Everybody Plays it Sometime! - The Fool

When I was a child, I used to watch Bugs Bunny cartoons. Who am I kidding? I still love cartoons and if they were still broadcasting the early ones on television (not the modern updated ones) I would still watch them. On one of the episodes, they would have a homeless wanderer on the show. Although in today’s language he would be called a homeless person, back then he was called a hobo. A hobo had a specific look. He looked unclean and disheveled like any typical homeless person. The difference is that he was depicted carry a stick with a bag at the end that carried most of not all of his worldly possessions. The interesting thing is that the image of the hobo is very similar to the image of the Fool in most of the standard Tarot deck. There is a reason for that which I will explain later.

The fool is the beginning of the Tarot deck. Instead of starting out with the number one, the deck starts out with the number zero. There is a deeply mystical reason for it starting with zero, but simply put, the Fool card represents unlimited potential that hasn’t manifested yet The number zero means nothing right? What if you put two zeros after 10? You get a thousand! What if you put two more? You get the idea! On the card, the background is yellow and the sun is white! Believe it or not, the coloring was deliberate. The yellow represents the unlimited potential of the universe and the color white represents purity (even the single flower in his hand represents his romanticism with life). The color red represents passion and the creative force as evidenced by the colored spokes on the wheels of his coat.

He is the jester in those king and queen movies, or the joker in the regular playing card deck. As an aside, although the character of the Joker in the Batman is taken off of the joker in the playing deck, he is not an archetype of the fool, because the character is sociopath bent on destruction who uses the joker as a means to an end, which is torture and cruel death. If you remember, the jester was always juggling, acting silly or danced around entertaining. However, he was the one who always had wise observations that the king would pay attention to but most people would ignore. The fool represents the childlike state of wonder and faith. He is ready to jump off the cliff (i.e. a leap of faith) totally trusting in the universe to carry him. The fool is also a wanderer on a quest, seeking adventure with rules that are his own. That is why the archetype of the fool was manifested in our reality as the form of the hobo.

In the real world, festivals that encourage childlike play, self-expression (as well as costuming) and wonder such as Burning Man, the Oregon County State Fair are expressions of the Fool energy.

A while ago I got into a conversation with a friend of mine about which musicians would be represented as tarot cards. I don’t remember who said it, but we both agreed that Bob Dylan would be great for the Fool card. In his own words, what attracted Dylan to folk music was “The songs were filled with….more faith in the supernatural, more triumph, much deeper feelings” which is the realm of the fool in its childlike simplicity. His biggest songs started a new direction in modern songwriting which blended stream of consciousness influences - another fool influence. Of course the obvious ‘Blowing in the Wind’ – wind representing air, the element of the fool. One musician that we didn’t think of at the time but would perfectly fit the Fool card would be Flavor Flav of Public Enemy. Throughout his music career people wondered if he was a genius or a ‘fool’! His lyricism and his penchant for crazy outfits provided a comic relief to the serious message oriented point of view that was Public Enemy.

The danger of the fool is the potential of being reckless, or diving full on into a situation without any preparation – in otherwords, being ‘foolhardy’. There is a fine line between taking leaps of faith and diving off of a cliff! If you notice, there is a subtle wind on the card that the young guy is diving into. This implies being supported by the intangible forces of life. Even though he is jumping off of the cliff he has checked in within himself and into the situation and knows that he will be supported. In my life, I have taken risks and sometimes it worked out and sometimes I have fallen on my face and learned lessons. After checking in with my body, my mind and my heart I find that taking that leap is very important. On the other hand you don’t want to test the universe!

Next Stop: the Magician

Intro to the Tarot

I am sure that there are some people on this planet who know what the future holds, either by creation or by revelation. I am not one of them. However, there are many tools available to us to help discern the subtle movements of energy and causality. One of these tools is the Tarot deck.

There is a lot of exhaustive information on the internet about the history of the cards that explain it way more eloquently and thoroughly than I can so I won’t go into it here, except to say that nobody really knows how, where and why they came about! I am writing about my personal journey with the Tarot deck and offer my own interpretation of them. I do offer a more contemporary interpretation than most of the tarot interpretations I have seen, combining how they show up in our everyday lifestyle.

I have studied the Tarot for many years now. Although most books tell you to start off with the Rider Waite deck, I started off with the Thoth deck which was designed by Aleister Crowley and Freida Harris. Most people (even published authors) tell you to stay away from the deck because of the advanced, multilayered symbols within each card. They also stay away from it because of the reputation of Crowley but that is another story. Personally, I found these cards beautiful and not as scary as the Rider Waite deck which for some reason scared the hell out of me! Maybe it had to do with a childhood experience. I saw this movie called Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, which took place on a train. There was a man who was giving Tarot readings using the Rider Waite deck to tell gruesome stories that always ended with the Death card! I am sure this had some affect on me even to this day. However, I use the RW deck anyway just for a different perspective. To further my education, I became a member of the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.) and used their version of the Tarot popularized by Paul Foster Case. He had the same tarot deck but in black and white - you were supposed to color them in so you can learn the symbolism. They recommended doing only one card a day, and being who I am, I thought “well why not two?” There is a valid reason for it - I found myself getting too tired and had a hard time focusing in.

In the mystical world, the four elements (fire, earth, air and water) play a huge role in almost any cosmology. Each of the cards are represented by one of the elements. Several of the cards are represented by the same element (for instance the Fool, and the Magician are both represented by air). In general, Air represents the intellect and communication. Fire represents the will, the life force and the creative energy. Earth represents the material plane. Water represents the intuition and the subconscious. The reason why these cards are matched up with different elements is so that we can have something tangible to relate to. They are also used in meditation and magic rituals.

There are 78 cards in the deck with 22 main cards called the Major Arcana, where “arcana” means “hidden”. Back in the day the messages of these cards where hidden to the average guy. Of course when anything is hidden, there is some rebel who decides to buck the system! They bucked the system by disguising a lot of the symbolism. Some of the images were really in the shape of letters, numbers, etc that only the initiate knew or cared about. Some people have interpreted to be the journey of man through life, as well as higher spiritual forces. In my experience, they represent images that have been consistent in the collective consciousness throughout mankind. That is why several of the images continue to manifest in this physical plane of reality whether we know the cards or not!

The tarot cards work on the level of the subconscious. You shuffle the deck, think about a question, shuffle the cards and see what the story is. Once you understand what the symbols mean, you can use your intuition to read the possible outcomes. The danger in readings is becoming too dependent on them and looking to them for specific answers. The cards are like the line in the Matrix where Morpheus says to Neo “I can only show you the door. It is you who must walk through!”

I find that the more connected you are to the cards and to your own journey, the more the cards speak to you. The more you practice and understand the symbology, the easier it is to interpret. Another way is to develop your own meditation practices. Although there are definite meditation practices using the deck, I also find that you can do your own meditative practices and will still be in sync, so to speak. You will find that when you are in sync you can shuffle the cards very well and still pull up the same cards (when that happens don’t be scared!) .

So here we go!!! I will probably revisit some things as they occur to me!

Next: The Fool

The Adversary part 2 - The Mythology Cafe Discussion

I don’t want to say I have a lot of adversaries in my life but I do have some. Sometimes I consider my boss an adversary. When I start a new program of manifestation - for instance, if I want more money in my life for instance, along with getting new money, I also get someone calling me about a bill. I remember when I was in Landmark Education, one of the things they usually teach is that the second you declare something the opposite of the very thing that you declare shows up in your life. In other words if you declare that you are a patient person, the thing that will most likely piss you off the most will show up to test you to see if you are a patient person.

Is that a law of the universe or is it an observation? More than likely it’s a bit of both. I am sure that people thousands of years ago saw this happen and instead of calling it a Universal Law, they called it the Adversary, or Satan, or Tiamat, etc.

At the same time, the concept of an adversary is not limited to affecting the lives of individuals. There are many historical examples of a collective adversary and were not an invisible entities. Malcolm X was told and preached that the white man is the Devil. It is a well documented that he since repented of that opinion. However, placing myself in his shoes, I can easily see how someone could come to that conclusion. Every evil thing from his father’s death to white supremacists, to his mom being put in a home, to the white women he ran scams with, to the collective racial consciousness during his time where at the hands of white people. Many dictators in the 20th century were considered incarnations of pure evil from Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Amin and to a certain extant Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden and Bush.

Admittedly, I don’t have a response to answers of a collective adversary. Are these machinations of a sinister spiritual influence or is this the height of an unexpressed collective shadow?

Ultimate evil notwithstanding, in my experience, I find that the purpose of an adversary is to drive you to be your best. Maybe it’s a question of indefinite articles - the difference between “An Adversary” or “The Adversary”. Ultimately it doesn’t seem to ever be an end to an adversary because there is no real end to the things we want to be, do and/or have. It is also a possibility that the adversary is not really a spiritual figure bent on our destruction, but is a manifestation of our shadow side.

I remember the classic episode of Star Trek called the Naked Time. In this episode, there was a problem with the transporter which caused animate organic objects to have there dark side split from them. In this case, the shadow side of James T. Kirk was separated from his body and manifested into his body double. The interesting thing about this episode was that his power of leadership was in his shadow side whereas his compassion was in his good side. Although being separated for too long a time would cause his physical death, the other problem was that he became an ineffective leader who couldn’t make decisions. The moral of the story is that we need to embrace our shadow side to become whole. In the same way, we need to embrace the potential the adversary is trying to create in our lives. I am not suggesting we form a circle and shout ‘Hail Satan, the Prince of Darkness!’ Nor am I suggesting that we start looking for obstacles in our path. Rather I am suggesting that we accept the fact that there is an adversary and allow its influence to create perseverance, patience and dedication.

The Adversary part 1 - The Mythology Cafe

Who is the adversary? Even more importantly, why is there an adversary? Although I went to the Mythology Group that meets the third Wednesday every month to talk about different myths, I found myself thinking more about the discussion long after everyone left the Le Figaro Café. The speaker named Cory started with a character named Nurgil in 3000 BC who originally was a solar deity who ruled the noonday sun in the Summer Equinox – the hottest day of the year. He became the god of deserts, chaos etc.

Whereas there is probably some type of ultimate evil entity, I find that the social development of the concept fascinating. Apparently, the reasons for the need of an adversary vary from culture to culture. Many of the polytheistic cultures say “well if we have a god of the light and order, we GOTTA have a god of darkness, a god of chaos, a god of storms, etc!” To complicate matters, the lord of the underworld was not necessarily evil i.e Osiris of the Egyptian pantheon. Some beings such as Set who I have heard is a type of Satan in our culture (Set – Satan… you get the picture), didn’t start out as evil, but since the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt, the ambition followers of the Horus Cult didn’t want Horus to be ‘diluted’ so to speak, so they propagated the story of Set being evil and eventually it took hold. At some point Set was supposed to be the god of foreigners and such was considered evil because the powers that be at the time didn’t accept foreigners! With the advent of Zoroastrianism, came the development of duality, where there was one being who represented ultimate good (Ahura Mazda ) and one being which represented ultimate evil (Angra Mainyu). Judaism and Christianity was influenced by them in their dualistic philosophy of evil.

In the Old Testament, Satan was only mentioned once by name and was the one who accused Job before God as being faithful because He blessed Job, and so God took away everything form Job to test him. Cory explained that the philosophical argument of the need for Satan was necessary because without someone tempting you, there can be no proof of free will. How can you know if you have free will if you never have to choose anything? Or how can you know what good is if there was no evil? However this opens up a huge existential problem which has been debated way more effectively other places, which is, if God who knows everything and is a being of infinite love and compassion who knows you will choose evil and will ultimately send you to hell, then why did he create Hell in the first place or even allow you to be created in the first place since you didn’t choose to be born(I am talking about the Judeo-Christian belief system which doesn’t account for your soul choosing to incarnate on this plane of existence)?

One of the things that stood out to me was the being called Samael who is supposed to be the accuser, the adversary, the angel of Death in the Book of Enoch and in the Talmud. In the Bible/Old Testament he is supposed to be the one who Jacob wrestled with all night to get his blessing to be the chosen ones. He was also the angel who held Abraham’s hand back so as not to sacrifice his son. He was also supposed to be the one who impregnated Lilith and helped Lilith plan to overthrow the Most High. It’s not a big deal, but in Christianity, it was supposed to be God who wrestled with Jacob and not the Angel of Death, which implies that God is both good and evil which is a heretical concept in Christianity. Even in that interpretation there are several problems. For instance, why would one of the fathers of Judaism wrestle the accuser, the angel of Death for his birthright?

You may ‘So What? What is the big deal?’ The reason why this is important because there are millions of people who believe the Bible as the infallible Word of God, and are told the story of Jacob as a model of persistence, the importance of desiring spiritual things above everything else, and as a tool of wrestling in prayer to get what you want. Millions of people are saying to God in prayer “I won’t let you go till you bless me!” when in reality they are quoting someone who is talking to who would eventually become the Prince of Darkness. Its easier to accept it if I look at God as containing both good and evil, both being two sides of a very important coin, much like Shiva and Kali( or Shakti) who are important as gods of creation and destruction. However, Christianity not only presupposes and directly states that God is good all the time and that all evil is there because of mankind or because of Satan!

I am starting to wonder whether fundamental Christianity is really a function of social conditioning and to a certain extent spiritual and intellectual laziness. It sounds a bit extreme but to really get an accurate grasp(or as they say to pray with understanding, you need not only to read the New Testament, but the Book of Enoch, Thomas, some of the other lost gospels, and some of the Talmud and the Torah since Christianity was derived to an extant from Judaism. If you wanted to do some extra credit work, read some history, geography and some Joseph Campbell as well. Of course you don’t have to – going to your local church will suffice, but you may not know the whole truth. And even with all of that the real truth is suspect.

Book Recommendation: Ruling Your World

I have been into Tibetan Buddhism and spiritual practices lately. I find their point of view fascinating. Their style of writing is very simple and easily palatable. However the actual execution of their belief patterns, while working when you apply it, is very difficult.

Ruling Your World: Ancient Strategies for Modern Living by Sakyong Mipham is a fantastic, well written book that is very challenging. One of the things that I enjoy about his writing style is how he would include small pop-culture references to let you know that he is in touch with the world and knows what is going on (of course I am open to the possibility that he has a great editor as well).

Mipham talks about lungta, which is translated into “windhorse” which is the ability to attract success, prosperity, health, etc. He teaches that the way to raise windhorse is to let go of the ‘what about me’ paradigm, and through several meditation practices allow you to be able to focus in selflessness. I have read in other books that the ancient Tibetans used to be one of the most brutal warriors on the face of the planet, and through practice have evolved into one of the most spiritual. Maybe that is the reason why their way of speaking is so spiritual and unusual.

He discusses several approaches that are symbolized by four animals – the tiger, the lion, the garuda and the dragon. Each of them symbolizes contentment, joy and discipline, expanding vision and selflessness. After checking out their website www.shambhala.org I find that this book is a small encapsulation of their beliefs, which makes sense because Mipham is the head of the organization.

Their view of karma in terms of positive thinking is very similar to the new wave of positivity a la The Secret, but with much deeper implications. One of my questions is about their point of view of death. They believe that in meditating on death it gives our lives deeper meaning. However, I wonder how that works within the collective consciousness of the west which says what you focus on increases. I remember I used to always be afraid to think about death because I thought it meant I was going to die. On the other hand if I told this concern to Mipham he would probably say “so what? you are right! You are going to die and it could be anytime now. You are right to think of it! In fact you should think of it more!

General Year in Review

Years ago, when martial arts movies used to come on channel 5 at 3pm on Saturdays, I saw this movie called Return to the 36 Chambers, where in a typical fashion a young man goes to Shaolin to learn the Martial Arts to avenge his family. However this man was definitely not ready to study so the monks refused to train him but put him to work cleaning and tending to the endless repairs of the gigantic temple that seemed to cover miles of land. While working he watched everyone training and imitated all of the moves that he saw in the temple. He would practice stances and elaborate moves while working on the roofs, and practice staff moves while kindling the fire for the ovens. After spending a long time there he decides to leave against the monk’s will, and in trying to get away he unwittingly goes through all of the chambers. He ended up mastering all of the difficulties of the chambers even though he didn’t know it and left the temple.

Although it may be a tenous connection, I tell this story because it seemed to be an accurate description of what the past year was like for me. I started out with high ambitions and glorious dreams of what I wanted to accomplish - what I was ready for, but I had no idea how much previous hurts, pains, inaccurate beliefs and plain old immaturity was holding me back. Amidst the backdrop of the endless parties, entertainments, costume changes, etc I found myself in the midst of the most difficult year of my life to date. From the beginning of the year with my close friend in a coma, family illnesses, to going through the rest of year taking on loads of responsibilities at work and in my personal life, I found myself going through lots of lessons where I had to rise to the occasion and forget about what I originally wanted and thought I needed. I didn’t learn the important things through a seminar, a book, a blog, a retreat, a series of meditations or a crazy sexual experience. The purging came through work, discipline, sacrifice and internal tears and discomfort. I had to purge a lot of past influences, concepts and actions that no longer served me. Rather, some of the things served me temporarily and kept my persona intact but it served the childish side of me – the side of me that didn’t trust life, the side that needed everything now because I thought I may not get what I really wanted, the cynical side that ‘knows everything’, the side of me that accepted what the mass collective consciousness says whether it was what my soul really wanted or not.

I learned how important it is to maintain personal integrity and trust for its own sake at a deeper level whether I feel like it or not. Feelings follow action, so even if I don’t necessarily feel like doing something, the more I do the right thing, the more I feel like doing the right thing. There is a payoff in working hard even amidst the social/collective consciousness background of many abundance teachers saying that you don’t have to work hard, all you have to do is say what you want to create, think positive and WHAMMO, instant happy life! I also learned that really giving of yourself beyond what is comfortable for you for the sake of others’ happiness fosters life giving to you whether it happens to be in that moment or not. It creates an atmosphere and environment of giving and being around people who are like that. When you approach life and all of your relationships with a “what about me?” looking after number one attitude , then you run into people who have that, and whoever is more skillful at getting what they want wins. Although I used to think that ‘everyone is responsible for themselves attitude’ is the common spiritual/enlightened attitude and its important in some ways to avoid manipulation and to respect personal boundaries, it can be dangerously close to being self-absorbed and acting in ways that have no honor, courage, responsibility, loyalty etc.

I don’t claim that everybody has to feel that way. These are my lessons and feelings, and my understanding of my destiny to date.

2007 was not a year I am disappointed to see leave. I am thankful for it because it was a year that I grew tremendously and healed a lot of fundamental wounds. Since I am looking forward to this year with more faith in life, and more love for myself, my partner, my friends and family, I know that ultimately it worked for my behalf. However, metaphorically speaking, I hope that this year I can learn what I need to learn sipping Coronas on a beach than hauling two barrels of water up a mile high flight of stairs!!