“There is no danger of lowering God.”
“…a time comes, especially when the play of gods and heroes develops to gigantic proportions, when the spectator must feel the need for relief from the high concerns of great immortal themes; and a pathetic consciousness begins to form of little man confronted by these things – seeming by contrast comic in his limitations, yet peculiarly valiant in his one invincible power to take knocks; the Eternal Butt. His only weapon of offence to raise up against it all is the phallus, or a need to be undone and seduced when life becomes too much of an obstacle to step over with ease and dispassion.”
~ Richard Southern, The Seven Ages of Theatre, on the introduction of the comic interlude.
It’s been said that the Renaissance was a direct reverberation of the Black Plague, that out of this grim blackening (it always begins with blackening) a golden age was created, the rebirth of the light. In Italy, three famous poets (‘the big three’) are usually credited with having initiated Humanist thinking, providing an inspirational blueprint or script for the artistic movement that would reshape the consciousness of Europe; Petrarch (The Triumphs), Danté (The Divine Comedy) and Boccaccio (The Decameron).
Although Boccaccio too drew on and borrowed from classical/ancient themes and styles, The Decameron was set in more contemporary, plague times and is referred to as early satire. It has been nicknamed the ‘Human’ Comedy and from my understanding (I haven’t read it) gets pretty bawdy and anti-clerical, enough so that it was thrown upon the vanity bonfire. We might say that in Boccaccio’s case, the phallus was indeed raised as his weapon of offence against the high concerns of great immortal themes, and in defiance of death, following the plague.
Tarot dates back at least to the middle Renaissance and, like the great poets, pairs ancient, classical themes and traditions with Medieval ones – especially the idea of a parade of characters (or gods), such as those in the Totentanz or Canterbury Tales, etc. The Fool and his Unnamed double emblematize the Middle Ages (pre-Renaissance) while at the same time representing that which is eternal; the immortal breath of spirit and the infinite void.
“Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry.
Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life.
The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.”
~ Lao Tzu
Although the animal going after his buttocks in the classic, Conver Fool card (eg. Camoin-Jodorowsky and two samples in mid-quartet, below) looks canine, in pre-Conver type decks, such as Jean Noblet (above), it is usually feline. Fools were often depicted with a cat familiar, licentious, nocturnal cats being associated with sinners and the Devil (hence they were persecuted along with witches in Medieval Europe, resulting in the spread of plagues due to rodent profusion).
However…like the proverbial cat who may look upon a king, a court fool/jester was the only person allowed to truly ‘look at’ the king. Like Fluffy, he’s acutely unimpressed by human status. It’s an old tradition. In ancient Rome, for instance, there was a person whose role was to stand behind the celebrated conqueror in his victory chariot, whispering, “Remember you are a man.” As well, ‘there are accounts of a funny man who performed impressions of the deceased – at their own funerals. The archimimus was allowed to offend even family members.’ [BBC]
The number of Fools is infinite. ~ Ecclesiastes
So is the Fool a king? For a possible answer to this question, we might ponder another: Why does the tear in his pants reveal green skin?
The usual explanation is that the printers were simply ‘pulling a fig leaf’ by colouring his bared rump green, yet somehow Noblet got away with exposing not only his fleshy butt, but genitals too (apparently his way of flipping the bird to the tax man). And why make the Fool’s ‘outer skin’ (leggings) flesh coloured?
Another, small but noteworthy detail is that the monadic ball on his left shoulder is usually – though not always – the only one (of the two on his shoulders) coloured red. Green skin (more on his upper back?), dog and red shoulder ball might together suggest a connection to Osiris, conflated with his constellation, Orion.
Orion is actually mentioned in the Bible as ‘Kesil’, a Hebrew word meaning fool/dullard/stupid fellow. Maybe because Orion the Hunter boasted he could kill any animal (and was also a criminal who committed rape), or else the Israelites regarded the Egyptian lord the same way a cat regards a king.
This incredibly evocative mosaic (below) depicts the moment Orion is transformed into a god aka constellation. It is so loaded with symbolism and emotion, I’ll have to do a separate post about it, at some point.
The descent and rebirth (as vegetation) of Osiris was based on his constellation’s disappearance below and reappearance above the horizon. Next to it, in Canis Major – hence the dog – is Sirius, star of his loyal, loving Isis. The heliacal rising of Sirius initiated the new agricultural year, signifying the Nile would be rising, beginning a new cycle of life. The ‘red giant’ star in Orion’s eastern shoulder is Betelgeuse. [Note: the constellation was not seen as literally being Osiris, nor was Sirius Isis herself. They were called Sah and Sopdet, consecutively.]
The death/dismemberment of Osiris and his resurrection as new vegetation can also be understood as an alchemical process, which begins with ‘blackening.’ The word ‘alchemy’ comes via Khemet, aka Egypt, the black land (its fertile soil), but also the ‘black art’ they practiced; smelting and melting metals, which initially turned them black and for which charcoal was used. The term later became equated with ‘black magic’…not excluding witches, fools and their devilish familiars.
“You sleep that you may wake
You die that you may live.” ~ Pyramid Text
Osiris was syncretized with Greek Dionysus, so in TdM tradition, if our Fool evokes one, he’s going to evoke the other, via attributes. Dionysus, the antithesis of rational Apollo, was naturally more ‘Fool-like’ than the wise, good and beloved king Osiris. But they played similar roles as dying (dismembered) and resurrecting agricultural gods, celebrated in annual festivals. The triumph was originally a hymn of praise (thriambos), to Dionysus, sung in processions to his honour. He was also god of the Greek stage (hence the masks).
“The ancients conceived their divinities not as super-mundane beings of a different calibre from mankind, but as stooping sympathetically and not infrequently to don the mouse skin of humanity.”
~ Harold Bayley, The Secret Language of Symbolism
The word MAT likely comes from the Italian word ‘matto’ meaning crazy. But it can also refer to ‘dark’ (as in skin) or ‘dull’ (as in non-reflective or dim) or an actual mat, which, like the shoe, selflessly positions itself between us and the cold, dirty ground during pilgrimage or prayer. Similar to a mask?
There is also the oft mentioned Ma’at, Egyptian Goddess whose feather is weighed against hearts in the Judgement of the Dead. But let’s stay with crazy, dark and Christ-like, for the time being.
“Humour is reason gone mad.” ~ Groucho Marx
The cult of Dionysus was, initially, a rebellion against the powerful, known for only admitting people of the lowest ranks, like slaves, women, outcasts and outlaws. The aim of the cult was to spiritually liberate those who were always looked down on and empower them to help themselves. The devotees did practice sacrifice, and, in their frenzied, ecstatic state of becoming one with their god, were rumoured to have torn apart and eaten the flesh of whatever living being was in their path. Just imagine if, during Beatlemania, there’d been no bobbies to protect the Fab Four from scores of devouring, teen maenads. Would they have stopped at ‘a lock of George’s hair’?
But the wild things cried, “Oh please don’t go –
we’ll eat you up – we love you so!”
~ Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak, 1963
A clue to the Fool’s role in all of this sits square above his shoulders. Let me just say, I have tried to replicate his posture with a rod held over the opposite shoulder and face held upward and turned all the way to the side, while walking, and conclude he is either a skilled contortionist or is minus a skeleton. Upon closer examination, it appears he’s actually wearing a mask, which may have been moved to the side of his ‘real’ face.
Pompeii Tarotist Didier Dufond (you can find him on Facebook) points out that:
Le Mat’s headdress shows all the elements of the liknon: the wicker braces, the handles, the revealed phallus (with undoubtedly part of the veil falling) and even a fruit (probably a poppy) in the same place as on a Campana plaque, elements dismantled and reassembled to make this strange headdress, prefiguring cubism, and that there are numerous representations of Silenus carrying this mystical van on his head to celebrate an initiation, head bend over and look towards the sky. In his late representations, Silenus lost his Socratic snub nose and his equine references to become totally “human” (Coptic hanging of Dionysus or mosaic of Sarrin… and tarot…).
[Addendum: Profuse apologies for previously having written that he said the Fool’s head “resembles the Silenus mask in a liknon,” my faulty understanding/translation of his video presentation. Nobody likes to be misquoted!]
To me, the basket-hood also resembles a serpent head with open maw, sometimes accentuated with red ‘lips’, which is perhaps reminiscent of the Egyptian Mehen – a giant serpent who wraps itself around the Sun god Ra (Re) to protect him during his journey through the Underworld, during which he merges with Osiris, who becomes his ‘corpse’. (The shape beneath his shoulders even looks like a reverse sunset). It is also the name of an associated game with a coiled serpent board. The transit of the soul essentially begins at the snake’s tail and ends being ‘born’ through its mouth, a la Jonah and the Whale (the Christian version). This mystical rebirth is the real [a descendant confirmed it] meaning of the Visconti Biscione. ‘Renaissance’ means rebirth, after all (topic of future post).
Whether you care to invoke Osiris or not, or recognize a twinning with #13, it’s obvious that Le Mat is divided into 3 sections by his sticks; the bottom section shows his foot having made the initial step below (even the ground appears lowered), the middle one shows his thigh being wounded, or at least ‘unveiled.’ A mortal wound to the thigh was a typical prerequisite for heroes prior to descent (as was madness), but often what was meant by ‘thigh’ in myth was actually ‘genitals.’ (The Fisher King tale is a good example of this). The phallus held a prominent place in Dionysian ritual, to say the least (perhaps Noblet was conveying more than just an insult). Furthermore, remember Dionysus’ second birth was from the thigh of his father, Zeus, which is what made him a God and not simply a hero. At the top, the face or mask re-emerging from a winged maw (as described), and/or hinting at Dionysian objects. Oh yes, and his passport dangles beside his opened ham.
Fool’s ‘Passport’? Orphic gold tablets were sometimes leaf-shaped.
The Fool’s face resembles depictions of Hermes (hence the ‘wing’ in his hood) or Dionysus (Silenus was pug-nosed, but as Dufond states above, he later lost the “Socratic snub nose.”). Regardless, it’s clearly mask-shaped. In the Conver version (last two squares, above), you can even see the defining line of its side edge. His hood is also shaped to subtly define the mask border.
Silenus, teacher and ward of Dionysus was of course a satyr and the Silenus mask would have been worn by the leader of the chorus in Greek Satyr plays. This became the mask of Comedy (Thalia), the other side being Tragedy (Melpomene). Boccaccio was influenced by these bawdy plays which were once the highlight of the Dionysian festival. Yes, in spite of efforts to prove the contrary, satire is indeed related to satyr plays.
Like Silenus, the Fool archetype also has a dark side; that of the nihilist who believes that life is meaningless, rejecting all religious and moral principles and projecting their own inner emptiness onto the outer world. I am sure we’ve all met someone who fits this description (or been this person, in our existential twenties). Maybe this is why the Fool must embody all 21 arcana, before he can emerge at the other end crazy wise, and not just crazy. ~rb
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.
The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.
(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)
~ excerpt from Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of the Open Road’
***
Speaking of immortality…
Below is an Ice Age ivory carving nick-named ‘The Adorant’, thought to represent the constellation of Orion:
“The total number of notches (88) not only coincides with the number of days in 3 lunations (88.5) but also approximately with the number of days when the star Betelgeuse (Orion) disappeared from view each year between its heliacal set (about 14 days before the spring equinox around 33,000 BC) and its heliacal rise (approximately 19 days before the summer solstice). Conversely, the nine-month period when Orion was visible in the sky approximately matched the duration of human pregnancy…”
~ Don’s Maps (fantastic site!)
Opening quote, ‘There is no danger of lowering God’ from Harold Bayley (quoting the Dean of Ely), The Lost Language of Symbolism, v. 1
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