The Fool - The Greenman
The Fool represents the individual in a pure, childlike state, open to learning and experience. His journey is the individual's progress through the lessons of the Tarot, whish is the quest of becoming oneself. Some philosophers suggest that we come into this world as individuals with a purpose and a core self that seeks expression. Just as a crystal grows according to a certain pattern, or a cell carries the template for what it is to become, each human entity may have a pattern for unfolding. Perhaps the elements of this core self are what the Fool conceals in the pack or pouch that he carries. When the Fool comes up in an advice reading, you will be facing issues that relate to your personal program of unfoldment.
Generally, the Fool card advises trying new things, even if this means taking some chances in order to open ourselves to opportunities for growth, experience, and adventure. So put yourself in the Fool's trustful mode of being, let go of assumptions, welcome the unique and the unusual, adapt to change, maintain a state of hopeful expectancy and a belief in serendipity, and seek out new ideas, people, and experiences. Indulge in activities that bring out your playful, inquisitive child self. The Tarot is giving you the go-ahead on new, even risky, ventures, including new projects, new relationships, and travel. Seize opportunities that come up and jump into new situations, even if you feel unprepared, like you're stepping into the void. Whatever you do, do it energetically and enthusiastically.
You may have to do some unlearning in order to get the most out of the lessons the Fool offers. As Thoreau said, "it is only when we forget our learning, do we begin to know."
If you have consulted the Tarot for help in choosing between two or more options, such as job offers, investment oppotunities, or other life choices, you are advised to set out in a new direction and take a chance on the one that seems the most fun or adventurous. Such a choice will be most approprate for your life path, and you will be magically blessed and protected.
If you have approached the Tarot for guidance with creative work, the Fool tells you that you can provoke inspiration by allowing yourself to entertain foolish thoughts and do silly things. In other words, "Dare to be stupid," especially if you are going through a fallow period or suffering from creative block.
If you've been under some pressure, or if you seek advice on improving your health or soothing some private sorrow, invoke the healing powers of foolery, which have even been known to banish evil spirits and placate the old gods. No wonder people who read joke books and cartoons, watch funny movies and comedy acts, and look for the humor in situations are known to have fewer ailments, recover more quickly, and live longer.
If you seek the Tarot's advice because you are worried that you are too old to get involved in a new venture, take heart: the Fool is eternally going forth, and teaches us that it's never too late to start out or start over.
Because the Fool card represents an innocent and trusting young person setting out on adventure, and advises opening yourself to experience and taking chances, the reversed appearance of this card would tend to advise the opposite: say "no," or at least be very cautious about seeking new ventures, taking a trip of any sort, getting involved in relationships, and entrusting important matters to other people. Conditions are too risky at this time, and may require you to rein in your curiosity, your trust, and your exuberant spirit. Listen to that barking dog - it is the warning voice of your instinct.
This card demonstrates the raw energy of Nature, the joy of life and the awakening of the spirit to a new adventure, usually depicted as a carefree innocent, open of heart, living for the moment, free of concerns. The Fool is the image of Jack O' the Green, the predecessor of Morris Dancers and the masked wildmen of various cultures who dance at farmsteads, striking the Earth with sticks, ringing bells, and singing to usher in the change of seasons, bringing fertility to the land. The free-spirited enthusiasm may border on the reckless, and so there is an underlying warning against carrying this excitement to extremes, for there are always consequences to actions. If indicated as departure from routine, it may be a small vacation or as large as a change of lifestyle. To the Witch, this card relates to Ostara, with the God awakening Mother Earth to the Goddess as Spring Maiden.
MEANING: Awakening, fearlessness, courage, joy of life, enthusiasm, a new beginning, hidden potential about to be revealed, creativity, fertility, open minded, innovation, fresh ideas, playfulness, recreation, originality, primal energy.
REVERSE: indecisive, fearful, naive, inconsiderate, unfocused energy, reckless, entering a period of inactivity, tending a started project through to completion.
KEYWORDS: Spontaneity, courageous, fresh start, excitement, carefree.
From 'Tarot For the Green Witch' by Ann Moura
The Symbolism:
The Green Man is the vegetation spirit of the wildwood. Perhaps the most tenacious Pagan god of all, his image survives in church carvings and pub signs all over Britain, in which he is usually depicted in the form of a severed head with branches and leaves emerging from the mouth. A strange figure-half man, half tree.
At one time, most of Britain was covered with forest, and there are many legends of forest spirits called wood woses, faery wildfolk, green men, or wild men. Those who saw them described them as green people, powerful spirits who could sometimes be appealed to for help and had to be placated if they are angered - their elf bolts or flint arrows were deadly. The wise ones knew that forest spirits used certain natural features of the landscape as power places to manifest themselves - such as particular wells, streams, rocks, and trees - and would leave gifts at these places for them. These Green Spirits represent the raw, untamed, primal force of nature - a somewhat frightening concept to the modern mind, which prefers nature safe, controlled, and "civilized."
The green-clad wildmen passed into lore as fairies, often given the name of Hob, Robin, or Robin Goodfellow; this is the real Pagan origin of Robin Hood, who has far more mythological significance than the outlaw who robbed the rich to give to the poor and fought the evil sheriff of Nottingham. The clues to this identity lie in his name, his green clothing, his forest home, and his deadly arrow; he was the nature god of the ordinary people who could seek him in the forest. A depiction of Robin and his men at the fourteenth-century chapter house at Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire shows them as twelve green men merging with various sacred plants such as hawthorn and ivy. In the Traditional Craft, the Lord is often addressed as Robin and the Lady as Marion.
The concept of the Green Man also appears in the Arthurian story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:
As Arthur and his court were celebrating Yule, the great doors of the feasting hall flew open and in rode a knight, entirely green from head to foot. In a loud voice, he issued a challenge to the company-was anyone brave enough to take the axe he carried and chop off his head, which compliment he would return in a year's time?
Puzzled by his request, the knights merely stared and the mysterious Green Knight chided them as cowards. Stung by this, Sir Gawain leaped up, seized the axe, and cut off the knight's head. To everyone's amazement, the Green Knight merely picked up his head and bid Gawain to meet him in a year's time at the Green Chapel.
A year passed and Gawain rode off with a heavy heart in search of the Green Chapel. He traveled far and wide, but was unable to find anyone who had even heard of it. Eventually, he came to a castle that was preparing to celebrate the Yuletide season. The Lord of the manor, a big, jovial, red-headed man, made him wlcome and admitted he knew where the chapel was - a short ride from his estate. However, as there were still three days to go until the appointment, he invited the knight to remain with his wife and himself until the time should come. Gawain readily agreed.
Each day Gawain hunted with the Red Lord, but each night the Lord's wife came to his room to try to seduce him.. Being an honorable knight, Gawain refused. But on the last night, the lady came to him with a magic green garter, which she said she would exchange for a kiss, the bargain was made, the lady kissed, and the garter taken.
The next day, Gawain set off the the Green Chapel, a cave in the woodlands. The Green Knight stepped out to meet him and asked if he was ready to lose his head. Gawain meekly kneeled before him and bowed his head. The Green Knight raised the axe high and brought it down, but stopped just short of the neck of Gawain, who couldn't help flinching. Ashamed fo his cowardice, he apologized and bid the knight strike again. Once again the axe came down and stopped short, but Gawain held himself steady. Raising the axe once more the Knight struck, merely nicking Gawain's neck.
Gawain looked up, and instead of the Green Knight, there stood his host, the Red Lord. The Lord praised his courage in meeting the challenge and said that the two blows that didn't touch him were in reward for his constancy in refusing the seductions of the lady of the castle. The third blow, which had cut him, was for giving in to temptation and kissing the lady. Embracing each other, they returned to the castle to celebrate the twelve days of Yule, and it was a strange tale that Gawain had to tell when he returned to Arthur's court.
This is a very ancient story, with the Green Knight representing the power of Nature and the Old Religion. He is the Holly King, anciently believed to fight a twice-yearly battle with the Oak. King for the hand of the Goddess and the rulership of six months of the year, the Holly King ruling the waning year and the Oak King the waxing.
The Vegetation Spirit makes an appearance to this day in folklore festivals associated with May Day. Here he is Jack-in-the-Green or the May King, played by a man wreathed in oak and hawthorn with only his face showing. In pantomime, he enacts a death scene before springing to life to dance with the May Queen, symblizing the death of winter and the yearly renewal of fertility with the coming of the warm days of summer.
Divinatory Meanings
The Green Man is the raw power of Nature, untamed energy, the wild and fertile force behind all natural growth. He can be seen as the Divine impulse of creation, which is not under the control of man; the primal chaos from which matter crystallizes and order emerges. In the past, this force was respected and honored, and people strove to work in harmony with nature, to live within its cycles and become part of them. Today humankind, as a species, has lost respect for nature and seeks to control and defeat it. We now know that this is causing dire consequences not only for our planet, but for our spiritual well-being. We, too, are natural beings.
Robin Hood was, and is, a force that exists outside of manmade society; refusing to be governed by its rules and conventions, fighting its injustices and wrongs. Such a character is often seen as dangerous or even mad because he doesn't conform, though throughout history such characters have sown the seeds of change with new ideas - scientists ahead of their time, philosophers, artists, visionaries, and revolutionaries - people often riduculed and sometimes persecuted in thier own lifetimes.
If the Green Man appears in your spread, it indicates that powerful forces are at work in your life breaking down the old order so that a new one may emerge. you may have been feeling restless and discontented and have an overwhelming impulse to throw away everything you have worked for to seek new experiences and new horizons, without any clear idea of what these will be This course of action will inevitably lead to a period of chaos and you will leave behind some old friends and relationships. However, you will meet new people and begin a new phase of existence in which you will learn and grow immeasurably. Trust in your instincts and the new pattern of your life will eventually emerge from the chaos and become clear.
Spiritually you will receive unexpected guidance and fresh inspiration with experiences far beyond the usual. It is the call of the Otherworld to seek and know. Precisely what you seek is not yet clear - you may greet the call with a mixture of excitement and anxiety; it is a leap into the dark.
Reverse Meanings
You are afraid to take risks, preferring to cling to what you know, whether this makes you happy or not. your life may be boring, but you are too cautious to make a change, instead you settle down into a drab existence while things pass you by. Remember, it is not what you do in life that you will regret, but what you don't do - the opportunities missed. Do you really want to let life pass you by? Nothing is gained without risk. A risk is a risk, and you might fail, but at least you will have tried, yu will have experienced, you will have learned from it.
