness that we seldom notice. We are all to familiar with self-consciousness. We all say, "I'm too self-conscious of my..." fill in the blank with what we aren't comfortable with. We live in self-consciousness it is the doer and talker in our everyday world. We are also familiar with subconsciousness. We relegate our dreams complexes and things we don't want to think about to this area. More on that later as we go through this series. We also have what is called super-consciousness. It is above our everyday awareness and there are some who go throughout there lives without even knowing it was there. It is where most of the Life-power, after it descends, lies. It is the overshadowing presence and is involved with us everyday we just don't realize it.
Taking this Key and meditating on it can bring us closer to this super-consciousness. Artists, inventors, new thinkers, and others have tapped its power and have received much from doing so. In my training I was taught to gaze into this Key and letting my thoughts wrap around the symbols and colors of each Key and if the mind starts to wander from the Key just bring it back to looking at the Key. When done with the time it is a very good Idea to keep a journal and document the Key the length of time looking, and any questions or insights that may have come up. I started with meditations of three minutes until I could keep my mind focused on the Key for that long. I then went to five minutes until I could hold it for that long and so on. I now spend 10 to 15 minutes a day on one of the Keys. This simple exercise of just looking at the Keys is deceptively simple but the advantages are manifold. The best advantage of doing this is gaining closer contact with Super-Consciousness.
Many Tarot Blessings!
