Le Tarot de Marseille
Le Mat is The Fool from the Marseilles Tarot, it is also sometimes known as Le Fou, which in Modern French has the meaning "fool." The word fool is from Old French fol "madman, insane person; idiot; rogue; jester," also "blacksmith's bellows," from Medieval Latin follis "foolish," from the original meaning of "bellows, leather bag"(follis), from PIE root *bhel-(2) "to blow, swell." This word fool, then, seems somewhat appropriate for the card, given that the element of The Fool is said to be Air. The follis (bellows) is literally full of air, and a fool may be thought to have his or her head up in the clouds.
In Italian The Fool card is Il Matto (or sometimes it is called Il Pazzo "madman, lunatic," but not Il Folle "mad, insane"). However, neither il matto, nor le mat, are generally translated to English from modern Italian or French precisely as "fool." Il Matto as a noun is translated as "madman/madwoman or nut," and as an adjective, the sense of matto is "crazy." In French Le Mat is an archaic term, perhaps taken from Italian(the cards first came to France from Italy), and the term is said to have possibly arisen due to the card's roll in card games. In certain card games the Fool was part of a suit of permanent trumps(the 22 tarot cards), where it was used either as a trump card (sometimes the highest trump), or other times, an "excuse" card.
The excuse is an exception to the above rules. If you hold the excuse you may play it to any trick you choose - irrespective of what was led and whether you have that suit or not. With one rare exception. - pagot.com, French Tarot
The Fool being the unnumbered card of the trumps, is in some ways the most enigmatic. It is sometimes labeled as 0, but other times it is not labeled at all. It can be lowly, but other times it comes out on top and isn't constrained by all the usual laws and rules. Therefore the word would have some connotation of the trickster, idiot, and jester, and not simply a crazy or insane person. Although, that distinction is often blurred in those who embody this archetype.
Rider-Waite Tarot
The meaning of the term Le Mat, is said to be possibly related to the origin of the term "checkmate." Checkmate is originally from two separate words, from eschec mat "checkmate" in Old French / échec et mat in Modern French (scacco-matto in Italian), these were borrowed ultimately from the Persian game playing terminology, shah mat meaning "the king is helpless, stumped," however, the game was brought to Europe by the Islamic world, and in Arabic the word mat has a different, although similar, meaning. In Arabic mat is a of a form of the verb "to die," therefore some people say the meaning is "the king is dead." But either way the game terminology came from the Persian and was borrowed by Arabic. Whether the king (shah) is helpless or dead is not really important, once put in checkmate, the effect is that the game (of chess [from the plural of eschec in French, i.e., esches - Old French, éschecs - Modern French, like "checks / shahs"]) ends. You can feel foolish when put in check, and you didn't see it coming. The person put in checkmate doesn't die (mat), but they might feel like a fool(le mat) or feel helpless(mat). And the winner may be a lucky fool. If you identify with your game pieces then you are the shah [check] "king" who is the mat (helpless), you are le mat. People sometimes act crazy (matto) when they loose a game, after they have been [check]mated. They may have been fooled or were acting foolish to be mated, then they are il matto.
Mat as an adjective meaning "lusterless, dull (of a color or surface) is from 1640's, from French mat "dull, dead surface," from Old French mat "beaten down, withered, afflicted, dejected; dull [OE]." This is interesting given that the fact the first examples of court jester/joker/buffoon are taken from Old Kingdom Ancient Egypt, around 2500 BC, and often these "fools" were people who were in some way afflicted.
Troops of musicians, tigers, dancers, and almahs whiled away the tedious hours, supplemented by buffoons and dwarfs. The great Egyptian lords evinced curious liking for these unfortunate beings, and amused themselves by getting together the ugliest and most deformed creatures. They are often represented on the tombs beside their masters in the company with his pet dog, or a gazelle, or with a monkey which they sometimes hold on a leash, or sometimes are engaged in teasing. Sometimes Pharaoh bestowed his friendship on his dwarfs, and confided to them occupations in his household. -History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. II, by G. Maspero
This Old French mat ("beaten down, withered, afflicted, dejected; dull) is said to be perhaps from Latin mattus "maudlin with drink," from madere "to be wet or sodden, be drunk," from PIE root *mad- "to be wet, drip [OE]." At times a jester or joker may play a drunk, or act dejected, and be sodden with tears.
During Egypt's New Kingdom Period(c. 1600-1000 BC Egyptians celebrated Festivals of Drunkenness at the Mut Temple. At this celebration revelers would get quite drunk, or *mad- "wet."
In ancient Egypt, the goddess Mut / Maut / Mout, mwt, which means "mother" was associated with the primeval waters of the universe, Nu / Nun, from which all life arose.
The Greatness of the mother Mut, however, seems to have the connotation of primeval, that Mut is the primeval mother goddess. In a Ramesside hymn to Mut, it is said that both mankind and the gods are her offspring and, in a ritual spell for different incense to Mut, one had to recite that the gods came into being from her tears, and that (even) Atum (the Primeval God) was vivified through her flesh. Ptolemaic texts say Mut is 'The one who came into existence in the beginning' or that she is 'the mother who was together with Nun in the beginning, the mother (mwt) who has given birth, but who has not been born herself,' or 'the mother of the mothers, who has given birth to every god.' Mut is indeed the great and primeval mother goddess. -Mut and other Ancient Egyptian Goddesses, by Herman te Velde
The Precinct of Mut / Mut Temple Complex in South Karnak, ancient Thebes(near present day Luxor), has a crescent shaped Isheru, "sacred lake." Mut was called "Mut the great, mistress of Isheru," and the lake was employed for ritual navigation during her festivals, the body of water(the isheru) being a representation in the microcosm of the waters above.
"The Mut Temple Proper is surrounded by a lake in the shape of a horseshoe. During the festival of Mut, a boat with a statue of the goddess was sailed around the lake." -Gods and Goddesses
Precinct of Mut / Ruins of the Mut Temple Complex[from Ancient Thebes], Luxor, East Bank of the Nile South Karnak
So the temple of Mut/Mout was surrounded by a kind of moat.
Moat meaning "ditch or deep trench dug around the rampart of a castle or other fortified place," is from an earlier, now obsolete, use of the word meaning "a mound, a hill," which was from Old French mote "mound, hillock, embankment; castle built on a hill," from Medieval Latin mota "mound, fortified height."
The Mut Temple Complex looks as if it could inspire both meanings of the word. It is both on a mound and surrounded by water.
Women whose monthly cycles are ruled by the moon and the water element, are often accused of being moody. But sometimes strong emotions and passions can be appreciated, when you are the one in need of protection from the mama bear. Mothers definitely can have a mood. The moodiness of the mother (mut) can cause her to exhibit great courage, which is Mut "courage, heart, spirit, boldness, pluck" in German, and muot in Old High German is "anger, wrath," in Old Norse this is moðr (mothr), and Gothic moþs (moths). Being Mut-y, i.e., Mother-y can be a good thing. And, it is often easy to mitigate this moðr (anger) of the mother . . . don't threaten her children. Mitigate, from Latin mitis "gentle soft," like a mother, so perhaps we could say Mut-igate. There is a duality to the nature of a mother.
Black Granite Statues of Goddess Sekhmet, taken from the Temple of Mut, Thebes, from the reign of Amenophis III, c. 1400 BC, British Museum
In Thebes the goddess Mut was combined with the goddess Sekhmet / Sakhmet, sḫm (meaning "She who is Mighty / Strong / Powerful"), as Sekhmet-Mut. The Festival of Drunkenness (celebrated at the Mut Temple) pertained to the story of Sekhmet and Ra. In the story, the ravenous lion goddess is set upon mankind as punishment, but after a time Ra takes mercy upon the people, and has to devise a way to stop the mighty goddess from her slaughter. He does this by tricking her into drinking 7000 jars of ochre stained beer (which she mistakes for blood). Sekhmet becomes drunk on the beer and passes out. When she awakens she is transformed as the peaceful mother goddess Hathor, who has one epithet "Lady of Drunkenness."
Then Re said: "You come in peace, sweet one." And her name was changed to Hathor, and her nature was changed also to the sweetness of love and the strength of desire. And henceforth Hathor laid low men and women only with the great power of love. But for ever after her priestesses drank in her honour of the beer of Heliopolis colored with the red ochre of Elephantine when they celebrated her festival each year. -The Story of Re
So the beer in fact muted Sekhmet's desire to kill, and made her mitis "gentle, soft."
In ancient Egypt the vulture hieroglyph represented the phonogram (word forming sound) mwt as well as having the meaning "mother," and also "griffon vulture." Vultures were thought of as being good and protective mothers to their young, and their large outstretched wings were a sign of protection. Vultures had very positive symbolic significance in ancient Egypt.
Nekhbet Vulture Goddess of Upper Egypt, Deir el-Bahari temple, Thebes, Egypt
Of course vultures are not usually associated so positively in western culture, where their carrion eating habits and loitering around scenes of death are forefront. The mut / mwt "vulture" mutilate / mwt-ilate carcasses, or we could say vulture-ate them. Vulture is from Latin vultur/voltur, perhaps related to vellere meaning "to pluck, to tear."Vultures tend to have mottled feathers, that is, a varigated mixture of light and dark feathers.
Mottled Mut / Griffin Vultures
[Smithonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute]
We might even say they are motley (adj), from late 14c., which is "parti-colored, variegated in color" (originally of fabric). Motley is from Anglo-French motteley, and is said to be of unknown origin. Motley (n.) meaning "jester, fool" is from (1600), named allusively from the dress thereof [OE].
The parti-colored vultures depicted in ancient Egyptian art and jewelry especially bring to mind this term, motley.
A Motley Crew of Mut (Vultures)
A Motley Crew of Le Mat (Fools / Jesters)
[Rider-Wait Tarot, The Court Jester(1955), The Fool and the Owl, The Halloween Tarot]
So we could say that motley is mut-ly, i.e., like the pattern of the griffin vulture (mut). And also similar to the colorful, and some might say, motley dress of the Goddess Mut. To be dressed like Mut is to be dressed Mut-ly. In these images notice the colorful striped pattern and red sash on Mut's dress. Also, she is actually wearing a mut (vulture) on her head, some might say that is a foolish thing to do, or even the dress of a fool.
Motley Dressed Goddess Mut with Mut Crown
Therefore one might wonder if this term "motley" could have somehow evolved from the ancient Egyptian art and traditions having to do with the goddess Mut, her dress, festivals and association with mut (vultures). What impression would other cultures have had of the strange, but also impressive, art, symbolism, and traditions of the ancient Egyptians? Perhaps their impression of the Goddesses would have been quite different than what was intended, much in the same way people from different cultures might find Hindu gods and goddesses to be exotic, or strange, with their depiction with animal heads or multiple sets of arms. Or how people find practices from religions other than their own to be sometimes silly or even repulsive, whereas in the cultures of their origin the practices are viewed as quite normal. It wouldn't have helped foreigners' impression of the goddess Mut, over the course of the ages, that certain words in other languages sounding similar to the ancient Egyptian word for vulture, mwt, have the meaning of death, such as in Hebrew muth "to die," Arabic mut "death / mat "die," and Persian mat "helpless, stumped."
Here are two images of The Fool card interpreted as female. Perhaps the Mat (Fool) here is even a mut (mother).
Some curious resemblances to Mut (white gown with red ties, not a bird crown, but birds near her crown)
[The Fool 0, Shaddowscapes Tarot, artwork Stephanie Pui-Mun Law]
Her dress is perhaps a bit mottled, more than motley
[Spolia Tarot, Artwork by Jen May]
Mother is from the same root as the German Mutter, from PIE root *mater- "mother"(source of Latin mater). The mater (mother) is the source of the child's matter (substance). The child is formed in the waters, perhaps we could say "sacred pool", or Isheru of the mut (mother), where we start out as a small little mote. It is subject of debate, that is, it is moot, if this is a good thing or not; to be born into the flesh, into duality (two-ality), subject to change, decay, and ultimately death (muth / mut). Ironically, in one sense the mut (mother) is the cause of death and dying. Without our mother we would not be on this fool's journey. She made a fool out of us. From the mut comes le mat.
Life is crazy (matto). It is the journey of Il Matto, as well as the fool. Crazy is from craze + -y (2). Craze is from late 14c. crasen, craisen "to shatter, crush, break to pieces."
Crazing in Ceramics, Chinese Geyao Bowl
The image of God shattered into billions and trillions of pieces in order to have this experience of incarnation. All together each of us creates one great big crazy quilt of God's image.
A
Woolen
Crazy Quilt,
by Edna Force Davis, Fairfax county, Virginia, 1897
A fool can be someone who is feeble minded / an idiot / moron, . . . a madman / lunatic / nut, . . . a jester / joker/ buffoon, . . . or a person of childlike faith / holy fool/ wise fool . . . or some combination.
Jesters generally impersonate or put on a fool or crazy person in order to entertain. And a person with childlike faith may do crazy things like Joan of Arc, or wise person may be thought of as an idiot, like Jesus when he didn't speak up for himself at his trial or preform signs for Herod on command, so they made of fool of him.
When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. The chief priests and scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid, clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. Luke 23:8-11
Mocking of Christ, Fra Angelico, San Marco, Florence 1441-1442
Sometimes the line between crazy / sane, foolish / wise, and fool / king is not clear. It can be muddled, mottled, checkered or confused like the typical dress of a fool.
The Fool, Keywords: freedom, innocence, adventure, idealism, spontaneity, free spirit, beginnings, faith, pure heart
