PDR: The Fool Part Two

As I began to study the card, one of the things I brought into my room was a work sheet. It has spaces for things like the Name of the Card, Section, Suit, Element. I filled in the name of the card and the number assigned to it. Then there was a section for First Impression. From the handwritten journal I'd used during my first meeting and introduction to this card, I jotted down, in brief:

The beauty and happiness of innocence; The Journey begins (the seeker is facing west from my perspective) and my last impression noted was Open to adventure.

Before I go further, I'd like to say that while I read that the card is traditionally called The Fool, or for some The Hero, I felt the depiction of the subject of the card was neither that of a fool, nor a hero but simply a seeker. So that is how I've chosen to refer to this card. I don't feel innocence or even being carefree makes anyone a fool. At the same time, they have not yet achieved hero status, though I figure the word hero simply refers to the individual poised within the card. The potential for both fool and hero lies within all of us, and perhaps resides very happily there, two sides of the same coin.

To continue, there was a section on the worksheet which was about the card imagery. What I noted here was:

The edge of the cliff is the threshold to learning; the mountain peaks in the distance are the destination, and being white, describe the North direction. The North when reached holds the Enlightenment which the one who journies through the deck attains through the trials and tribulations of lessons on the way. I noted right away the presence of the butterflies which in The Medicine Way refers to metamorphosis and transformation on a general level, and the intricacies of it are specific to the stage of metamorphosis or transformation in which a person stands. Since The Fool is the beginning (0 = a blank canvas) it would be the egg stage. There is only one way to go and that is UP, even as the character in the card stands near the edge of a cliff. Every journey has rises and falls. The Seeker can tumble head first off the cliff, or can deliberately make their way down the cliff, having heeded the companion guide and continue from where ever those steps have taken them.

The insights section, I filled in with the words: Beginning a journey with an open mind and purity of heart. Not knowing what lies ahead, but moving forward without trepidation.

Of course this would make the keywords: Beginnings, Openness and Innocence.

I did not fill in any further information.

However, one thing which occurred to me as I ended my work is that the imagery included music which gave me the idea that the cards whether character or events, or places, could have a song which defined the atmosphere of the card.

For The Fool the song which immediately sprang to mind was Sweet Surrender by John Denver.

The last part which I will write about is the meaning from the book which I bought for this deck.