The Fool’s Journey: An Assignment

I’m back after an extended break.  Arcana Stones is still alive and kicking, and sets are still for sale, so please check them out!  And it’s high time for a new series. 

I’m going to do a few posts about “major arrangements,” that is, different layouts of the tarot majors based on their “original numbering” that can give us some clues to their meanings and connections.  I use Golden Dawn numbering and titles prominently with Arcana Stones, so arranging them by their numbers is only natural.

There are 22 Arcana Stones, 21 of them numbered and one numbered 0.  So we can look at arrangements based on both 21 and 22.  Let’s look at 21 first. 

A popular arrangement is the Fool’s Journey.  It has been elaborated by many tarot teachers and authors, including Eden Gray and Mary Greer.  The idea is that the Fool journeys through tarot-land, meeting and learning lessons from each of the other majors in numerical order.

Since the numerical progression goes from individuals (magician, priestess and priest, empress and emperor) through allegorical concepts (virtues, death, devil) to cosmological entities (sun, moon, stars, universe), I’m pretty sure the progression is from simpler lessons to increasingly complex ones.  3 times 7 comes in when we posit that the journey is in 3 stages of 7, each more complex or at a higher level than one before.  (That’s why I have 1 through 7 on the bottom row, etc.)

So now we have to figure out what 1-Magician-Chiastolite, 8-Fortitude-Tiger Eye, and 15-Devil-Hematite have in common as the first step on each of the 3 stages of the journey.  And the same for the other steps, of course.  The Fool’s Journey is brimming with information for you, but that information is often personal, so I’m going to turn this over as an assignment for you.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to lay out your stones or cards in the Fool’s Journey arrangement and look for visual and conceptual similarities for each set of 3.  How are they alike?  How are they different?  What does it mean that they are the first, second, third, etc. step on the 3 stages?  Take notes!  Jot down anything that comes to mind, no matter how simple or outlandish.  That’s where the insights are!

For example, when looking at this arrangement, I notice just how important the Golden Dawn 8-11 switch really is.  In all arrangements based on 21, 11-Justice-Aventurine will be the middle stone, the balancing point for the entire line-up of majors.  Justice’s scales have a big job to do in GD-based tarots!  (And I need to study and explore that in more depth.)  This also helps point out that whether the numbering or arrangement we’re using is historical, “traditional,” a 100-year-old esoteric innovation, or yesterday’s thought of the moment, it’s valid and meaningful if it sparks learning and insights.

You may also want to walk through the journey with the Fool, visualizing his meeting with each of the majors.  What do they look like?  How do they meet?  What do the Fool and the major say to each other?  Do they give the Fool gifts that will help him on his journey?  (If they all do, by the time he gets to the end of the road, his knapsack will be quite heavy, unless he has Hermione’s purse!)  If you do take the time to do this work, I again urge you to take notes.  I guarantee you will learn a lot about yourself, as well as the majors.

Bon voyage!

Just so you know, future posts in the arrangements series will not all be assignments.  I will be inflicting my notes and insights on you, so be forewarned!  And stay tuned!