AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve long believed that there is a conceptual link between the Fool, the Aces and the Pages of the tarot as the inspiration but not necessarily the “prime mover” for a departure from the status quo. They might put the idea in our head but, if anything useful is to be made of their stimulus, they require being “triggered” by circumstances. We must be presented with or create an opportunity to act; otherwise they merely convey untapped potential. In other words, they do not represent the first step in an activity but rather the initiating impulse or urge behind it. Here is a further analysis of this shared paradigm.

In The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabalah (I wish he had chosen a shorter, snappier title), Ronald Decker associated the court cards with astrological planets: he assigned the Sun to the Kings, Venus to the Queens and Mars to the Knights, all of which make perfect sense; but that left him with the Moon and the Pages. (I’m wondering “Why not Mercury?”) He cranked up his imagination and decided that since the transient Moon is the patron of itinerant pilgrims and the Knaves in the Tarot de Marseille deck are dressed as “travelers,” they are somehow dislocated in time and place: outcasts, social dropouts, foreigners, alienated and disenfranchised wanderers, supplicants, ascetics, wild-men or lunatics. This description is strongly reminiscent of the image of the Fool in most early decks, and their travel plans bear certain similarities: they are both setting out (or in the case of the Pages, planning to set out) on an uncharted adventure. While I haven’t seen the Fool directly related to the Moon in occult tarot lore (except perhaps as a “mooncalf” or naif), the impoverished wayfarer we observe in the oldest cards certainly qualifies as the model for the Pages in Decker’s vision.

The Pages and the Aces also exhibit a comparable theme, that of “newness.” The Aces are untrammeled and the Pages are innocent. In the Golden Dawn’s “Chaldean” typology, neither one receives a place on the revolving rim of the astrological wheel; those of the same suit are instead paired in one of the four “quadrants of space” surrounding the polar axis. The Pages (alternatively named Princesses) are described as the “thrones of the Aces,” which I interpret to mean a kind of “launch-pad” from which the energy of the latter projects onto the field of engagement symbolized by the 36 decans of the “natural” (Aries-rising) zodiac. The fact that both find their elemental mirror in the fixed sign of their quadrant gives than a stable “anchor-point” in the overall scheme; it’s worth noting that the central decan at the heart of each fixed sign corresponds to one of the harmonious Sixes of the tarot. Since there are no other correlations that make this alignment remarkable, fixity (it is defined in psychological astrology as “security-oriented”) stands out as the focus of their attention. We might see fixity as the “steady wind” that propels the celestial ship, with the Ace as the “tiller” and the Six as the “mainsail,” while the Page is the “pilot” who keeps it on-course. (Excuse the woo, I was mildly inspired!)

Whenever I see a Page in a spread it automatically conjures up thoughts of the Ace and the Fool. I look at it this way: the Kings and Queens are solidly seated on their thrones as pillars of calm authority; the mounted Knights are all about restless action, never sitting still; the Pages are standing as if to step out on a mission to which they have not yet fully committed, and they are hesitating. If I think of them as perched on the narrow apex of the associated Ace with the Fool exhorting them to “get a move on,” it’s only a matter of time before their increasingly off-balance “lean” forces them to put their best foot forward and make a start (as if in learning to walk). Waite’s notion of the Pages as callow “students” acquires a good deal more immediacy under this influence, as well as a more profound compulsion to unleash their capacity for growth. Where the Fool is embarking on a “grand quest” with no set itinerary, the Page may only have to bestir himself to go down to the corner store for a quart of milk but it’s still a goal-oriented proposition of the “fixed” kind, and the Ace will nag him until it is accomplished.