The watchword of these days is: DO NOT GO OUT, STAY HOME. Just yesterday our city’s Mayor issued yet another heartfelt appeal. And yet there are still some who believe these are exaggerations, behaving in a mad and irrational way, like a true fool. Card No. 0, “The Fool” — the only major arcanum with no number identifying it — confirms that “he” represents the irrational, freedom, chaos, flight, madness. The fool represents the eternal traveller who walks the world with no ties and no nationality. Today, if we were to give in to this urge to act recklessly, walking towards an undefined destination just as “The Fool” does, we should know that this would lead us towards destruction.
“The Fool”, reckless and irresponsible, lets himself be led by unreasonable impulses, a solitary master of all the roads that seem to be his alone. The animal behind him, a dog — a symbol of loyalty, man’s longtime friend — follows him, seeming to bite him to stop him, to protect him, and at the same time seeming to push him forward. This animal, placed behind the figure, perhaps represents the past that does not slow the energy heading towards the future.
“The Fool” is also linked to music, since his costume features little bells, as if playing the music of cosmic harmony. And so Italians, who wisely followed the positive side of Arcanum 0 by staying home, have had more time to “open” the little bundle the fool carries on his shoulder, containing nothing but eccentricity. In this way they have given vent to their ingenuity, rewriting song lyrics and dedicating songs to the coronavirus, exorcising their own fears just as was done in the Middle Ages.
My personal pairing for Arcanum 0 is “Frisigello”. In the Middle Ages, this highly skilled jester “performed marvellous tricks of nine kinds, who at that time had no equal, and a certain memory of him was recorded in the courtyard of the Church of S. Angelo in Spatha, on the wall facing it”. Frisigello was mentioned among the six wonders of Viterbo. Arcanum 0, besides meaning unpredictability and eccentricity, also represents the clear symbol of genius.
In this “coronavirus moment”, since the fool in his irrationality can be led towards either good or bad, for the few who decide to leave their homes I dedicate to them the meaning that was given to this arcanum in ancient times. Having let their senselessness prevail over their common sense, they represent mental derangement more than folly, understood as eccentricity and genius. Like “The Fool”‘s dog, mine too continues to follow me, to support me and to share my choices, with the loyalty that binds it to me and to all of us Italians — as you can see from the tricolour it wears for you — continuing to stay sheltered, careful and strict in following the municipal ordinances, doing everything at home. I assure you, truly “everything”. I would really not want to hear anyone say, in this period, to those who do not respect the national rules “…you’re worse than a dog”, since that would raise them to a level above the absolute zero they represent on a human level.
