In the Tarot de Marseille system, the Tarot de Nicolas Conver plays a crucial role because it is the only deck inherited by later publishers. The standard 1930 version, also known as the Ancien Tarot de Marseille, is one of the important editions analyzed in fundamental and widely used books.
The card **Le Mat (The Fool)** is unnumbered or sometimes referred to as card number Zero. The significance of the assigned number has two aspects:
1. **Number Zero**: In both Eastern and Western cultures, this number symbolizes emptiness, beginnings, and complete void. Just like the name of the card – Le Mat – implies the initiation of the spiritual path. The image of a young man wearing a hat without a brim, a red coat, blue trousers, and red shoes, carrying a yellow staff, represents the pursuit of knowledge, the ceaseless search for truth, and continuous progress.
2. **Number Twenty-Two**: If we place this card after card XXI (Le Monde – The World), considering it as card number twenty-two, then according to the interpretation of the number twenty-two preceding it. This number follows the perfection of number twenty-one, signifying that after completing a perfect cycle, everything returns to humility, self-awareness, and begins a new, more progressive cycle.
**Le Mat (The Fool)** embodies the journey toward knowledge, the unwavering quest for truth along an adventurous path. The yellow staff in hand serves as the pilgrim's companion, guiding them on their spiritual exploration.
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https://www.tarothuyenbi.info/2012/03/phan-tich-phien-ban-paul-marteau-1930.html
