Key 0 - The Fool

Tarot Key Zero, the Fool, begins the Tarot series. However, it also should end it. In other words, zero is something, as we surely realize, that precedes numbers. But at all times it not only precedes numbers, it's there in between numbers, and when numbers are finished, the year zero can still be there well in symbolic language the fool assigned to Tarot key O or zero is really saying that everything in terms of numbers or manifestation really exists inside that which we might call the cosmic egg or or that which precedes manifestation but also continues to be, to exist after manifestation. In other words, it symbolizes that which we think of as superconsciousness, even though the mind, the intellect, cannot really know what superconsciousness is. It can analyze ways and methods in which, if superconsciousness exists, this. It can analyze just what ways and methods might be used for Superconsciousness to manifest itself, knowing at all times, of course, that that can't be all of it, but at least to show itself partially. Well, here with the Fool, assigned to Superconsciousness, we're starting starting an idea or a principle which, unless we get this more firmly fixed in our minds and in our hearts, is not this idea of what is represented behind the fool, principle-wise, unless we get this very deeply rooted into our being, the principle involved here, we're we're not going to be able to do very well at all with any of the rest of the series, similar to the idea that the zero is such a necessary thing to math. You know, if we didn't have the zero, it would be very difficult to go into numbers that deal with larger amounts bounds and larger numbers. The zero is what helps our mind to shortcut itself in certain ways and to hold the idea of many or much in a smaller area. It's just that plain little symbol, the zero. Now then, all of the rest of the tarot keys, when we start going through through them, will be seen to be absolutely dependent on what this represents.

Well, first of all, it says it's the fool, and I guess everything that happens to us certainly is dependent upon our foolishness, at least in one way.

It's certainly dependent on that which we might call our ignorance. Ignorance. Everything that happens to us is dependent on where we've been looking. And you see here the fool is looking somewhere. The fool is very obviously someone who's journeying. He's going someplace. He's not sitting at home. But although we can see he's on the mountaintop which would symbolize the finish of a journey he's obviously looking off to the area or the goal to which he's going and being at the top of a mountain it becomes obvious also then that he's going to have to get right back down there in the valley with the rest of us ignorant ones to get to the next mountaintop so in essence we can say that the one of the most important principles of super consciousness is that it goes from mountaintop to mountaintop or shall we say it goes from the highest that we are capable of to the highest and yet between we have what obviously must be a descent into the valley.

The Taruki o the Fool then represents also the movement of the life power itself. And this life power is the universal, the movement of the universal life power. It is the journey, it is the evolution of the life power being represented here in this symbolic form. And not only is it a journey indicating the evolution, but there's also an indication here of what moves consciousness into the journey. Journey. This Tarot Key is actually indicating the background, or as much of the background reason for the movement of life, consciousness, journey, evolution, as it is possible to show. That is, it is indicating it via the symbolism. And how is this? Well, let's take a look at at a few of the important ideas. One of the things that I think says more than most people recognize is the fact that the Fool is holding a white rose. Now the rose has, through eons and eons of time, been a very important symbol. Now the rose in itself is a symbol of desire, are but that's one of the meanings of the rose the rose is also a symbol for the emotional nature the rose is a symbol of air and incidentally the fool is assigned to the kind of consciousness consciousness, the Fool as the life power, which we may think of when we remember in Genesis the Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh Elohim, which is what the original text really said, or Lord God, breathed into the nostrils of Adam, and Adam became a living spirit. Remember, Remember, Adam is generic humanity, human beings.

So, Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh-Elohim, or the Divine Father, Divine Mother, or the Divine Masculine Feminine Principle in union, bringing Adam into manifestation, or begetting Adam, breathed into his nostrils. In other words, the soul was breathed into Adam. Him so that the rose and incidentally the rose is not only a symbol of air but it is a symbol of air that is subtly giving a very vital message to your soul whether your conscious mind knows it or not it is saying in essence that it is the divine super conscious life power the eternal beginningless endless unity of life it is the mystery of the motion of evolution it is the movement of the the very highest that actually is centered in you, has brought you that livingness that makes you a living spirit or a living soul, and also therefore that gives you that spark which we call the Divine Soul.

Now it's the Divine Soul that all of us have to learn to be able to express, and the ability to express this divine soul which we all have more or less an embryo some more and some less so we have this divine soul that is growing evolving via the movement of consciousness or livingness or lives and this divine soul is able to be grown developed via the white rose mind you that rose the fool is carrying is white and the white rose is definitely a symbol for purified desire anytime you see a rose it is symbolizing desire as I pointed out it is symbolizing air it is symbolizing emotions it is even symbolizing Venus which is love it's another one of its symbols and it's symbolizing a creative imagination therefore you know anything we feel a great deal about certainly stirs our creative imagination this is obvious to all of us but we have here the indication of the purified desire and that's where aspirants can make the most extraordinary mistakes and not understanding what is meant by purified desire as we know many schools of thought say to attain to the highest or to attain liberation or to attain Samadhi or to attain cosmic consciousness what we have to do is to kill out desire and did you know in the Western mystery training system we say if you kill out desire what are you what are you going to have left to aspire with aspiration is desire but it's desire in its highest form in other words your spiritual aspiration is really some portion of you which already is expressing this part of your nature which is the white rose because every part of this key we may call it super consciousness but every part of this key is a part of you it has to be because you had the living soul of god the divine soul breathed into you or you wouldn't be a center of livingness a center of consciousness so there isn't anything in any of these symbols which isn't a symbol of you some of it more or less developed you understand but in working with these tarot keys the way you are taught to do you are naturally learning how to bring about the perfect expression of these symbolic representations and having them presented to you in symbol as part of what's going to help you to do it because we all know that the the mind fights verbal teaching on the whole.

Because remember, no matter how much we may fight certain ideas that are presented to us through words, verbalisms, when we have it presented through symbol, subconsciousness receives it automatically, even when the conscious mind doesn't know it. And that's one of the reasons amongst many that here in this Tarot Key we have that little dog which is a symbol for intellect at the heels of the fool saying very much more than one thing saying first of all that we must not permit intellect to try to direct the life power in where it's going you know know, we do try to do it. And that's one of the vital messages in this key also, you know, the message being that we have to learn how to chuckle with our own personalities, at ourselves, but not at in any of the bitter ways. You know, there's a saying I've, some Some I've heard used from time to time, ah, I laugh, I laugh, out of my bitter heart I laugh.

You know, this is not the spirit that we're talking about. The ability to chuckle or to laugh at our little follies actually is one of the most important things we can learn to do, and this Tarot key helps us to develop that ability and capacity capacity better and more fully than any other Tarakī that we have, though they all do. In other words, it's because we have that in us that we can really develop a sense of security that we're unable to have otherwise. But this sense of security is dependent on recognizing our personalities for what they they are. And that's one of the many reasons, incidentally, that this figure, as the Fool, wears a very fancy kind of robe. Now, the robe, incidentally, is the symbol of the personality, you know. Your personality and my personality can be thought of and should be thought of as an instrument made by grown by the life power an instrument which the life power puts on like it says I put on a robe of flesh says the life power to come down but that is a robe in other words the physical vehicle is the garment of God of super consciousness of the life power and the personality is is what is evolved and grown through these garbs.

The personality is the more complex aspect of the garb or the garment. And so here we have a very fancy garment indeed, showing that the life power has gone through previous cycles of experience. Because here you see a spirit of freedom deliberately placing certain limits upon itself. Self, and that is one of the most important messages involved there. True freedom always knows how to place limits upon itself, in other words, self-discipline. Freedoms are always just within certain frameworks, and only when one can pay attention, when one one can know what the limitations are, can we be truly said to be expressing the kind of freedom that all of us yearn for and all of us are really working for. So the freedom of the fool, that is, to dress in this marvelous, shall we say, fancy manner, is actually the result of having gained freedom from being tied to the wrong ideas the wrong principles from being tied to ignorance the fool therefore can take that coat on and off at will the belt is is take offable and so is that outer coat underneath he's wearing the white garment of purity but he is wearing this garb and remember and this garb is beautiful therefore another very vital message being given in relation to this Tarot key is that everything that is started that goes into movement in evolution everything actually is moving into into evolution or into whatever its goal is, with all of the beauty and the capacity for beauty that it is inherent in itself and has already been gained.

And this capacity for beauty really has to do with a capacity to remain free from the influence of the nonsense. In other words, everything that we do is really done in terms of desire. But the purified desire has to do with every individual who has arrived at a point where not only do they set up goals in order to express more and more of this life power, but they are very careful indeed that they're setting up these goals with their motives pure pure motives that's point number one and with very great care that they're not going to step over anyone else in fulfilling it you know in other words they're not going to damage another they're not going to take away someone else's job or someone else's friend or someone else's house or whatever it is they're going to go with this freedom of beauty but the freedom that has purified motive and purified desire with it now this is the essence of your life power you see you are a living spirit because God breathed that pure design into you and you may ask why if we have that pure design this pure desire breathed into us why have we done all of the various terrible things we have done because we have not become fully developed yet you see we are being grown we are being evolved and so out of ignorance out of lack of understanding we have done many things but this life power this super consciousness this capacity for beauty this achievement at a height and yet ready to go to the next height with absolute security you notice the security here even though there's an abyss facing it this knowledge that yay even though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death I shall fear no evil for thou art with me that's the attitude of the fool right here this is that security here he's not only at the edge of an abyss you know if he takes one wrong step he'll sure go tumbling down nevertheless he has this sureness of foot he knows where he's going and And you see, no fear.

And I have often felt and thought that if more of our beloved members, our beloved spiritual family here, would use this Tarot key to help themselves overcome the fantastic numbers of fears and insecurities that they face, you know, that overwhelms, they would find life so much, not only so much more glorious, but you know you would even become an utterly and infinitely more delightful person to be around and therefore other people would want to flock to you people I hope that you would want to slide sometimes we can have a problem in another direction because that very spirit of security that spirit of of freedom, that spirit of beauty, that spirit of fearlessness, emanates. And others come to bathe in that white sun. You notice that sun is white because it's symbolizing, amongst other things, the force or the power that we call in Qabalah the limitless light, out of which all things have come and into which all things go, but with the development of the evolution that is those beautiful clothes those gorgeous colorful clothes that the fool is wearing here or a very beautiful unique personality it is saying look every single second is a new adventure right now right now this instant this is the instant you have right now and it's the beginning of an adventure no matter what happened in the past the past incidentally is carried by that purse that's the past memory but you notice that past also has an eye on it and that I has to do with having discovered how to look at the devil the devil is could the eye in on that devil is called the eye incidentally the eye is the organ of vision so that is one of of its meanings. You see, memory carries a devil with it when we don't know how to remember properly, when we remember the wrong things, when we let ourselves get caught up in time in the wrong way. But here you notice the Fool is carrying his memory gaily, lightly, blithely, starting off, that's the life power in you, the superconscious part of you, the part of you that was never born the part of you that is never going to die the part of you that is before all beginnings and is when ends cease to be it just is this movement is now this instant and this instant is the instant that is absolutely unique you see whatever was that bag of memory of yesterday is the wisdom I carry in my memory it isn't the thing that imprisons me is he imprisoned with the butt from that bag he's carrying it lightly look how nicely like a good old hobo you know what we all have to become good spiritual hobos I guess but I when I use the word hobo I use use it in a very different sense because responsibility is here with this life power.

Responsibility is there because of that white rose. Remember I told you how important it is, the purified desire. Responsibility is there because he is wearing this belt of time and he is out to use it in exactly the right way. Responsibility is there because he's carrying the wand of divine will the wand is a symbol in tarot you know of will and it's the divine will so there is this going this traveling this doing with this sense of adventure if you're going to expect the worst naturally you're going to have the worst because you are the creative agent for god and then you're a real fool not this kind of a fool Remember, when we recite the pattern on the trestle board, you know, first we say, this is truth about the self. And then regarding the zero, it says, all the power that ever was or will be is here now. Now look, do you know what that means? Your power, all the power.

For instance, if you say, I can't accomplish this or accomplish that, I haven't got the ability. You know or I can't do this or I can't do that because of this or that always placing limitations and in negative limitations all the power that ever was or will be is here now when we learn to walk in those beautiful yellow boots each uh spiral as we move in the evolution of our our consciousness becomes such so that the time finally comes when what is our lowest valley is actually higher than a previous mountain top, you know. So even there, we have to be careful not to make mistakes in the way we interpret life, experience, or even ourselves. The point is, we have to see that our movement of consciousness, our ability to think, our our ability to feel, our ability to want anything, to make goals, our ability to aspire. All of these are a miracle and a magic, and the Lord of the universe is inside of us with this power to accomplish it.

But remember, within the frameworks of wisdom, the true reason. Reason. And that's why our little bag there of memories is so marvelous that we need it, you see. And this main message I'd like for you to take home today, this Sunday morning, is that we owe it to ourselves, we owe it to each other, we owe it to all our near and dear ones, we owe it to God, and we not only even owe it to our near and dear ones, we We even owe it to our enemies if we have any. Oh, we especially owe it to them because imagine how it would upset them if we walked with joyous fulfillment. You know, that will, I'm sure, evolve them much more rapidly than anything else would have did.

But, you see, we really owe it to the universal life power which this is representing, to walk in this manner, that is, to have faith in the guidance of the Most High. Yet at the same time to take with us all of the beauty, the goodness, the wisdom that we have from all these past incarnations to work at developing it. To recognize that no matter how much sorrow or despair or mistakes we have made or had in the past, this is a new adventure to take all livingness as the adventure of God. If we get up and go to work, we should get up with the realization this is a new adventure.

Everything that we do, and there is no such thing as the same thing all over again. Nothing is the same all over again.

Walk with the sense of adventure, the sense of security, this willingness to walk in the spirit of the life power, to reach for those higher goals and to do what is necessary. Necessary, I think that we can not only have a more beautiful week, but we can have a more beautiful forever after this.

But we will start it. Perhaps that's all we need to say for this morning about the Fool.