Showing posts with label moat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moat. Show all posts

Monday, April 6, 2026

The World — XXI

Because the world is round, it turns me on
Because the world is round

Because the wind is high, it blows my mind
Because the wind is high

Love is old, love is new
Love is all, love is you

Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry
Because the sky is blue     
Because, The Beetles (1969)

With trump XXI, The World, we arrive at the completion of the cycle, and what better way to complete a cycle than with something circular or whirled/whorled as is our world!

Shadowscapes Tarot, by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

 ". . . When one's goals have been reached, it is a wondrous and precious moment to see your dreams come true and know that elusively mythical treasure promised in fairy tales: the heart's desire."

The world is our universe and our universe is our world. It is our portion, enclosure, covering. Like the ancient Egyptian goddess Nut portrayed as a a star covered woman arching over over the sky(pt in ancient Egyptian), 

1
Nut, Tomb of Ramses IV, Valley of the Kings

whose name(the phonetic portion) was written with a nw/nu "pot" hieroglyph and also contained the pt "sky" hieroglyph as a determinative[not spoken🤫].

                                                                

Nut - nw/nu "pot" +  "bread bun"(feminine) + pt "sky"[det.] 

So, visually her name is the [female] container of the sky.

Nu-"et" came out of Nu. 

In the beginning the universe only consisted of a great chaotic cosmic ocean, and the ocean itself was referred to as [*Nu]Nun. Nun, Creation Myth, wikipedia. 

Nun was the great none or nothing, the Nu-thing from which EVERYTHING arose. Nun's name was written with three nw "pot" + three n "wavy lines/water ripples"  pt "sky" [also as a determinative].

                                                      

 [3] nw/nu "pot" + [3] n "wavy lines/water ripples"  pt "sky" [det.]+ seated god [det.]

So his name seems to visually represents the many/plural waters of the sky/heaven, while Nut is visually the single pot of the pet "sky".

Nut/nwt/Nuit is our pot/portion which arose out of Nun, namely, our visible or known universe

Here in the Crawley deck trump XXI is named The Universe. The figure in the middle and the snake are enclosed/ in utero/ in the belly of the starry sky[∴ Nut, aka, Nuit, who is apparent at night]. The starry sky is not merely a circle or a band, after all, but rather, is all encompassing or spherical like a pot[nw]. . . in a nut shell, like Nwt[aka, Nut/Nuit]. 

The Universe  [in a Nut] The Book of Thoth
Essential questions. Synthesis. Delay. Completion. Opposition. Inertia. Perseverence. Patience. Crystalized thinking. — Instructions for Alister Crowley's Thoth Tarot Deck, written by James Wasserman

The universe is the unus "one"+ versus "turned" or "turned into one," therefore the universus "whole, entire, all things" which is our place or physical enclosure in the sea of eternity[Nun]. 

If Judgment was a revealing, exposing, dis-clothing. The World is clothing, covering, wrapping [The World wraps up the fool's journey by wrapping things up]. The opposite of being naked or exposed is to be dressed which is to be covered. In the coffin above Nut is literally a three dimensional covering/enclosure for the body of the deceased.

In Latin mundus has the meaning "universe, world," however, mundus was also used to describe a woman's "ornaments, dress"[like Nut's star covered body], so things that cover but also have intentional arrangement. Adornments/Ornaments make a thing look put together, that is ordered(from Latin onare "equip, adorn"), equipped(Old Norse skipa "arrange, place in order"), ship-shape, which in Greek would be kosmos "orderly arrangement, i.e. decoration; the world," from which we get cosmos the Latinized version in English. 

Tarot de Marseilles 
[A woman enclosed/enclothed by a wreath and wrapped in a wrap, looking like an ornament]
"Attainment, completion, perfection, ultimate change, the end result of all efforts, success, assurance, synthesis, accomplishment, capability, the rewards that come from hard work, the path of liberation, eternal life."

Another primordial ancient Egyptian goddess like the cosmic Nut(our starry dressing/mundus), whose name is similar sounding to mundus/le monde, is Mut/Maut/Mout. 

Mut was considered a primal deity, associated with the primordial waters of Nu from which everything in the world was born. Mut, wikipedia

Her name had the meaning "mother," so Mut, Mother[Mut-er], was the Mater (L.)"origin, source, mother" of matter and the primordial mound of le monde, the world

To have things ornamented is to have them arranged or ordered which is to have things organized or have things in hand. And in Middle English mounde was "the hand ✋; protection, guardianship, power," from Old English mund, however in Old English mounde meant "the world." So, hand(mounde) and the world(mounde) are connected via the idea of protection or covering . He's got the whole world in his hands, or the whole mounde in his moundes. . . or the whole handiwork in his hands. Which would be the whole mound in his mounds 🤲, 

Print T-shirt from Target, Modern Lux,  photo by Julie O.

and a mound is a moat(in its original sense), from mote c. 1300  "a mound, a hill," from Medieval Latin mota "mound, fortified height," said to be "perhaps from Gaulish mutt, mutta," which is similar sounding to the divine mother(Mut).

The Mut Temple Complex had a kind of moat around the temple itself which sat on a mote "mound," and moats are also a form of mounde "protection" whether they are mounds(protection by height) or moats(protection by water). Very handy!

Precinct of Mut / Ruins of the Mut Temple Complex[from Ancient Thebes], Luxor, East Bank of the Nile South Karnak

At the macroscopic level the world(which is itself just a mote in the vastness of space/infinity) is our womb/enclosure/place of protection[mounde] therefore our mut "mother." At the microcosmic level, when we are in the womb, our mother[mutis our world[mounde]. 

A Mother Wombing, photo credit Julie O., May 18, 2012

In Hebrew a word meaning "womb" is rechemalso translated in the King James Bible as matrix(from Latin meaning "womb, uterus," from mãter, mãtris "[of the] mother"),  from racham (racham/rechem) "compasion, love, mercy," which is also the name for a kind of vulture, racham.

In ancient Egypt the vulture hieroglyph  represented the phonogram(i.e. word forming sound) for mut/mwt  meaning "mother," and it was also used as a phonogram for neret/nrt meaning "griffon vulture."

Mut (goddess) hieroglyph, Vulture with Nekhakha "flail"[aka, a claw/rake]

So, the vulture hieroglyph had the meaning mut "mother" and Mut was represented by the vulture. She was also called "Mut the great, mistress of Isheru," the isheru meaning "lake"[i.e., the "moat" at the temple complex] being a representation in the microcosm of the "waters above," namely, of the sky/heaven(pt), which we could say is our womb/mother. Therefore the vulture had correspondence in ancient Hebrew and ancient Egyptian with the concepts of womb, compassion, mother, protection and world/universe.

Vultures were thought of as being good and protective mothers to their young, i.e. nurturing (nrt-ing/vulturing), and their large outstretched wings were a sign of protection[mounde]. Vultures had very positive symbolic significance in ancient Egypt, like this rachaph "hovering" racham "vulture" below 👇. And to hover is to "move gently"[rachaph] like a "brooding"[rachaph] mother bird, or move gently as the rocking of a baby in the rechem "womb."

Nekhbet, Tutelary Goddess of Upper Egypt, Deir el-Bahari temple, Thebes, Egypt
Carrying a shen("encircling," symbolizing eternal protection) in her talons 
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit[ruach] of God[elohim]was hovering[rachaph] over the face of the waters. Gen. 1:2 ESV

So, the "Spirit of God" was hovering / covering / wombing / momming / incubating / mounde-ing. . . moving gently/rocking. . . perhaps we could say, whirring / purring / humming / thrumming / vibrating(as wings do, think of hummingbirds), or idling. . .  but not idle. A LOT is going on in an egg or a womb even though what  is going on is hidden.  Just as a bird that is hovering in the sky is actually exerting a lot of controlled force and effort to remain balanced and aloft, yet appears motionless, or an idling engine appears to be idle, yet is full of potential power just waiting for the command/word that will set it loose. . . run! 

And God said, "let there be light," and there was light. Gen. 1:3

Likewise, there is a lot going on in a brain even though it has a lot "covering/wrapping/veil" over it. We can't see the workings of the mind until a person acts in some way. But if a brain has a good womb/mother/mounde/world/protection it has a good chance of developing well and being capable of acting/doing well.

Here is a vulture headdress/crown which is a bejeweled kind of covering[lot] that is cast/wrapped[lut] over a woman's head and is a part of a woman's mundus "dress" and is very adorned[mundus] and elegant[mundus]. It is a lot. 

Ptolemaic Period, c. 100—1 B.C., Denera, Egypt, Egypt Museum

It is depicted upon the crowns of goddesses associated with the vulture, such as Mut and Nekhbet ["{she} of Nekheb", (the city later called after the Greek equivalent, Eileiythia, goddess of childbirth). Nekhbet was another early predynastic creator goddess symbolizing protection and motherhood], and the crown was later worn by royalty and priestesses. 

Nefertari Meritmut, wife of Ramses II, Ninteenth Dynasty, c. 1255 BCE, Valley of the Queens, Luxor

In a certain sense, the whole world and universe is contained in one head/mound inside one mind[from PIE root *men(1) "to think"] of one/each man, therefore we could say that the vulture crown is an image of divine order and protection of the created universe.

This image of the vulture as a divine protector is similar to the Christian portrayal of the Holy Spirit as an alighting dove.


Or of the action of God in the Old Testament related to a nesher "large bird of prey; griffon vultureeagle," in the Old Testament.
'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles'[nesherim] wings and brought you to myself. Ex. 19:4

Sometimes nesher is translated as "eagle" while at other times it is translated as "vulture"The Biblical Greek, aetos "eagle" is used to translate the Hebrew word, nesher, and so aetos is also translated to English at times as either "eagle" or "vulture."

The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle[aeto]Rev. 4:7 NIV

compare to Hebrew:

Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side of each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle[nesher]. Ez. 1:10 NIV

The Universal Waite Tarot
The four living creatures are portrayed in the corners of the card

We also see this ambiguity in translation through the origins of the name of the bright star Vega. Vega is taken from a shortening of the Arabic an-nasr al-wāqi' commonly translated as the "falling/descending/swooping eagle," however, the word nasr, similar to the Hebrew nesher, can also be translated as vulture.

The bright star Vega has a name that is well-known around the world, but whose meaning continues to be misunderstood. Typically presented as the "Diving Eagle", the original Arabic name for Vega — an-nasr al-wāqi' —  is best represented as the "Alighting Vulture". Together with its partner, Altair— the Flying Vulture—these two stars were well-known to Arabian astronomy as the Two Vultures, a star name that was in use by the early 6th century CE.  From Diving Eagle to Alighting Vulture: The Origin of Vega in Arabian Astronomy, Danielle Adams, American Astronomical Society, 2023 
Deneb[Dhanab al-Dajājah](in Cygnus, Latin "the swan"), Vega[an-nasr al-wāqi',"the Alighting Vulture"](in Lyra), and Altair[al-nasr al tāir, "the Flying Vulture"](in Aquilla, Latin "the eagle"), the three stars known as "The Summer Triangle."  

Interestingly, this Arabic word wāqi' "falling, alighting" also carries the meaning "happening," or "occurring," as we might use the word "falling" when describing the occurrance of night "falling" or an event "falling" or "landing" on a certain day of the week. Chapter 56 of the Quran is called, Al-Wāqi-a, translated as "The Inevitable," or "The Event." In this chapter, the events following Judgment Day and the manner of resurrection and the afterlife are discussed. 

When the Inevitable Event takes place, 
then no one can deny it has come.
It will debase some and elevate others.
When the earth will be violently shaken,
and the mountains will be crushed to pieces,
becoming scattered particles of dust. . .  56. Al Waqi'ah          

If the Vulture represents a place of protection like world and womb, then the Vulture "Falling/Happening/Event," would be similar in meaning to The World XXI which carries the meaning of "attainment," "completion," "perfection," etc., which we could say is a type of birthing(womb) event, and such an event(i.e., birth), when imminent is described as a "falling, lightening, dropping," and birth is a culminating event that is both an ending/death(of pregnancy) and a new beginning(birth), and such events are not completed without a certain amount of drama and/or peril. 

Interestingly enough, on the grand timescale of history, there was such an event that occurred around the epoch when "The Falling Vulture," i.e., Vega, was slowly but steadily "falling away" from its position as the pole, after ≈ 12,000 BC[after having first risen to this prominence/star status, overtaking the previous acting pole star, Deneb, (from Arabic) Dhanab ad-Dajājah "tail of the hen," in Cygnus. Any star given the title of "Pole Star" is just playing a role for a time due to their prominence and position near [either of the the paths; north or south] of the celestial pole over the course of time it takes to complete the 25771.57 year axial procession.

Rough sketch by Julie O.,  from The Changing Pole Star, Exploring Science
The path of the North Celestial Pole [in red], NEP[North Ecliptic Pole]. The NCP was near the star Vega[the Falling Vulture/Eagle]  12,000 BC, thereafter "falling" away until the begging of the Holocene epoch  9,700 BC at which time the NCP was then near ι Herculis in the constellation of Hercules  10,000 BC.

This was the period of the Younger Dryas, a sudden cold period lasting 1200 yrs., followed by a period of rapid warming, ending the last glacial period, i.e., the last ice age, which we could say was the worlds's "water breaking," that is, the melting glaciers released/broke the world's water. And civilization was born!

Geological evidence is revealing how conditions during the Younger Dryas remodeled our planet. It created weather so extreme that it also reduced human societies [*hunter gatherers] living on the planet at this time.

Importantly, it marks the prehistory period just before human civilization arises. The Younger Dryas Event and the Prehistoric Period Extinction, by The Human Origin Project,

Following this period, was the advent of sedentary cultures in the eastern Mediterranean region(as well as other regions throughout the world) that culminated in the rise of agriculture and the emergence of the first megalithic structures(such as the temple complex at Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia, c. 9600 BC, modern day Turkey, part of the Fertile Crescent, a major cradle of civilization), at the birth/dawn of civilization [and dawn is a birth event as well; when the sun(Ra) is born anew from the sky(Nut)].

How did these people view vultures?

Generally today, eagles are given a positive roll as symbols of strength and freedom, while vultures are given a negative roll as harbingers of death and decay, however in certain cultures, and at certain times in history, such as in ancient Egypt, vultures were regarded very positively {even though the word for mother, mut, was similar to the word for death, mut; so "death" maybe containing the meaning of something like returning to the mother/womb/tomb/mound}.

After the unification of ancient Egypt the vulture (patron of Upper Egypt, Nekhbet) and the fiery serpent (patron of Lower Egypt, Wadjet) were joined as nebty, literally meaning "The Two Ladies," and were often depicted together as protectors of a unified Egypt.

The Two Ladies, Mask of Tutankhamun - Egypt Museum

If they were protectors, then they were shields or coverers[from *wer-(4) "to cover"] which as shown above, certain people would wear as coverings for the head. And a protector is a keeper or a watcher over something which we could say is a Lord[from hlaf+weardfrom *wer-(3)"perceive, watch out for"]/Lady who is a lofty/airy(air/*awer) being, which is *wer-(1) "raised lifted" wer "man"[Old English], from Latin vir/viri which is said to be the origin of our English word World, reconstructed as a Proto-Germanic compound of wer "man" + ald "age," meaning literally "the age of man." However, this etymology of "world" seems to be the word taken in a more secular "worldly" sense than that of Le Monde. Yet, men(wer) are those who *men-(1) "think," and in thinking they *men-(2) "project" themselves mentally like mountains[from men-(2)],  motes or mounds and contain the whole mundus (sometimes even making mountains out of mole hills).

Mental painting by Ailis O'Reilly 2017, ailis_art 

The "world" is the "age of the thinker(i.e., men)" or we could say, the "age of the story teller." 

We are the music makers,
    And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
    And sitting by desolate streams; —
World-losers and world-forsakers,
    On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
    Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
    And out of a fabulous story
    We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
    Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
    Can trample a kingdom down . . . 

 Ode — stanzas 1 & 2, by Arthur O'Shaunghnessey, The Poetry Foundation

An ald "age" is a period of time or period of history, so we could say that the world(wer+ald) is a tale/telling or a spell(from Old English spell "story, saying, tale; history, narrative, fable; discourse, command") of wer "man." Or is it a spell put over man? Or perhaps is it both at the same time? Our thoughts create our reality both individually and collectively and we inherit or are born into a world(story) of sin(i.e., the esse "being"ness or essentia "beingness" we experience which involves the experience of both good and evil). The world is our reality(realis) or the res "things" that are or have come to life through our thought. The spell is cast[lut] which creates a casting or veil[lot]. But perhaps we could call this state of things[i.e., the world of sin and death] a false mother/world/matrix. This story/world of sin and death is not our true mother, just like the woman in the Bible who did not protect 🤲 the living baby was not his mother.

The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, "Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don't kill him!" But the other said, "Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two! Then the king gave his ruling: "Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother." 1 Kings 3:25-26

In reality, the world, our (true) mother, who covers us(wombs us), is a story that protects us. The world gives us a place in the vastness of eternity(which is Nu-thing/Nun). We need to have a point. . . and point of origin. The point 👉, the YOU ARE HERE on the map, is our anchor ⚓︎, and is life giving, an ankh-er ☥. Nothing comes from nothing, so we are the newthing(creation) from the knowthing 🧠 that came out of the Nuthing or Nun. Our world gives us space ✨ to exist, to grow, to evolve, to become more. . . As the world turns. Which brings us back again to The Fool

And a one, a two, a one, two, three, four!

Shaddowscapes Tarot, by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

The Fool

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 childrenMitigate, 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 having the meaning "mother," and also was used for nrt "vulture." Vultures were thought of as being good and protective mothers to their young, i.e. nurturing (nrt-ing), 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 mutmwt "mother" nrt "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 necessarily help impressions of the goddess Mut, over the course of the ages, that mwt also was used in ancient Egyptian for the word "to die" and "death"(as death is a returning to the mother), and also, 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).  

The Fool 0, Shaddowscapes Tarot, artwork Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
 Some curious resemblances to Mut (white gown with red ties, not a bird crown, but birds near her crown)

Spolia Tarot, Artwork by Jen May
Her dress is perhaps a bit mottled, more than motley


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

That IS crazy! 
Crazy Paper, "The Fool," by Julie O. /chthonickore


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