Tarot Interpretations - An open discussion of what individual cards
mean to different individuals.
I'm starting this conversation in an effort to gain a greater 
understanding of the tarot, which will aid me in my creation
of my own deck.
Each week or so I'd like to suggest a card adn then let anyone
interested relate their experiences or interpretation of that
card. I've found that everyone who uses tarot, has a different
way of viewing each card.
May we begin with one of my favorites, "The Fool"?

136 responses total.

The deck I'm illustrating is using all sorts of creatures as symbols
for each card. For instance, I'm currently considering the use of
a grasshopper for "The Fool". (If anyone is familiar with a tarot
deck that already uses creatures instead of people - please let
me know.)

well in many tarot decks some of the people are accompanied by
certain creatures, which are somehow associated with the meaning
of the card (hopefully). In the case of oe of the most basic
decks, rider-waite, I believe the fool is frolicking alongside a
very small dog (always looks like those really little ones with
sorta long fur... don't recall the bred name)
  I'm making a collage tarot deck for the fun of it, so far I've
completed my High Priestess and the 9 of Pentacles... I think I choose
to start with those because I'd gotten familiar with them as they
were my "soul" card and special birthday card... based on some
calculations in a tarot workbook.

Hi Gecko!  Grasshopper for the fool puts me in mind of two things.
One, the story of the Grasshopper and the Ants
and two the old Kung Fu series (that was Kung Fu...stupid telnet)

Hmmmm... the Kung Fu representation is certainly appropriate, since that's
exactly what the Fool is usually interpreted as: the eternal student, but also
the one who doesn't know where he's going and pays it little heed. IT might
help, Gecko, if you suggested *why* you picked the Grasshopper.

I have about 100 tarot decks right now. There are some with creatures on them,
though all the examples that pop to mind involvthe same creature on each card
(as in the Dragon tarot) or ancillary creatures, as Jenna described.

Actually, I picked the grasshopper for many reasons. The Grasshopper
and the Ants fable, the grasshopper's goofy looks, an image in 
my head of a little insect on a blade of grass with the whole
world spinning around him.
I like the Kung Fu student interpretation - it works well.
IMy choice of the grasshopper isn't set in stone, in fact,
none of the creatures I'm considering are definite (except maybe
a couple). That's why I started this little chat - to glean
ideas and information from all of you wise and intuitive types -
and use that info in the deck I'm creating.
Believe it or not I've even found some help here in Salt Lake City.
They have a small pagan community, and even some tarot readers.

        If you want to get strict, the Rider-Waite deck that most modern decks
are derivatives of is a very Hermetic interpretation of older decks, which
some Hermetics would argue is rooted only in "high" magick, Egyptian and
Hebrew ceremonial magick.  I don't know, myself.  There's enough vagueness
in the whole story of the Tarot that it could have had any of a dozen origins,
and evenm the corrected BOTA, OTO, and Golden Dawn decks don't have so much
of an Egyptian or Hebrew flavour as they do European alchemy.

        I'll look up the correspondencies once I get back my copy of 777.

I like the grasshopper image, for both the reasons mentioned.  I like the
image of hopping off into the unknown, the "live for today" notion, and the
eternal student/innocent.  And I'm partial to green :)  One thing: the fool
transforms in the course of his journey.  I see the first choice being between
priestess and emperess or magician and emperor.  In the second half of the
majors, the fool may become the hanged man, leaving the choice of
transformation up to the gods. Gaining wisdom, he may become the hermit or the
heirophant, and so on.  So as you contemplate the form of your fool, think of
what he can become- will those transformations flow smoothly?  I love your
work. I"m looking forward to seein the results.

Or, if the fool were the mayfly and the hanged man the dragon fly
you still have the idea of innocence vs knowledge.  I like the idea!
I still like the grasshopper.  Perhaps each transiition through the major
arcana could be up the food chain?

Up the food chain?  Cute!  What would that make death- a shark? <eg>

Have you ever seen Shark dressed in all black? He'd make a good Death. =}
*inside joke*

I'm considering the mayfly - give me some time. I might be able
to make it work. . .

I just bought the Beasts of Albion by Miranda Gray. She has done
something very similiar to what I'm working on, but her empahsis
is on British animals and my creatures are from all over. In fact,
I want to have all types of critters represented (Insects, reptiles,
marine animals, and even the cute fuzzy types.) Ms. Gray's deck
isn't a tarot deck, it only has 39 cards, but it is very lovely.
Has anyone else seen it?

Yes-Shark makes a good death.  or shattered tower- walking chaos. <g> And
the cover of the '95 Proceedings was supposed to be way-markers.  Sure looked
like grave stones to me...;)

Gravestones *are* a sort of way marker, no?

The owl comes to mind for death....it's razor sharp talons pierce the heart
and brain of the prey before the prey is aware of the owl. The owl flys
silently in the darkness....
Also, the catapiller, for it dies and then is reborn. Thinking about what
symbol to use for a card really makes me think about what the card represents,
that is what aspect and perspective. Good stuff, thanks.

hum i womehow don't associatate catapillar's with death
as they are youths... nor owls really, as I have
the traditional-wisdom association.
I think if I were doing animls for the fool i'd pick
the salmon, or maybe for the heirophant. Afterall
they sometimes get themselves killed for traditon's
sake. Killers, m not sure..

I like the shark for the tower, but I don't understand what a 
way marker is?
The owl is pretty good for death considering that all birds in
general are considered psychopomps, and given the owls noturnal life,
ferocious hunting nature, and wisdom - it really seems to fit.
I -plan on using a salmon somewher in the deck, but it is far
too wise for the fool, imho.:)

Deat?  I would suggest the [Dscarab beetle or perhaps the dung beetle. :-)
I  meant Death not deat! heehee    Or what about something that is involved in
recycling in recycling of some type?  There is a certain seed that can't grow
unless passsed through a digestive system.

re: #16
I like!!! the salmon idea!
 !talk gecko
errr?
talk gecko@grex.cyberspace.org

In Norse belief, the Owl is associated with death, and birth is considered
very close to death, so midwives would sharpen their nails (at least some
of them) to be like the beak or talons of an owl, to pluck the baby from
the realm of death.
I like the caterpillar for death, since the tarot card "death" is about
major, life altering change, of which physical death is only one form.  
Hm, I could see the salmon for the Fool, as it leaps blindly out of its
element, swims upstream to where it only dimly knows, and has an association
with wisdom.
Gee, what about coyote or wolf for the magician?

true... now for he 10 of swords... i'd pick a hawk if i was
going for a bird. why should eath always come in the night?
--
kami - yah, that;s my point about slamon, although their firm roots in
tradition (going to the
place they were bron) alwaso tie them to the hierophant, in some ays

Well, to my understanding of salmon, salmon is no fool. Salmon returns to a
place known only for a short time and travels hundreds sometimes thousands
of miles to get to the exact same stream in which this salmon was born. Salmon
is at the end of it's life and goes back to where the origin was, like we do,
returning to spirit. The bodies of the dead salmon feed some forty animals,
from bears to cray fish and also its young. The trees and other plants along
the shore are fertilized from the rotting bodies. The entire population of
the stream requires the death of the salmon in order to survive. The salmon
gives life back to that which gave life, and in this lesson is great wisdom
for us in the western world, where we just take from the earth.
        The coyote for the fool is great. The coyote will make a fool of all
of us from time to time and teach us to laugh at ourself. I trying to track
the coyote, the coyote will end up tracking you and run you in a circle until
you are so tired of it. Then at night when you are resting from the folly,
you will here the coyote laughing at you, and maybe, if the wisdom is there,
with you.
        Death coming at night is symbolic of our entering the darkness then
moving into the light, that's all. "Death comes like a theif in the night."

Re #19: Having silently skimed this item through each Grex session until now,
I am interested on your source material for that claim - as, if I am going
to learn anything new about my religion, I would like sources cited.  I
already knew of mistletoe being a symbol of death to Volsungs such as myself,
but I am very interested in the Owl thing.  Perhaps this question is better
suited to answer via e-mail.  Of course, I'm sure someone will get the idea
to use mistletoe on their Death card now . . . 
<}&~)>========================

Usually the fool is not the card of the person who makes a fgool of everybody
else...
but he person who is being made a fool of (everybody in life) the joke's
n the fool card, i think... your average copyote is sturdy,
adaptable, creative, and not a pikcy eater. How does that make them foolish?
*shrug* unless you want to define things non-standarly as well, in which case
there's no oint discussing it with other people because they can't read your
mind.
--
salmon arestupid. do you know how many of them die in the southwest because
their driving need
to go back to their stream of origin gets them stuck in turbines and behind
dams,
or baked in hot california aqeducts?
Of course, the people are the jerks, but the salmon are kinda dumb about it
too.

Jenna, insome native American traditions coyote is the trickster Deity.  I
don't know about the Salmon but there may be something traditionally
associated with them because they were a Major diet item in the societies of
the Pacific Northwest.

I know the coyote is a tickster dietybut i don't think the fool card is usally
the card of the wily fool. it's usually the card of the blundering idiot.

The "Fool" in the tarot is not a fool.  That is, he's not stupid, nor a
jester.  He is rather at the place of all potential so that no one course
of action is the obvious right one.  He can become anything.  He is an
innocent.  He takes great risks blithely, without stopping to judge the cost,
and has the chance of great success or of "falling off the cliff".  That
sort of fits the salmon.  Yet coyote leads *us* to break out of old mental
habits, to take risks and laugh at ourselves. He is forever risking ridicule
if not harm (at least, in the old stories)
Bjorn, I got the stuff on the owl from one of Jane Sibley's lectures, the
one on Norse women's magic.  I don't know her sources, as most of them are
not in English...

Jenna, judging how the salmon live based on what we've done to screw them up
isn't looking at the salmon, it's being judgemental. The salmon have lived
a certain way for thousands of years and would rather die than change. Just
like some groups of people in our history, no? The humans are the stupid ones
for not recognizing the importance of the salmon in the web of life and
building the damn dams in a friendly way. Indeed, western thinking peoples
are amoung the blindest for doing things this way in many areas. Perhaps the
salmon *reflecting* the fool is a good choice.

        If you look at the plains legends of Coyote, though, you'll see he is
as often the tricked as the trickster - ofttimes by Iktome, sometimes by the
reds, sometimes by the whites.  There isn't much difference, really ...
thinking in unconventional ways, challenging authorities and systems, can lead
to wonderful insights and can allow us to work magick, but it can also lead
to falling flat on your face.
\.

re: #28- which is exactly the spirit of the Fool.

Sorry I'm a little late with this:
The salmon traditionally is considered a very wise creature. Many Celtic
Wizards either gained there great wisdom from salmon or even actually became
a salmon or vice versa. I'll have to look up the details and relay them later.

        And many otherwise wise humans travel upstream to spawn, too.

What about the salmon as the Heirophant?  They learn as they journey
and then they bring it back and pass it in form of their young.
And, I would offer Coyote as the Devil. :-) After all, Devil is a trickster.

but the devil is also materialism, and i'm not saing no,
just i'd have to think about that...
--
as for the salmon as heirophant, i think it would be a good
match, as the heirophant tends to be a representation of
tradition amog other things.

Can some one explain what exactly a heirophant is?

The Heirophant umm... I ummm... not sure, realy;}
never heard it outside the tarot deck.

hierophant
1. in ancient Greece, the priest who expounded the Elusinian mysteries
2. an interpreter of sacred mysteries and esoteric principles
(Webster's New Universal Unabridged, second edition, Dorset & Baber 1983)

In other words, a pope.
(at leat, taht's what some decks call the card)
The card is also sometimes called the High Priest

        I can see Coyote as the Devil in a Gnostic context - but I'd stilla
rgue that the archetype of the fool and the archetype of Coyote are very
closely related, moreso than other associations that I've heard, like
Prometheus.  Perhaps Epimetheus, now ...

I would be inclined to agree with the entirity of #37, except the part about
Epithemeus, but only because I forgot who he is and don't feel like getting
up and looking him up./ =}

I've generally seen the "devil" as, yes, materialism, and particularly, the
trap of the material- being stuck in a rut (pun intended?).
The Heirophant card, in addition to being the high priest, often seems to
represent the *appearance* of wisdom and leadership, more than the fact of it,
in contrast to the Hermit, who knows and walks his path and leads by example
rather than by declaring himself a leader.

A nice, showy stallion might be good for the Hierophant, but that doesn't
seem quite right.  Hmmm, a peacock?

On the other hand, given that horses will eat until they literally explode,
that might do for the devil. <g>  Hmm, or a sow?  Dunno.

How about a crab for the hermit? <ducking> ;)

I've forgotten Epimetheus, too.  Jazz?

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