[Tarot Archetypes] - The Wandering Fool.

Shadow Self

There is more to the fool than just being a wanderer. Otherwise every nomad would automatically be the fool, but that is not the case. The fool is actually about not really knowing oneself because one does not have experience of the world yet. This web comic illustrates what is meant by the fool, who is like the noob in the comic. www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php

Everyone starts out not knowing anything about how oneself interacts with the world around us, like the noob. With time and experience we learn where we fit into the world. I don't think it is actually that great to be a perma noob (because that is what is known in rpgs as a NOOB, some one who doesn't want to learn anything and expects it all to be handed to them.)

magictortoise

@nameless said

"There is more to the fool than just being a wanderer. "

Actually, those layers were added later - in Visconti- Sforza deck, he is hardly more than a wanderer though...
(some connection to harvest -related rituals can be added by his headwear,but that's pretty much it, as long as the first known Tarot goes.)

http://babilonia61.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/tarocco-visconti-sforza-il-matto.jpg

magictortoise

For myself, i relate the Fool to hexagram 56. The Wanderer, not to the 4th Young Fool, as its usually done.

Wilhelm-Baynes translation of “The I Ching or Book of Changes“:

I-Ching Hexagram 56 – Lu – The Wanderer

the trigram above – LI – the Clinging, Fire
the trigram below – KEN – Keeping Still, Mountain

The mountain, ken, stands still; above it fire, Li, flames up and does not tarry. Therefore the two trigrams do not stay together. Strange lands and separation are the wanderer’s lot.

THE JUDGMENT

THE WANDERER. Success through smallness.
Perseverance brings good fortune
To the wanderer.

When a man is a wanderer and stranger, he should not be gruff nor overbearing. he has no large circle of acquaintances, therefore he should not give himself airs. He must be cautious and reserved; in this way he protects himself from evil. If he is obliging toward others, he wins success.

A wanderer has no fixed abode; his home is the road. Therefore he must take care to remain upright and steadfast, so that he sojourns only in the proper places, associating only with good people. Then he has good fortune and can go his way unmolested.

THE IMAGE

Fire on the mountain:
The image of THE WANDERER.
Thus the superior man
Is clear-minded and cautious
In imposing penalties,
And protracts no lawsuits.

When grass on a mountain takes fire, there is bright light. However, the fire does not linger in one place but travels on to new fuel. It is a phenomenon of short duration. This is what penalties and lawsuits should be like. they should be a quickly passing matter, and must not be dragged out indefinitely. Prisons ought to be places where people are lodged only temporarily, as guests are. They must not become dwelling places.

Liber 216 The I Ching

56 THE LU HEXAGRAM

Sun of Earth

LU: Stranger, Firm right conduct may unravel
most of the tangles incident to travel.

Mean men by menial toil increase their woe;
Well lodged, served, monied men more easy go.
His house on fire, his servants fled, 'ware danger.
Though rich, armed, rested, still set caution ranger!
Good manners, self effacement with the throw;
while arrogance and violence hurt the stranger.