Category Archives: The Fool

Can You Change Your Tarot Future?

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I do a special Tarot card spread on my birthday each year. It gives me three Tarot cards to represent each month of the following year and three to represent my year as a whole. I don’t particularly like knowing my future (because it can look depressing) but I usually can’t resist having a peek and I find it a great way to deepen my understanding of the cards.

The three cards I got for this month are as follows:

2 SwordsTwo Of Swords: The ‘leave me the hell alone’ card.

Check.

I often get over-stimulated and overwhelmed at this crazy time of year and feel the need to stay at home for long spells of what I call ‘dark cupboard time’.

Empress

The Empress. A lady of leisure and pleasure.

Double check.

As you know I spent a ridiculous amount of money updating my DVD collection on the weekend without bothering to see if I could actually afford it (doh!) I’ve booked a full body massage for later this week. Something I always want but rarely do. Not to mention I’m spending a great deal of my time at the moment lolling around on my bed reading novels. And I thought I wasn’t in touch with my inner Empress, ha!

But here’s where we come a cropper…

8 Swords

Eight of Swords: Over-thinking something. Feeling trapped, powerless, under pressure to hold your tongue, anxious about your next step. A victim. Unable to see a way forward.

Um, no.

Even though it’s now confirmed that I have to move into a new position at my workplace next year I don’t feel scared about that. I would have last year. Maybe even six months ago. But now I feel more like this…

The Fool

The Fool: Open to the possibility it could be a good move for me.

So what I’m wondering is: Can you change your Tarot future? (Or is the Eight of Swords going to rear it’s ugly head in a different way over the next couple of weeks?) I guess I believe that you can. That we have free will and the potential to change our destinies no matter what the cards say. And I think the further Tarot tries to predict into the future the less reliable it gets.

But what do you think? Especially those of you with experience of the cards. Please share.

 

The Fool + Death: Dumb Ways To Die!

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So. As well as sharing ideas about Tarot cards I want this blog to be a bit of light-hearted fun. To that end I am dedicating my post today to an AWESOME video clip made by the train authority in my home town of Melbourne (who’d have thunk it?) It’s called ‘Dumb Ways To Die’ and you can find it on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw. I will also post it to my Facebook ‘The Tarot Teaclub’ page.

The video was made to discourage people from acting in a life-endangering manner around trains. Trying to sneak around boom gates in their car or jumping down onto the tracks to collect something that’s been dropped. That sort of thing. This is very much a Fool + Death scenario. The Fool card represents idiots in every shade. Funny ones or just plain stupid (or both). It’s number 0 in Life Lessons Tarot i.e. The know nothing card.

The Fool’s always good for a laff. Enjoy!

The Fool: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum!

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This afternoon I took my parents to see a stage performance of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum’ starring the great Geoffrey Rush. Now there’s a King of Wands if ever I saw one. A man completely in charge of his performance. I reckon he could make painting a wall look interesting. Rush played the starring role of a Roman slave called Pseudolus who connives to help his young master win the girl next door in order to become a free man.

Pseudolus has all the hallmarks of The Fool:

He’s prepared to DO ANYTHING to secure his freedom.

He comes across like a babbling idiot simpleton. A know nothing. When in fact he’s the one driving the action.

His every move seems to cause more problems than it solves. And yet despite the strange and twisted path Pseudolus takes he achieves his goals.

He’s prepared to make himself look ridiculous and others too.

There’s a lot of physical comedy. Pratfalls.  A Fool is always ready to take a fall!

He’s hilarious.

Comedy is full of characters like this. Think Lucille Ball, the Three Stooges, Mr Bean. Fools one and all. The Fool makes us laugh because he’s prepared to do anything – look crazy even – when most of us are not. That’s one of the reasons The Fool card is numbered 0 in Life Lesson Tarot. He exists outside the normal parameters of human behaviour.

I think it’s interesting that in this play and in comedy in general The Fool gets what he wants because I think that’s what Tarot says too. The Fool card at the start of Life Lesson Tarot leads to The World card at the other end i.e. If you’re prepared to behave like a Fool, act outside your comfort zone, you can achieve your heart’s desire. It’s what Susan Sarandon was saying in that quote yesterday:

“…I believe that being surprised and being somewhere that’s uncomfortable because it’s unknown is really one of the main rules to live by.”

Who’s your favourite Fool?

The Tarot Of Big Brother

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The Big Brother reality television show is drawing to a close this week in Australia. If you’ve never heard of it (?) the premise is that a group of people live together in a house continuously watched by TV cameras. Their only contact with the outside world is a disembodied voice called Big Brother who tells them what to do in order to stay in the house and get food. Every week the contestants nominate a few housemates for eviction and the public votes which one should be thrown out. The last man or woman standing wins a large cash prize. There was an absolutely brilliant take-off of the Big Brother show involving zombies a couple of years back called ‘Dead Set’. I highly recommend it if you like a good scare and a bit of a laugh.

I’m a huge sucker for the Big Brother phenomenon which is one of those TV shows you tend to either love or loathe. What I enjoy watching are the small incremental ways the housemates change (or your impression of them changes) as the show unfolds.

There are two Tarot cards that I think sum up the Big Brother experience as follows: Continue reading →

Death In Its Infinite Variety

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My thoughts today are with the families and friends of those who have passed away during  the once-in-a-lifetime weather event happening along the U.S. east coast. So I thought I’d explore different types of death Tarot style. Keeping in mind that the Death card doesn’t always mean someone is going to die. Far from it. But sometimes it does. Death during a freak event such as Hurricane Sandy would be represented as follows:

Continue reading →

The Tarot Of T.G.I.F.

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I had that darn Katy Perry song ‘Last Friday Night’ stuck in my head for months this year. You know, the one that has a chorus singing T.G.I.F. T.G.I.F. T.G.I.F. louder and louder. Well, after a week back at work, I couldn’t agree with that lyric more. So just for fun I thought I’d explore the Tarot of Thank God It’s Friday.

This is how I normally feel by Friday… Continue reading →

The Tarot Of Meetings

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I have to attend a long meeting after work tomorrow and already my spirits are sinking at the thought. So just to amuse myself (and hopefully you too) I thought I’d contemplate the Tarot of meetings. Continue reading →

The Holy Book – Volume 1

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The Major Arcana cards read like a book that follows the journey of a human soul through life.

The first volume covers childhood:

The Fool

The Fool – The soul waiting to be born

The MagicianThe Magician – The newborn who seems perfect in every way and has so much potential.

The High PriestessThe High Priestess – The baby living off instinct during the first months and years.

The EmpressThe Empress – The child at play

The EmperorThe Emperor – The child being disciplined

The HierophantThe Hierophant – The school child forming ideas about the world

The LoversThe Lovers – The teenager beginning to make choices about what they want and who they want to be with.

The ChariotThe Chariot – The young adult striving for success.

That’s one way of looking at it anyway. There are many more. That’s the beautiful confusing thing about Tarot. It’s like a diamond. Every time you turn it in your hand you see another side.

What about you? What’s your take on the first 8 cards of the Holy Book of Tarot?