Rewriting the Fool’s Journey
The Fool’s journey reflects her mastering and integrating. In the traditional tarot, it charts a life path that is about the rites of passage.
The Wisdom of Tarot and the Fool’s Journey
In the earliest French and Italian tarot decks, the Fool is a hobo or vagabond — a young barefoot man dressed in rags and carrying a bundle of his belongings tied to a stick. He is stepping off a cliff into the unknown and wears a white rose on his lapel – the symbol of freedom. In traditional esoteric systems of interpretation, the Fool is the protagonist, one of the twenty-two Major Arcana who takes us through life’s mysteries and the main human archetypes — a path better known as The Fool’s Journey. The traditional tarot is male-centric, and it charts a life path that is about the rite of passage in which men find their meaning by doing. I wanted to create a deck that represents the essential woman’s journey and how women navigate life through relationships, feelings, and connection.
The Chakra Wisdom Tarot Deck reflects how life events connect. It is in response to the paradigm shift in the way societies perceive a woman’s value. At the core of this deck is the woman’s journey and therefore the Fool must be a stunningly beautiful woman in the prime of her emotional, mental, sexual, and physical life. Here the Fool swaps rags for a gorgeous red gown. Rather than step into the unknown, she represents the connection women have with the “tree of life.”
This tarot deck serves as a way for women to find themselves in any given moment —there is no singular or stand-alone events only the cycle and connections that make up a woman’s life. The imagery begins with the first chakra, the root chakra, and the DNA with which we all enter this life emerging from a union of ancestry. All women come to this world possessing beauty, elegance, and confidence.
The Fool as the first chakra is the beginning of the journey, and always contains risk — the traditional card shows the Fool stepping off a cliffside. In the Chakra Wisdom Tarot, the risk is inherent. The danger is in being a woman. Her undeniable beauty makes her incredibly vulnerable; her confidence considered as a threat. We all want to be that woman, and we are, but some will resent her or say they don’t identify with her. So, she must hide herself preventing her from experiencing the fullness of who she is. The first seven cards represent the learning portion of the Fool’s journey, and we can look at this through the male/female paradox. For men, sexual experience is a rite of passage, but for a large percentage of women around the world, it can be shame-based. Most women experience a #Metoo moment that they never discuss. It becomes a secret killing their ability to be fully expressed affecting their formative years.
The seven basic lessons of life exist within our chakras. In many ways, the Fool as the first card and as the red card has a visceral message for the reader announcing her arrival on the world stage. It is almost as if she is saying, “Here I am,” and because of the way she looks — an adult woman in her prime — we expect her to comprehend the world. In reality, there is nothing to indicate that she is ready for life and the challenges she will face as a woman. Contrast this with the vagabond fool who starts life with nothing and goes on to riches; we assume he knows nothing of the world before he steps off the cliff. Our female Fool is already trapped by expectation.
The second portion of the Fool’s Journey depicts possible applications of the prior lessons she received from her mentors. When we look at the next card in the chakra it’s orange; this represents how the Fool is breaking away from her roots, she meets the magician and learns how to conjure and use her tools. Our Fool uses her prior experiences applying them to new events — she makes the connection. Consequently, she begins the journey from #MeToo into the provocative nature of #What’sNext? The cards speak to the idea of chakra evolution and from what is happening externally to her to the notion of life events happening through her and because of her.
The final seven cards of our Fool’s journey reflect her mastering and integrating what she has learned and what she has made meaning of. Now how she lives her life based on an entirely new story — she is rewriting the Fool’s journey. The missing link that we have all searched for is hidden in our chakras and unlocked through the Chakra Wisdom Tarot’s journey of the Fool.
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You will also enjoy The Astrology of the Chakras and Chakras: The Seven Windows to the Soul
About the Author
Tori Hartman is a professional intuitive. Following a near-death experience almost 20 years ago, Tori was visited by a spirit who told her a collection of brightly colored stories. These stories prompted her life-long fascination with color, the chakras and their power to transform and heal lives. Tori is based in Asheville, North Carolina. https://www.torihartman.com
