Tarot & Hafez - (0) The Fool

The role of a Tarologist is to translate the cards from a visual medium into a linguistic one. A way of doing so is via translating its archetypical symbolism into another archetypical system. One could argue, this is one of the reasons for the infusion of Astrology, Kabbalah, Numerology and such, into the Tarot, during its centuries of evolution. In this series of posts, I shall introduce my translation of the Tarot into the symbolic poetry of Hafez. We start, as one would, from zero, The Fool.

Hafez is one of the greatest poets and cultural pillars of the Iranian culture. He has reached this prominence through a mastery of the Symbolic Poetry of Divine Love, created by the Sufis. The aim of this poetry is to discreetly articulate the instructions, practices, experiences and stages of the Sufi path in obtaining Oneness with God. Hafez created a unique pallet of archetypical words, phrases, myths and allegorical immagery to express his transcendental journey in search for the divine. A journey that also begins with a Fool.

The equivalent for the Fool in Hafez’s poetry is the ‘رند / Rend.’ Its literal translation is “tramp” but in the symbolic language of Hafez, this foolish tramp embodies the archetype of those willing to let go of all their possessions, reputations and ideals, so to freely walk the Straight Path towards the One.

When the Fool card shows up, it is an invitation to hypothetically let go of all our spiritual, emotional, mental and physical perceptions of reality; so for even a brief moment, the psyche can breath and soar in the air of detachment from the imaginary consequences of its decisions. Just as Hafez suggests:

“The world-ending رند
has no need for foresight
It is the role of the Emperor
to have wisdom and thought”

رند عالم سوز را با مصلحت بینی چه کار
کار ملک است آن که تدبیر و تامل بایدش