LE MAT (l'excuse), known as The Fool of the Tarot, is he the Joker of the Playing cards?

Question

...and the "Shah Mat" of the Chess game ?

Answer 1

yes, im brian bruce a certified tarot master. ive been studying tarot a long time and there are many many things from tarot that moved over to the playing cards.
first the ace itself. why not one? in tarot the ace is a card of power because it holds the entire story of an element in its one card. for instance the ace of hearts is the whole story of emotions. it envelops the entire meaning of all the cards in the suit and this is one reason why it can be a low 1 card or the whole suit or the high over the king card.
the fool, is the person represented in all of tarot, that is why the joker is optional or a wild card. because the person makes the choice of joining into a scenario. and yes it is from the jester look because of the word fool. not the juggler though cuz that is the magicians card.
the jack was the knight or prince of the tarot in playing cards you only have the 3 faces in tarot there are 4. but playing cards colors the 2 black and the 2 red are the split of male and female in tarot. the qualities inherent in water (cups in tarot hearts in play cards) is female so its red. the qualities of earth(pentacles or coins in tarot, diamonds in play) are also female and therefor red. where as qualities of air (swords in tarot, spades in play) is male and therefor black as well as fire (wands in tarot, clubs in play) if you notice the energy of water and earth travel down in the force of gravity. that means they are passive and allow outside forces to change it. air and fire travel up in the force of gravity and are therefor active or independant to make affects on the world. and that qualifys them as male. hope all this is informing you. hope this helps
mournyngwolf
solitary practitioner of wicca and wizardry

Answer 2

Yes, he is. Modern playing cards are descended from tarot cards, which is why they both have four suits, 13 cards in each suit - the playing cards simply removed the Major Arcana from their deck. The Fool/Joker was retained for those games where a wild card would be needed.

The Chess game I'm not sure about - the chess I'm familiar with is a board game, not a card game, and has no equivalent of the Fool... although a few of the chess games I've played, the rook (tower) has definitely caused disaster!

Answer 3

Modern playing cards descend from the same source modern tarot cards do. Swords became spades, staves became clubs, cups became hearts and pentacles became diamonds. The Joker is most likely the Fool. Never heard of "Shah Mat" in chess. Only Fool in chess I know of is Fools Mate, a four turn win.

Answer 4

Many of the Tarot publishers in the English speaking countries should share at least some of the blame. Tarot cards are only sold in such countries for divination uses. Even in reproductions of pre-18th century Tarot decks, no actual game rules are given in the Little White Books. As a result, most of us living in English speaking countries have no other context to view these cards. Not only do many Tarot publishers neglect the role of Tarot cards in gaming but they often falsify the history of those cards to where many still believe that divination is the original or correct use of the cards.

Answer 5

No, it has a higher value then asked.It represents the utmost potential and skills of fully integrated person,fully functioning human being.Black represents intellectual part of the person, red emotional parts of person.Both parts operate simultaneously.It is the highest achievement for humans on the Earth.Such persons (which realised their completeness) are natural leaders of the World.
Although registered as different characters (due to different temper) the following persons belong to the Joker level: Till Ullenspiegel,Nasreddin Hodscha, Jan Cox in USA and many,many other better or less known local legends and heroes all over the world.

Answer 6

Yes

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Answer 7

Don't understand the chess reference - but the Joker would correspond roughly with the Fool - although many packs contain 2 Jokers just as swords corresponds with spades, diamonds with money etc