The Tarot of the Traveller: The Joker

Tarot

Veeno’s Tarot reading: New worlds are opening up in you. Impulses out of the blue turn you on to set off into unknown realms. Take your steps with vigilance.

Nicholas Gyzis (1842-1901) Fortune Teller with cards
Nicholas Gyzis (1842-1901) – Fortune Teller with cards

The Tarot of the Traveller is a project by Veeno. She has deepened her understanding of reading Tarot cards through many years. Regularly, she shares her insights into one card of a deck with traditional playing cards, as it was allegedly used by the Romani. In this process, she lets her creativity fly, using contemporary Mandala creations and stories. Be part of this wonderful process!

Today, we look at the last card in Veeno’s Tarot Project:

The Joker

THE GREAT ADVENTURE
New worlds are opening up in you.
Impulses out of the blue turn you on to set off into unknown realms.
With delight you dive into the lush green of life.
Go ahead courageously!
Trust your intuition.
Take your steps with vigilance.

As an ambassador for freedom, you carry the quality of a new man out to others.

Let yourself be inspired by the following tale:

Mojud: The man with the inexplicable life

There was once a man named Mojud.
He lived in a town where he had obtained a post
as a small official,
and it seemed likely that he would end his days
as Inspector of Weights and Measures.
One day when he was walking through the gardens
of an ancient building near his home,
Khidr, the mysterious guide of the Sufis, appeared to him,
dressed in shimmering green.
Khidr said, “Man of bright prospects!
Leave your work
and meet me at the riverside in three days’ time.”
Then he disappeared.

Mojud went to his superior in trepidation
and said that he had to leave.
Everyone in the town soon heard of this and they said,
“Poor Mojud! He has gone mad.”
But, as there were many candidates for his job,
they soon forgot him.

On the appointed day, Mojud met Khidr,
who said to him,
“Tear your clothes and throw yourself into the stream.
Perhaps someone will save you.”

Mojud did so,
even though he wondered if he were mad.

Since he could swim, he did not drown,
but drifted a long way
before a fisherman hauled him into his boat, saying,
“Foolish man! The current is strong.
What are you trying to do?”
Mojud said, “I don’t really know.”

“You are mad,” said the fisherman,
“but I will take you into my reed hut by the river yonder,
and we shall see what can be done for you.”

When he discovered that Mojud was well-spoken,
he learned from him how to read and write.
In exchange, Mojud was given food
and helped the fisherman with his work.
After a few months, Khidr again appeared,
this time at the foot of Mojud’s bed, and said,
“Get up now and leave this fisherman.
You will be provided for.”

Mojud immediately quit the hut, dressed as a fisherman,
and wandered about until he came to a highway.
As dawn was breaking he saw a farmer on a donkey
on his way to market.
“Do you seek work?” asked the farmer, “because I need a
man to help me bring back some purchases.”

Mojud followed him.
He worked for the farmer for nearly two years,
by which time he had learned a great deal about agriculture
but little else.

One afternoon when he was baling wool,
Khidr appeared to him and said,
“Leave that work,
walk to the city of Mosul,
and use your savings to become a skin merchant.”

Mojud obeyed.

In Mosul he became known as a skin merchant,
never seeing Khidr while he plied his trade for three years.
He had saved quite a large sum of money,
and was thinking of buying a house,
when Khidr appeared and said,
“Give me your money,
walk out of this town as far as the distant Samarkand,
and work for a grocer there.”

Mojud did so.

Presently he began to show undoubted sings
of illumination.
He healed the sick,
served his fellow man in the shop during his spare time,
and his knowledge of the mysteries became deeper and deeper.

Clerics, philosophers and others
visited him and asked,

“Under whom did you study?”
“It is difficult to say,” said Mojud.

His disciples asked, “How did you start your career?”
He said, “As a small official.”

“And you gave it up to devote yourself to self-mortification?”
“No, I just gave it up.”

They did not understand him.
People approached him to write the story of his life.

“What have you been in your life?” they asked.

“I jumped in a river,
became a fisherman,
then walked out of his reed hut in the middle of the night.
After that, I became a farmhand.
While I was baling wool, I changed and went to Mosul,
where I became a skin merchant.
I saved some money there, but gave it away.
Then I walked to Samarkand where I worked for a grocer.
And this is where I am now.”

“But this inexplicable behavior throws no light
upon your strange gifts and wonderful examples,”
said the biographers.

“That is so,” said Mojud.

So the biographers constructed for Mojud
a wonderful and exciting story:
because all saints must have their story,
and the story must be
in accordance with the appetite of the listener,
not with the realities of life.

And nobody is allowed to speak of Khidr directly.
That is why this story is not true.
It is a representation of a life.
This is the real life
of one of the greatest Sufis.

You can find this famous story with Osho’s comments on Osho News under ‘Mojud: The Man with the Inexplicable Life’

The Joker: Ramblings Through Paradise. Mandala by Veeno.
The Joker: Ramblings Through Paradise. Mandala by Veeno.

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Veeno

Veeno lives in Switzerland. She has been a sannyasin since 1984 and her inspiring creativity finds its way into many forms in her life. travellertarot.comveenomandala.com

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