Leaving The Fool

Still I tarry at El Loco.

It is a Don Quixote hang-up.

Not withstanding Raphael or Rider-Waite -- the "read" of this petitioner of the 0 - El Loco first card of the Tarot Universal Dali is "Don Quixote," an uncontested fool who lived a life fighting windmills. An old Don Quijote.

In old age Don Quixote knew himself for a fool, the butt of his neighbors' cruel jokes, living through the knowledge that his life had been spent in gallantry concocted from vanity and fantasy.


Here sits Don Quixote in Marbella, Spain -- Dali named his statue, Don Quijote sentado. It is the old man, not the self-deluded knight, Tarot Universal Dali depicts.

In Marbella, Spain the knight errant is El Loco.


Dali's countryman, Pablo Picasso, also fell prey to the "Eternal obsession of Don Quijote" http://deedee-salvadordali.blogspot.com/2010/07/eternal-obsession-of-don-quijote.html, depicting the knight still a-mount Rocinante. Yet even upon this day amongst his questing, Picasso lets a tiny drop of the knight-errant's head suggest, just perhaps, he knew he was about a fool's errant.

If I were to accept this card I would want it to lead me toward then push me fully into what is next, forcing a full encounter, full force, without time for preconceptions, forcing me to become both a fool and crazy. I want to see that old man as a warning against the sin of windmill fighting, wasting life.

I am ready now to leave this card -- move on to I - The Magician. I wish to leave with another sketch of Don Quixote/Quijote, this one by Dali.

As with his Tarot cards, this sketch is something of a parody and a homage of his compatriot Picasso's Quixote sketch. Also, it seems aligned with the Rider-Waite Tarot standard-bearer's depiction of the Fool; certainly more so than the Raphael image. Even Rocinante's over-the-shoulder questioning is suggested.


El Loco is exhilarated, energized and young in this sketch, Rocinante awaits only the word from his knight and they will leap into a world anew.

This is a good image to carry into the next card, I - The Magician, which Dali adorns with a self-portrait.

And if, perhaps, as Tarot Universal Dali's 0 - El Loco suggests, some of us facing yet another blind and naked leap into the unknowable future are not exhilarated, energized or young, then, how foolish could it be to plead before the Madonna seeking guidance and protection?