"Tarot helps you meet whatever comes in the best possible way."
from The Last Days of Madame Rey: A Stephan Raszer Investigation by A. W. Hill.
The answer can be found in the comments section. Don’t look until you think you’ve got the answer.
≈◊≈◊≈◊≈◊≈
Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me HERE.
© 2007-2018, Mary K. Greer All material on this site is copyrighted. If you use anything, be sure to include my name and a link back to this site. Thank you.
Donate any amount to keep this ad-free blog growing.
Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog 
15 comments
Comments feed for this article
September 16, 2008 at 12:33 pm
mkg
Answer:
“When he’s the Fool, and his path is a circle.
. . . In two dimensions. . . . In three, it might resemble a spiral.”
p. 277.
A. W. Hill’s The Last Days of Madame Rey is a enjoyable mystery-thriller with a surprisingly sophisticated and knowledgable metaphysical bent and plenty of references to tarot, though little specifically on readings. Recommended.
September 16, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Kalessin
At death?
September 16, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Kalessin
Oh, when he’s the Fool… should have guessed. ;P
September 16, 2008 at 1:03 pm
mkg
Kalessin – Death’s a good answer, too. However the Fool has long been thought of as being both the first and last card in the Major Arcana—turning what seems a linear journey into a circle.
September 16, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Kalessin
Of course, it makes perfect sense. 🙂
September 16, 2008 at 1:59 pm
tero
I just had to post this comment, because both the Fool and Death have been occupying my mind these past few days..
I’m currently writing short “statements” for every Major Arcana card, and -surprise- I’m now in the “Death scene” 🙂
I really wanted to incorporate the Fool somehow to this card*, and it was this morning that it hit me: “The purpose of (Tarot) Death is to awaken us – to the freedom of the Fool”
So there you go 😀
-tero
*the reason being mainly this: looking at the Death card I thought, “none of these persons – the pope, the child or the young girl – will survive Death..” But then the idea came, that there is actually someone who does survive it, and that this person both is and is not in the picture. First I thought this riddle made absolutely no sense at all, but then I thought, “hey, it’s the Fool! Because if the Fool is nothing, then nothing can kill him. And then again, the Major Arcana is the Fool’s journey, so he actually is in the card – he “is” Death as well.”
I’ve probably had too much coffee..
September 16, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Shari
Hey Tero, you comments made perfect sense to me, but I’ve also drank a pot of coffee today :o)
I also thought death.
September 16, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Kalessin
“Death’s a good answer, too. However the Fool has long been thought of as being both the first and last card in the Major Arcana—turning what seems a linear journey into a circle.”
Mary, the reason I said that is that I was thinking of the Death card in _Motherpeace_ (the first deck I learned to read), which has a picture of a snake curled (roughly in a circle) around at the base of a tree. Although the snake in the picture is not technically an ouroboros, it is reminiscent of that ancient symbol of beginnings and, simultaneously, of endings. But the clues to the answer of the riddle were in the riddle all along: a “traveler” on a “journey” and, of course, the number of the Fool card “0”.
September 16, 2008 at 5:32 pm
mkg
Kal – I love the Motherpeace Death card, and I know just what you mean about the snake. It was this card that gave me the understanding of Death as pruning and composting – that the dead plant material becomes the rich loam that nourishes new growth.
September 16, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Karen
My quess was for Death first, but that’s not really standing at both the beginning and end of a journey at the same time. And Death is not really a “traveler”, as much as it might be considered a path/journey one has to “travel”. The Fool was my second choice, but I really didn’t know why it came to my mind. I never thought of its position as the first and/or last card in the Major Arcana. At that point it really is standing at the beginning and end of the journey, and it makes perfect sense.
September 17, 2008 at 4:41 am
A.W. Hill
…it’s good to hear some real experts pondering this question. I can see that my own trip has just begun.
September 17, 2008 at 10:41 am
mkg
A.W. – I feel honored to have the author of this book stop in to visit. I just finished The Last Days of Madame Rey five minutes ago. What an astonishing and satisfying book. Not predictable at all. I admire you for weaving in fringe history and science as reachable dimensions of experience. I looked up lots of your references on the net, expanding my own awareness of some of the darker edges of my neo-pagan world (which is very similar to the base-line normality of Stephan Raszer’s world).
Hopefully you’ll continue to include tarot in your forthcoming novels. Your use of the Qabalistic mysticism of Paul Foster Case was well done. I once dreamed of a cosmic tree of life as a three-dimensional latticework of light in space as the basic DNA of the universe that reminded me of your description in the cave.
I look forward to your next book and will certainly pick up the first. Email if you have any questions about tarot or take them to the Books & Media section of Aeclectic Tarot’s forum at http://www.tarotforum.net where you are sure to get lots of opinions.
September 17, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Sheila from Scotland
I thought of ‘at the point of death?
September 30, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Thalia
Hello Mary Greer!
Well, my first response to your riddle was, “always.” As it’s all always a journey spiraling back to where you started. Which I guess means we are always on some level the Fool.
October 1, 2008 at 3:30 pm
mkg
Thalia – great answer. And the Fool is often seen as existing everywhere/when in the Major Arcana sequence.
I saw Thalassa at LATS and guess what book she was carrying with her—yep, The Last Days of Madame Rey! She, too, loved the book and wonders, with me, why this hasn’t made it much nearer the top of the charts. It’s a great read and the numerous references to tarot are thoughtful.