An Introduction...

The Fool is the most basic archetye; but also the most powerful. He represents "the unlimited potential of the human spirit...and his sheer exuberance leaves no room for doubt or fear" (MacGregor, 41). The Fool is like a child discovering the vast world for the first time and therefore seeks the truth. He does not doubt that he is connected to something larger.

The theory of Man in Microcosm supports such a notion. It states that "the human being is a miniature version of the cosmos [and] according to this concept, everything in nature has a parallel in human beings, and thus mankind and the universe are linked together in a system of correlations" (Woolfolk, 5).

The universe is not thrown together haphazardly; it instead follows a "cosmic dance" and the Zodiac is its choreography (West, 22). "The Zodiac is a belt circling the Earth [and] within this belt are contained the orbits of all the planets in our solar system except for Pluto," which has a wide path (Woolfolk, 303). "Also within this belt are stars, which the ancients arranged in patterns, called constellations. To the early stargazers most of these constellations looked liked animals, so this belt of constellations became known as the Zodiac-from the Greek word zodiakos, meaning 'circle of animals'" (Woolfolk, 303).

"The division of the Zodiac...is based fundamentally upon the beliefs that the universe is coherent and that numbers are not mere inventions of man allowing him to make purely quantitative distinctions but rather the symbolic keys to qualitative laws that govern the coherent universe. All esoteric traditions haev always sought to express the multiplicity within unity, and this has always involved the use of numbers, and the use of symbols; astrology is a particularly ingenious method of combining them "(West, 30).

The most basic step in the cosmic dance is the birthchart. A birthchart is a map of the heavens at the time of birth. It is composed of three components. The Planets, Signs and Houses are the tools used within the chart. Each plays a significant role; "Planets are the forces that act, Signs represent how the planet acts and the Houses represent where the planets act" (Woolfolk, 261).

But a birthchart is not set in stone. At birth, nature is prominent but nurture will soon take over. We have the ability to determine our own fate. The past shapes who we are and the present is our launchpad. Only through self-empowerment will the patterns of the present change and Tarot is the tool to self-actualization.

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*West, John and Toonder, Jan. The Case for Astrology. New York: Coward-McCann, 1970.

* Woolfolk, Joanna. The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need. Lanham: Taylor Trade, 2006.