The Fool's Journey

  The Fool’s Journey

  An adventure on the tree of life

  Maureen Clark

  © M. Clark/ C Somerville

  All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying or information storage and retrieval systems – without written permission from the copyright holder

  ISBN: 9781082005497

  Imprint: Independently published

  Preface

  “The Fool’s Journey” is the posthumous work of my sister, Maureen Clark, BA (Hons); an amazing woman who spent her lifetime writing for the love of it. This work was written (with passion for her subject, dedication and purpose) at the end of the 20th century but after being rejected by a handful of carefully selected publishers, Maureen moved on to other things. She put this away but thank goodness, didn’t throw it away. She was very humble about her work and whenever I brought up the possibility of publishing this book in recent years, she would quietly reply, “maybe”, and then it would be forgotten again.

  When Maureen became very ill, in her 54th year, she knew she was dying. “Don’t worry, Carole,” she told me, in April, 2018, “I still have a few months.” She knew, with an intuitive certainty that she would be leaving us in June and on July 2nd, she gained her angel wings.

  Maureen faced death with courage and it was her strength and inner calm that helped keep us strong during her last few months but nothing can prepare you for the loss, the emptiness, the grief.

  It was a very personal and private time for our family. Just days before her death, I remembered this book and asked Maureen for permission to publish it. Even though she dismissed it as ‘having been written over thirty years ago’ and would mean nothing now, she agreed, and asked that I edit and ‘lighten’ the work as she felt it had been too academic when she had tried to publish it.

  We found this book stored with her other works and printed in her own many edited editions. I carefully went through it all to find her final copies. On reading it, I felt that this work is too powerful to be ‘lightened’; it is a diligent, informed and well-structured piece of work, and should be preserved ‘as is’, and made available for others who care about and love to explore the rich history of the Tarot and are interested in its correspondences with the Kabbalah Tree of Life.

  Maureen was a strong woman. She had amazing strength of character. At the age of 14 she was left paralysed from the chest down after an accident while walking with the family. Life had dealt her a cruel blow yet never once did she complain and always she would strive to be positive and focus on her strengths and her interests. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree at an early age and spent her lifetime researching spiritual and philosophical subjects … and writing.

  I feel honoured and grateful that Maureen has allowed me to bring this work and indeed, my late sister, out of obscurity and hope you enjoy and appreciate (as I do) the incredible amount of detail that went into the writing of The Fool’s Journey.

  Carole Somerville

  Contents

  Introduction

  Part One: The Path of the Lightning Flash

  Chapter One: The Magician and Strength in Kether

  The King of Wands

  The Aces30

  Chapter Two: The High Priestess in Chokmah

  The Queen of Swords and the Queen of Wands

  The Twos 49

  Chapter Three: The Empress in Binah

  The Queen of Cups and the Queen of Discs

  The Threes

  Chapter Four: The Emperor in Chesed

  The Page of Wands and the Page of Cups

  The Fours1

  Chapter Five: The Hierophant in Gevurah

  The Page of Swords and the Page of Discs

  The Fives

  Chapter Six: The Lovers and the Hanged Man in Tiferet

  The King of Cups.

  The Sixes

  Chapter Seven: The Chariot in Netzach7

  The Knight of Wands and the Knight of Discs6

  The Sevens

  Chapter Eight: Justice in Hod

  The Knight of Cups and the Knight of Swords.

  The Eights

  Chapter Nine: Death and the Hermit in Yesod5

  The King of Swords

  The Nines

  Chapter Ten: Temperance and the Wheel of Fortune in Malkuth

  The King of Discs.

  The Tens

  Part Two - Chapter Eleven: The Devil

  Chapter Twelve: The Lightning Struck Tower

  Chapter Thirteen: The Star

  Chapter Fourteen: The Moon

  Chapter Fifteen: The Sun

  Chapter Sixteen: Judgement

  Chapter Seventeen: The World

  Chapter Eighteen: The Fool

  What Inspired Maureen to Write This Book

  ‘The Fool’s Journey’ introduced by Maureen:

  ‘The Fool’s Journey’ is a book on Tarot, or more specifically, a book of Tarot aligned with the sefirot of the tree of life of Qabalah. (Why I think they should be so aligned, I hope the book explains). Many books have, admittedly, already been published on Tarot. However, apart from a handful (such as ‘Meditations on the Tarot’), most seem merely to skim the surface, reducing Tarot to trivialities while ignoring the underlying cohesion and rich spiritual tradition which runs all through Tarot. None, previously, have related Tarot to the sefirot of Qabalah.

  In this book, I have sought to rectify this omission by giving both what may be useful in a reading, while attempting also to convey the great power of the mystical heritage which is Tarot’s very heart. While the book may be of little use to the casual dabbler who merely wishes to impress their friends over coffee, it will, I hope, be of interest to any serious student of Tarot, or to anyone concerned with the mystical paths of life. The Fool’s journey is the life journey while Tarot provides the guidance to understand the inner realities of this, ultimately spiritual, pilgrimage.

  I have studied and (successfully) read Tarot for close to twenty years. My knowledge and interpretation of the cards has thus been tested and hammered out over the crucible of time. I have, over these many years, become intimately acquainted with the depth and richness of this fascinating subject. It is this depth and richness I have tried, in this book, to convey.

  20th November 1996

  Cover Photo: Portae Lucis by Joseph Gikatilla (1248 -1325) Augsburg, 1516 (public domain)

  “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”

  (William Blake)

  Introduction

  From ancient frescoes decorating temple walls for purposes of divination to games or educational tools in the Renaissance, the origin and antiquity of Tarot has been much debated. As with playing cards themselves, chess, and even, though to a much lesser extent, Qabbalah, a little is known, a lot is presumed and much is speculated.

  Chess, we know, was brought to Europe by way of al-Andalus after the first crusade, and it seems probable that cards too, like chess, were brought from the near east by returning crusaders in the two centuries after AD1100. It is speculated too that, again like chess, cards did not originate in the near east but in India, though a form of chess was thought to be played very early in Eastern Asia and Babylon with whom India has long links. The chess of India was not, however, simply the modified Persian-Arabic game as we know it today; rather, it was a symbolic representation of the cosmic conflict between the forces of good and evil. The board itself held mystical significance; the signs of the zodiac, for example, were represented by the twelve inner squares, while the squares around the outer edge represented the twenty-eight houses of the moon. Made of thin wood or ivory, the earliest Indian playing cards were likew
ise round and small enough to be placed on the squares of a chess board, and it is possible that cards and chess at this early stage may well have been interrelated.

  The Indian connection becomes perhaps more tantalizing for Tarot with the ancient Hindustani god/dess Ardhanari, the lord who is male and female. Ardhanari, an image of the unity of Shiva, holds in four hands the four emblems of Tarot: the baton, the cup, the sword and ring. Whereas, although at some point undergoing modification, or as if a slightly different translation of an ancient mystery, the four emblems of Tarot can equally still be recognised in the four treasures of Celtic myth (which influenced the Holy Grail stories): the spear, the stone, the cauldron and the sword. Likewise they can be recognised in the four chief attributes associated with Roman Mercury (and thereby with Greek Hermes): the sickle (sword), the purse showing coins, the baton which became the caduceus and the cup of fortune which became known as the cup of Hermes. Despite the variations in these alternate fours, the similarities are too much to be coincidence. That the four Tarot emblems of the minor suits are somehow tied up with not one but many ancient traditions seems clear. That much of the symbolism of the Tarot majors has a long pedigree reaching into antiquity is likewise very clear. Scenes of the goddess subduing the lion, as in Tarot Strength, for example, can be seen in cylinder seals from as early as 2300 BC. What is not clear is the point at which all the symbols were brought together in the coherent system which we know as Tarot.

  As any lengthy study of Tarot symbolism will show, the problem is not the lack of influence and similarities with other cultures and religions, but the wide overlap, as if many strands of influence had suddenly been gathered together. Yet many of the same strands of influence are found in alchemy.

  With ancient roots deep in Greek and Egyptian civilisation alchemy had assimilated, to give but a few of its many benefactors, Hermetic doctrine, mystical teaching, myth, astrology, Gnosticism, Eleusian mystery religions and the worship of Isis and Osiris - the very same cauldron of influence that is present in Tarot. Indeed the overlap and the apex in the mystical marriage or mysterium coniunctionis is such that Tarot and alchemy are obviously affiliated. Significantly, like chess, it was during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that alchemy, via Sicily and Spain, filtered into Europe. I believe that it is to these centuries too that we must look for the development of Tarot.

  Western Europe during the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries played host to a resurgence of learning - almost a medieval renaissance. The way had indeed been paved from the middle of the eighth century when, spreading from the Middle East, the Muslims gradually absorbed the cultural fruits of their military conquests. By the tenth century the cultural heritage of the East, Persia and Greece was reverberating throughout the Arabic speaking world, eventually to find its way into, and in turn contribute to, the subsequent revival of learning within Europe. It was, for example, the Arabic translations of Aristotle and the Neoplatonist commentaries that caught the attention of European scholars. Beginning with scholarly translations into Arabic of Greek and Persian texts, by the ninth century the international world of scholarship - which included Jews and Christians, were translating in and from Syrian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Arabic. To give a second example, the Panchatantra, a Sanskrit book of fables, was translated from Sanskrit into Arabic in the eighth century, from Arabic into Syriac in the tenth century, Greek in the eleventh, and old Spanish, Hebrew, and Latin in the middle and late thirteenth. Meanwhile Babylonian mystical traditions and magical practices, such as the use of numerology (gematria) were brought to the west by travelling magician-mystics such as ‘the father of mysteries’: Abu Aharon of Baghdad (ninth century). Mathematical and astronomical ideas were absorbed from India and Persia, philosophy from Greece, Arab alchemists were hunched over their hermetic vessels, in sort there was a kaleidoscope of influence, in all of which Muslims, Jews and Christians came to participate fully. It was a rich and rewarding interchange of cultures.

  As long distance travel became easier (from about 1100), a plethora of ideas and beliefs, new and old, filtered through the newly expanded trade routes, both by land and sea. Both Southern France and Northern Italy established stronger trading contacts with Byzantium, with Northern Italy dominating the routes to the Near and Far East and thereby coming into contact with, among others, Buddhists and Taoists. Dualist beliefs, such as Bogomilism, likewise seeped into the west via missionaries, merchants and crusaders returning from the east.

  Bogomilism had actually flowered into an organized heretical movement in tenth century Bulgaria, amid a diverse influx of apocryphal literature mainly dating from the early Christian era. Though underground churches in the Balkans, Asia Minor and Constantinople, Bogomilism would come to bear a direct ancestral relationship to the spread of Catharism in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Northern Italy and Southern France.

  For what was not stable in this period was the political and religious climate, giving rise to much movement to and fro. Indeed, medieval times, from the twelfth century, can be characterised as a period of continuous movement and communication, of upheaval and change. Across the whole of Europe new movements were arising in answer to the spiritual vacuum created by the institutionalised religions: such were the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Order of Knights Templar, and, more heretical, the humiliati or humble ones, the Waldensians, the Cathars, the Brethren of Free Spirit, the Beghards and their sister Beguines and eventually the ‘Spirituals’ within the Franciscan movement who maintained the prophecies of Joachim of Fiore (d.1202) that a new era of mystical consciousness would begin in 1260 - a number, as the following chapters shall show, which was likewise important to Tarot.

  Wanderers were in plenitude in medieval times, including many poets and philosophers, pedlars and holy men with a message to impart. This was a time of spiritual upheaval. On the one hand, people feared the end of the world was nigh, on the other windows were being opened on to the riches of other spiritual traditions, which a comprehensive search for meaning would bring into the fold. Of importance for Tarot, from the twelfth century, fleeing persecution at the hands of the Almohad sect, there is a major pattern of Jews settling in Christian Spain, and of wanderings between Spain and Provence.

  It is here, in Provence in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries that Qabbalah emerges - or re-emerges. From this time there is a great profusion of qabbalistic literature and symbolism along with a renaissance of Jewish learning, directly affected by the ingathered wealth of influence. Indeed, from the twelfth century onwards there is a great explosion of symbolism in general. Provence, at this same time, replete with religious tension and home to many of the heretical sects, is a major witness to the reflourishing of Gnostic tradition and philosophical pantheism. Scholem has argued in fact that early Qabbalah emerged at this time and place precisely because of the surrounding mixture of Gnostic and Neo-platonic thought. Neo-platonist philosophical ideas were being transmitted by wandering Spanish teachers, such as Abraham Ibn Ezra, who travelled to Italy, France (including Provence) and even to England in the middle of the twelfth century.

  Southern France and Northern Italy (the two main centres for the flourishing of spiritual heresies in the West) were, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, culturally very close. Many Italians lived for a time in Provence, while many ‘heretics’ in turn were to flee Southern France at the height of the Inquisition for the perceived safety of Lombardy (only to find conditions there were rapidly becoming as precarious).

  Furthermore, wandering from and throughout France in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries were the troubadours, bearing a profusion of variations on the grail legend (with their Celtic treasures) translated in many languages including French, English Spanish, Welsh and German.

  In the magnificent churches and cathedrals being built at this time the stained glass windows became picture bibles, relating the Christian message in richly symbolic pictures transcending the need for words. And it is precisel
y in these two centuries, it may be remembered, that it is thought that cards, along with chess and alchemy, were first brought to Europe from the Middle East.

  The problem of Tarot, then, the problem not of lack of influence but of wealth of influence, I think can be solved in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, particularly in Southern France. It was here, in this hotbed of spiritual movements, that the accumulation of many strands came together in Qabbalah and Gnosticism. Likewise, I believe it was here that the harvest was gathered for the development, or re-development, of Tarot, which, at least as we know it, drew initially from the complementary framework of Qabbalah, before proceeding on a separate road completely as a secret ‘heretical’ tradition.

  ‘Atout’ the word used for the twenty-two Tarot trumps is a French word. The terms ‘Tarot’ and ‘Tarocchi’ meanwhile, are the main contenders for the earliest name of the cards themselves - again all is speculation. Tarocchi (pl) is the name given to the game known in Italy from the early fifteenth century and would seem, however, to be an Italianized form of Tarot. Tarot, arguably the stronger contender, is the term by which the cards are known in France. As for the origins of the word ‘Tarot,’- yet again they are unknown. I would conjecture however, that we must look to Hebrew.

  A Hebrew word which is very important to Qabbalah is ‘atarah.’ Atarah is singular and means ‘crown.’ The Hebrew feminine plural is formed by changing the ending to ‘ot,’ as in sefirah - sefirot; thus atarah - crown, becomes atarot - crowns.

  In the soft spoken tongue of Provence the final ‘t’ of atarot or Tarot would not be pronounced, giving us the inherited pronunciation of ‘taro’. Moreover, read backwards with the final ‘t’ silent we get ‘tora’. It has been suggested that the word ‘Torah’ itself derived from ‘yarah’, meaning ‘throw’ in the sense of throwing lots for divine guidance by oracle.[*] The tradition handed down in Tarot is to wrap the cards in silk and to keep them in a wooden box - precisely in line with Jewish customs with regard to the Scroll of the Torah. Placing the letters in a circle (as if clinging to the Wheel of Fortune) Tarot is spelt clockwise, tora anti clockwise and rota reading clockwise from the base, in line with the eternal cycles of Tarot as the book of the wheel of time. Was Tarot then an alternative Tora, an alternative book of guidance, a secret, heretical bible of a break-away, inner tradition?