Every tarot deck has to start somewhere, and it always starts with the fool. Not because he'd foolish in the way we usually mean that word - careless, silly, not paying attention - but because he's willing to do the one thing most of us spend our whole lives avoiding: step off the edge without knowing what's underneath.
That's the card. New beginnings. Innocence. Spontaneity. A leap of faith taken before logic has finished arguing against it.
The Fool is the start of the journey, which means he's also pure potential - nothing has happened to him yet. He hasn't succeeded or failed. He hasn't been humbled or proven right. He's standing at the very beginning of his story and every version of the story is still possible.
I've been thinking about this card a lot as I start this project, an Alaska - grounded Major Arcana, twenty-two paintings, each one built out of the landscape and the people in it. Starting anything creative is it's own leap of faith. There is no guarantee the deck gets finished, no guarantee anyone connects with it, no guarantee any of this "works." Logic would probably tell you not to start a twenty-two card painting project with my day job in flux and my future undecided. Logic is not always right.
No comments:
Post a Comment