The Holy Fool (Fool II)

"I'll get you Dorothy, and your little dog too..."

It's interesting to compare Tarot decks. The Golden Dawn deck depicts the Fool and his dog as a child with a young wolf on a leash. This is the Fenris wolf which is destined to devour Odin, the father of the gods. The child and the wolf represent the balance of creator-destroyer. The implication is that the Creator's will to self expression holds in check the counter energy which seeks to destroy creation as it emerges. What Manly Palmer Hall calls "those mindless powers of nature that overthrew the primitive creation." But the wolf must eventually be freed to perform it's natural destructive function which is to return creation to the state from which it originally emerged from the Ain Soph Aur.

It is prophesied that at Ragnarök the wolf will at last break free and join forces with the enemies of the gods and will then devour Odin himself. After that Viðarr, Odin's son, will slay the wolf to avenge his father, either with a sword through the heart, or by tearing apart the wolf after placing one foot shod with a special shoe on its lower jaw and one hand on its upper jaw.
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Fenrir - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The wolf devours Odin, then Odin's son slays the wolf. Then, presumably, the whole cycle starts again.

Chris
 
It's interesting to compare Tarot decks. The Golden Dawn deck depicts the Fool and his dog as a child with a young wolf on a leash. This is the Fenris wolf which is destined to devour Odin, the father of the gods. The child and the wolf represent the balance of creator-destroyer. The implication is that the Creator's will to self expression holds in check the counter energy which seeks to destroy creation as it emerges.
Click to expand...

Chris,

This is absolutely amazing...I mean what you said about the Fenris wolf. It's all new to me, but then I'm not too familiar with Norse mythology so I guess that isn't surprising. But how did you come up with the association of the dog in the Fool card of the Waite deck with the Fenris wolf? Is that your own association or did you read it somewhere?

--Linda
 
Robert Wang discusses it briefly in the Qabalistic Tarot book, but I had heard of it from other sources which I don't recall exactly. Maybe from Golden Dawn material or even Crowley. Normally the dog represents something like man's animal nature, but this puts a whole different spin on it. Actually, what you wrote elsewhere about Coyote reminded me of it.

Chris
 
Chris,

It sounds like I'm going to have to get that Robert Wang book sometime in the near future. The reason the Fenris wolf struck such a strong note with me isn't directly related to Coyote (who really isn't all that bad, once you get used to him) but it's definitely related indirectly. I'll have to get back to you on that, though.

--Linda
 
Last I checked the Wang book had been out of print for a couple of years. It would definitely be worth hunting for, though. A much easier read than Meditations on the Tarot, but jammed with great information and tons of diagrams.

I don't associate Coyote with the wolf, it's just that my free associational way of thinking connected one canine with the other.

Happy harmonica!

Chris
 
I have been the fool many times, and hopefully i am learning, through the mistakes i make, this fool figure is everywhere.
 
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