The Fool Soul Meditation

I decided to start my Soul Meditation pathway at card 0 The Fool, because I want to go through the cards in order from 0-21.  Many tarot readers interpret the 22 major arcana cards to be a progressive journey that The Fool undertakes many times during a lifetime.  The Fool is card 0 (zero) because he is the journeyer, he is you, he is the being that takes the first step and is therefore outside of the journey itself.  I love this idea of The Fool's Journey, as a metaphor for the ways that we all experience learning, development and life experiences.

Each Soul Meditation begins by softly gazing at the image of the tarot card for that meditation.  Biddy Tarot uses the Rider-Waite Smith tarot deck, and I like to use this one as well since it is so ubiquitous.  I also connect with the images easily in this deck, and The Fool card is one of my favorites.  I love the bright hues and carefree, yet risky feel of this image.  I also love the little dog, the rose in his hand, the rays of the sun, the bright yellow boots, and the posturing of The Fool who looks like he about to take flight off the cliff.

During the guided meditation, I was brought to into his landscape in order to interact with The Fool and see what he has to say to me, to show me, to give me, in order to connect with this guiding energy in my day-to-day life.  Honestly, I feel like I often play The Fool, ready to spontaneously set out on a new path, each time not sure exactly where it will lead, but with the knowing in my heart that I have to go and it will work itself out somehow.  Perhaps I have this inner knowing because I'm aware of what resources I have, and trust in myself to apply my skills and create the path I want.   A friend of mine said the just other day how I often surprise her with a new idea that I'm off to explore, but then she always finds how I actually studied and prepared for it even before the announcement.  Maybe I'm getting too far ahead of myself into The Magician though! :)

The landscape I imagine The Fool to inhabit inside of me is much like that seen in the card, and also the places I've lived in the Alps, like Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany and Salzburg, Austria.  I entered a high alpine meadow on a clear warm day, the horizon a 360 degree view of snowcapped mountains.  I felt so peaceful and excited at the same time, I had to conjure up a big white horse to take me across the meadow to The Fool standing by a cliff's edge with his big white dog (sorry little dogs, you're not for me ;).  When The Fool and I embraced I felt this powerful synergy between us and it was just a moment of dance before we melded into one and I was standing next to my dog, in high Renaissance garb, stick over my shoulder, ready to face the cliff.  I was so full of enthusiasm and excited that I cartwheeled toward the edge of the cliff, just narrowly missing a thoughtless plunge over the abyss.

As I teetered to regain my balance, I lay on my stomach next to my dog to take a peek at what lay below the cliff and saw a beautiful, majestic eagle swoop far below.  I knew that if I leapt off the cliff I would soar just as the eagle did, and in the next instant I saw myself and the dog slow motion leaping as seen from the view of the eagle below.  Our backlit figures pushed away from the edge of the cliff, my arms stretched wide, our legs still running into the air, the blue sky brilliant behind us.  Next thing I knew, I was back up in the meadow facing The Fool again, his white dog licking my hand.  The Fool pulled a huge scroll out of his knapsack, and unfurled a large medieval map, so large it took up all my vision and could never have really fit within his bag!  The map unrolled revealing the United States, delineated in black with the states in rich shades of burgundy, navy blue, and evergreen.  Here are all the places my new journey will take me on!  This was just the beginning of the scroll though, and much of the map remained rolled tight and hidden from me.  I took the map, and another exhilarating embrace from The Fool, and slowly left the beautiful meadow high in the mountains.

I was sad to leave The Fool, and came out of the meditation with a tear in my eye and a sense of warm longing.  I had just left a place that I love, a place that I feel very alive, and I might never want to leave.  I recognize that having this strength to start anew, even a desire and need to begin new journey, is an asset to me, and I can always revisit that place and find enthusiasm and joy in a new embarquement.  Yet I can't spend all my time thinking up new and exciting paths to go down- I actually have to go down them!  And I am on a new path now, a path through the major arcana, toward greater understanding of the tarot and of my connection to the tarot.  This knowledge and connection is what I want to bring out into the world when I set off on my journey around the United States starting in May until who knows?!- whenever I'm done.  I hope to connect with new people through tarot and help them develop self awareness and positive intentions for themselves through tarot readings.

As of January 2014 you can experience Biddy Tarot's Soul Meditation for The Fool card for free, as a little trial run to see if Soul Meditations is for you.   I did this free meditation, loved the format, the guiding, and even Brigit's cute Australian accent, so it helped me decide to purchase all the meditations.  I hope The Magician next week will be as great a meditation as The Fool!