Musings of a Carmelite Fool

Traditionally called the Madman in French Tarot cards, the Fool was represented as a vagrant, a beggar a person without purpose. But modern Tarot renditions, from the classic Rider-Waite deck to Spirit Science’s Patch Tarot show a young man ready to go on a journey. Most Tarot card readers agree that the Fool represents Innocence, Spontaneity, Liberation, Impulsiveness, Possibilities, Hopefulness and Creativity. It’s a mix of the positive and negative attributes of a young traveller open to the road ahead. These are general ideas usually from intuition or written guides that suggest ideas to the Tarot reader but let’s look at the most common symbols on Tarot decks to gain a better understanding what the makers of the cards want you to see. The Sun The sun represents Divine guidance and grace. It showers its rays upon the Fool to purify, to edify and to bless. Yellow or gold usually represents abundance and happiness. The Travelling Bag The bag contain...

The Fool is shown here in classic array. His travelling bag on his shoulder usually interpreted to be past experiences he brings to his new journey ahead. The Fool was a dreamer. He wanted to change the world: be a doctor and find a cure for cancer. He was not bad academically: getting through the rigorous examination and evaluation of the University of the Philippines. But the dreamer remained in his dream-world. He experienced the ecstasy of life. His dream-world expanded to lovers and friends and faces he cannot even name. This was beyond him. The dream-world made him insatiable, always looking for the next lover. One may not even be enough for him. But why all of these? He was brought up well, given a good education and even flourished in a Protestant sect. He saw himself as a non-conformist: someone who will not just follow blindly. He found his rebellion a way to be just that. Funny how years from the rebellion, his actions will bind him practically useless. ...

Recently amid food and the joy of a family get-together, I got some advice to re-kindle my dead love for writing: to pass time, to keep the mind working, and to change things in my dreary life now. I dunno. I felt so uninspired. So dry. Sooo normal. But I kept the advice, pondered and thought. I went about my usual youtube surfing. Lo! and behold! My inspiration. Although food, history and travel are things I'd like to write about too, spirituality has started the fire of the muse in me. I've been following a youtube channel since 2011 called Spirit Science. It's talks about New Age Spirituality so I take it with a grain of salt. Sometimes truckloads when it comes to aliens and other weird stuff. But the spirituality is very basic: trying to achieve ascension through the goodness of the heart. In this case, I'd like to focus my understanding and comparison of New Age and Qabalah to Carmelite Christian Mystical Theology. This will challenge me to read more of Our Hol...