My Dove, my simple one.

In the 19th century Eliphas Levi produced a correspondence based upon ascending order, but starting with Alef – Bateleur and placing the Fool in 21st position to correspond to the letter Shin. This has become the mainstream of the ‘Continental’ system. Other schools of thought placed the Fool to last place and to the letter Tau and this has become increasing popular, boosted especially in the last decade through the work of Mark Filipas.

8) The symbols for the element air on various versions of the Fool and the attribution of the letter Alef to air.

Symbols to be found on the fool cards of various decks include such symbols that are related to the concept of air as toy windmills, balloons, a bird and the butterfly [a symbol of both air and the soul], which is particularly common on Italian decks [many of which also actually number it zero]. The word zero itself derives from the arabix sifr, transliterated into Latin zephyr or zephyrus, the name of the "west wind" and thus also became associated with 'air'. 

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=fool

Fool: 1275, from O.Fr. fol "madman, insane person," also an adj. meaning "mad, insane," from L. follis "bellows, leather bag," in V.L. used with a sense of "windbag, empty-headed person"... Cf. also Skt. vatula- "insane," lit. "windy, inflated with wind."

…

7) Wherever you place the Fool the number sequence is going to be displaced, by placing it with Alef the displacement is consistent throughout.

"The Italians used to say colloquially, 'Esser come Il Matto nel tarocchi' (to be like the tarot Fool) - all over the place, at home everywhere and nowhere." [Huson, p.76]


7a) The 'displacement' of n+1 is itself indicative of a dynamic process, representing the 'steps' of the Fool on his journey.

As Grand Orient, Waite emphasised the Fool card as being outside of the series of trumps, there being 21 trumps plus the Fool. One may consider him at the beginning of the series, or at the end or within it at a point unfolding in his journey, "a prince from another world on his travels through this one."

A stranger in a strange land, why else should the dog attack him? So who is this exile but a figure of the soul, a pilgrim of love, who as a child of poverty will never be satisfied with anything in this world, for its love is an insatiable appetite that can only be satisfied in the eternal and infinite; thus the pilgrims journey is ultimately a return to the One from whence he comes.

The letter Alef is not only the number One, but also a Thousand, thus encompassing the beginning and end of the units, tens and hundreds; and is present in all that unfolds in between. It is both part and whole, minimum and maximum, the seed and the tree, the source and completion, the unfolding of all number enfolded within it.

The letters of the name ALPh itself, Alef [1], Lamed [30] and Pe [80] as numbers added together equal 111; one hundred, one ten and one unit. That is the three levels of number that it itself, as meaning both one and one thousand, encompasses. Three levels, which symbolise the three worlds and the soul, composed of three aspects; that derives from and shall ultimately return to haShem.

The letter Alef is said to be composed of two letter Yods [10] with a letter Vau [6] in between. Added together these equal 26, which is the same value as that of haShem, YHVH [10+5+6+5]. In kabbalistic texts you will see the letters of the name YHVH inscribed within the letter Alef to emphasise this connection [a Yod in the upper arm, two Heh at each end of the Vau stroke, and a Vau in the lower arm].

At the beginning of its [the soul's] journey it is lost and without memory, having drunk from the waters of forgetfulness. Its journey is not so much one of discovery, as recollection; remembrance of haShem, whose name is imprinted upon it. Considered as a journey, one way of looking at the formula n+1 as representing steps on the Fool's [soul’s] pilgrimage through this world [the dog maybe as time in the flesh, that keeps moving him forward, and will ultimately devour him].

7b)} Numerical sayings in the bible have the format of creating parallels with number N in first line and N+1 in second, thus there is a precedent in Biblical and Hebrew tradition [common in fact to all Canaanite literature].

For example proverbs 30:15, "three things are insatiable, four never say enough" which then goes on to list four things that are insatiable and never say enough. Of such numerical saying the commentary to the tanack translation in the Hebrew Study Bible says:

"When two numbers are mentioned in parallel, the second number is usually what is really meant. Sometimes the numbered items are followed by a supernumerary item, which represents the extreme or surprising case. Numerical sayings are common in the bible and other Canaanite literature."

Conversations about number differences are also frequent in Kabbalistic literature such as the Bahir and the Zohar [and is also to be found in Christian literature too, in the number symbolism of the relation between the 8th day and the world to come and the 7th day the Sabbath for example].

7c) If it is believed there is a 'mystical' meaning to the sequence of cards then apparent contradiction shouldn't be surprising, in fact is to be expected, as the use of paradox is common to all mystical traditions seeking to express the union of opposites in the eternal.

References:
"The Jewish Study Bible"  (Oxford University Press, 1985)

Huson, P. Mystical Origins of the Tarot. (Destiny, 2004)

The first image is detail of Ninurta/Orion standing next to a Lion [sacred animal of Innana and symbol of Sirius], 2nd image the complete picture from the ancient Sumerian Seal of Adda .3rd is of Ninurta enthroned with image of double headed eagle, 4th Orion and Canis Major detail from cylinder seal. Further details at end.

6) Alef, which leads the letters, is attributed to the constellation Orion [and also the fixed star Aldebaran, the eye of the bull in the constellation of Taurus], which leads the starry hosts and is called in Hebrew KSYL, which in plural form also means 'constellations' in general, but in singular 'fool'. The root also means fool, loins, flank, hope, confidence.

The words in bold below are all translations of the root KSL [hope,flank, confidence, folly, loins]:
Job 8:14 Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web.
Job 15:27 Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.
Job 31:24 If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;


Ps 38:7 For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
Ps 49:13 This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
Ps 78:7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:


Pr 3:26 For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.

Those in bold below of KSYL [folly, orion, constellation]:
Ec 7:25 I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:

Isa 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

Am 5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:

Job 9:9 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

Orion is one of the oldest known constellations. The bands of Orion refer to the three apparently equally spaced stars that form the belt of  Orion, an easily identifiable locational aid, followed North they lead the eye to Aldebaran, South to Sirius, two bright stars of calendrical and navigational importance as directional and seasonal markers. Above to the right is the constellation of Taurus, to the left, Gemini.

The constellation was thought of as a cosmic giant "His arms extended measure half the skies:
His stride no less." Another name for his belt [and for the central star in particular] was 'the string of pearls'. Perhaps we may see reference to this in the giant stature and string of balls in the pseudo “CHARLES VI” OR “GRINGONNEUR” deck. 

Kesil has also the meaning of arrogance, and in relation to Orion has particular relevance in relation to these three stars as they are identified in Hebrew tradition with Nimrod, and the band of stars represent the bonds with which God bound him to heaven for his arrogance. Perhaps there is some unknown relevance to the seat of the TdM fools pants being torn, revealing his buttocks, as with the Nimrod figure of the Sola Busca?

In Egyptian star lore Orion is the abode of the soul of mummified Osiris, God of the underworld and of the dead. Among his symbols were two red feathers worn in his white atef crown, to which we might see a reference in the red feather in the hat of the Waite/Smith fool card [feathers are also referenced in C.De Gebelin, and the Bolognese and Visconti-Sforza decks]. In regards to the myth of Osiris and his dismembered penis, the stars of Orion's sword were also known as Orion's penis, for obvious reasons. The hebrew letter aleph, made of a vau and two yuds, is also said to be a phallus and two testes.

The Sola Busca Matto too has the feathers in his hair, a string with three balls attached to his waist, but also the black bird on its shoulder may allude to a connection with Orion: "Do you know that the Hare, Canis Major and Canis Minor have forty three stars in the Southern part of the heaven, and are so rewarded for only two or three trivial reasons not less unimportant than the reason that causes the Hydra, the Saucer, and the Raven to be next to Orion and to recieve forty-one stars to commemurate the occasion when the gods sent the Raven to obtain some drinking water?" [Bruno, 1584]

Due to having the gift of 'walking on water' bestowed upon him by his father Neptune, in the renaissance Orion was used as an allegory of Christ, and it was through such an allegorical use that Giordan Bruno was accused by the inquisition of attacking the divinity of Christ in his The expulsion of the triumphant beast. "This is because he [Orion] knows how to perform miracles, and, as Neptune knows, can walk over the waves of the sea without sinking, without wetting his feet, and with this, consequently, will be able to perform many other fine acts of kindness. Let us send him among men, and let us see to it that he give them to understand all that I want and like them to understand: that white is black, that the human intellect, through which they seem to see best, is blindness, and that that which according to reason seems excellent, good and very good, is vile, criminal and extremely bad. I want them to understand that Nature is a whorish prostitute, that natural law is ribaldry, that Nature and Divinity cannot concur in one and the same good end, and that the justice of one is not subordinate to the justice of the other, but that they [Nature and Divinity] are contraries, as are shadows and light...

"I want him to go down to earth; and I shall command that he lose all power of performing bagatelles, impostures, acts of cunning, kind actions, and other miracles that are of no worth, because I do not want him together with the other to be in a position to destroy whatever excellence and dignity are found and exist in things necessary to the commonwealth of the world. I see how easy it is for it to be deceived, and consequently inclined towards acts of madness and prone to every corruption and indignity. I do not however, however, want out reputation to depend upon the discretion of him or similar to him. For if a king be mad who gives so much power and authority to one of his captains and generous leaders to make him superior to himself...how much more senseless and deserving of a disciplinarian and tutor will he be if he should put or leave in the same authority an abject, vile and ignorant man, by whom everything will be depreciated, slighted, confused and thrown into disorder, ignorance being placed by the latter where knowledge is customary, nobility where there is contempt, and villainy where there is reputation!" [Bruno]

In relation to star lore we may also note that Aldebaran is one of the four fixed stars known as the Guardians of Heaven, the Four Watchers, Royal Stars or Four Archangels, the other three being:

Regulus - in the constellation Leo [currently at end of tropical sign Leo]

Antares - in the constellation Scorpio [currently 'in' tropical sign Sagittarius]

Fomalhaut - in the constellation Pisces Austrinus, the 'Southern Fish', [currently 'in' tropical sign Pisces]

Their astronomical positions form a cross in relation to each other; so each rises after the other at approximately 6 hour intervals. And "Persian astrologers used them, instead of cardinal points, to mark the four quarters of the heavens as early as 3000 BC." ['Astrology', ed. Kim Farrel, Starfire 2002].

Aldebaran was the Watcher of the East,
Antares was the Watcher of the West,
Fomalhaut was the Watcher of the South and,
"Regulus was one of the four stars of the Persian monarchy when, as Watcher of the North, it marked the Summer Solstice." [Farrel, 2002].

We have had available the research of Daana Mindon [aka: Diane O'Donovan] for over 10 or so years ago now, which has shown through a study of medieval atlases and navigation maps, that the suit signs are connected with the Star Lore of the Persians as emblems of the directions:

sticks - east
gold discs - south
swords - north
whips/cups -west

These Four Guardians or Watchers were also called the archangel stars. In kabbalistic tradition the four corners of the protective tau : : represents the 'good impulse' by which man shall inherit the world to come. The 'good impulse' that hovers overthe pious is represented by four archangels that descend with the soul at birth and accompany the pious:

"Before all this, there are four angels that descend with the soul of the pious....One of these angels is Michael, in remembrance of Abraham; one Gabriel, in remembrance of Isaac; one Uriel, in remembrance of Jacob; and one Raphael, in remembrance of Adam; and the good impulse hovers over him...Now all men are formed of four elements, but on the order in which these elements are found - that is, the order of the planets with which each person is connected-depends the order of the angels who accompany him..."

"...Thus, if the ruling planet be the Lion,Michael will lead, and be followed by Gabriel, then Rapheal and then Uriel. If, however, his planet is the Ox, first comes Gabriel, then Michael, then Uriel, then Raphael. If the Eagle be the planet by which he is influenced, Uriel will be first, then Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. And should the planet be Man, then will Raphael lead, with Michael, Gabriel and Uriel coming after in that order." [Zohar, Bo (exodus) 42a, c.13th century]

Note in the seal of adda:

Enki with two flowing rivers from his shoulders, reminiscent of the sign for aquarius, in whom we may see the image of Man: below him is the Bull: from Enki's arm flies the thunderbird or  Eagle: and next to Ninurta is the Lion.

Expanation of the Royal Cylinder Seal [image 1 and 2 above], notes and references:

5) The `fool' ` culturally and linguistically is connected with 'nothingness', criminals were branded with the 'theta' like symbol used to denote zero on the abacas [the zero is marked on some 13th century variations of the Gerbert style of abacus], this marked them as good for nothing or worthless fellows; in 13th century Paris a worthless fellow or good for nothing was called a 'cifre en algorisme, that is, an 'arithmetical nothing.' [Ifrah]. The letter Alef is attributed to Ayin Kadmon, the primal nothing [Keter].

"This Sphere [the first sephira, Kether] is also called in the Torah AYN [not]." [R. Joseph Gikatilla "The Gates of Light"]

"The first Sefirah is nothingness, zero, and the second [Chokmah] is the manifestation of the primordial point and in the Zohar* is called reshit, meaning beginning." [Scholem, G. "Kabbalah"]

*For example Zohar II, 239a {notes/comments by Tishby follow}:

"En-Sof cannot be known, and does not produce end or beginning like the primal Ayin (nothing), which does bring forth beginning and end. {n4} What is beginning? The supernal point {n5}, which is the beginning of all, concealed and resting within thought, and producing end {n7} that is called "The end of the matter".

Tishby's comments on above passage:
n4 - The concealed essence of En-Sof does not reveal itself in the Sefiroth as "beginning" or "end". The Sefiroth are the extension of Keter, which is also called 'Ayin Kadmon' (primal nothing). This is also beyond the boundary of perception, but the perceptible Sefiroth have emanated from it.
n5 - Chokmah, the beginning of revelation.
n7 - Malkuth, which marks the final stage in the structure of the sefirotic world." [Vol. I p.257 of "The Wisdom of the Zohar" Lachower, F. and Tishby, I. trns David Goldstein.]

"The primary start or wrench in which the introspective God is externalised and the light that shines inwardly made visible, this revolution of perspective, transform En-Sof, the inexpressible fullness, into nothingness. It is this mystical nothingness from which all the other stages of God's gradual unfolding in the Sefiroth emanate and which the Kabbalists call the highest Sefirah, or the supreme 'crown' of divinity. To use another metaphor, it is the abyss
which becomes visible in the gaps of existence. Some Kabbalists who have developed this idea, for example Rabbi Joseph ben Shalom of Barcelona [1300], maintain than in every transformation of reality, in every change of form, or every time the status of a thing is altered, the abyss of nothingness is crossed and for a fleeting mystical moment
becomes visible...The difficult task of describing theemergence of the other Sefiroth from the womb of the first - the Nothing - is managed with the aid of copious metaphors." [Scholem, G. "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism"]

As Ain [Nothingness] corresponds to Kether so Ani [meaning 'I', the self] corresponds to Malkuth, this evolution from Nothingness to Self corresponds to the principle of creation ex nihilio, "from Nothingness he created Existence" [SY]. And this may be seen as the unfolding of the 26 [YHVH] enfolded in the Alef along the middle pillar [also 26]. We may consider here perhaps the addendum of Socrates [the ignorant Fool] to the dictum 'Know Thyself', that the first step was to realise that you 'Know Nothing'. To which we might compare the teaching of Rabbi Nachman that ‘the goal of wisdom and knowledge is to realise one’s lack of knowledge and understanding’ (Siccoth HaRan 3).

The association of the unnumbered Fool card with 'nothingness' and zero is not a Golden Dawn innovation. The cards illustrated in de Gebelin has the card numbered zero; indicating his model was perhaps an Italian deck [zero appears to be most common on the Italian decks] or a Swiss such as the Schar [c.1750]. Etteilla numbers the Fool both 0 and 78. Both Christian and Levi associate the Fool with nothingness and zero. One of the two cards illustrating the Fool in the Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus is numbered zero. Though Wirth follows Levi in placing the letter Shin on his Fool, he does not consider it as 21, but as 22/0, stating it is both beginning and end, as in a circle.

In traditional Jewish Kabbalah, Beit is usually considered ‘first’. Alef is connected with Kether and Ain [nothing]. In the legend of the letters each of the letters came to haShem asking to be first in creation, from Tau to Alef, each in turn haShem rejected until Beit; Beit was first in creation. Alef never got a look in, Alef was the silence before haShem; the disregarded stone [letters are called 'stones' in kabbalistic tradition].

5a) Ain also means 'buttock shaped' thus relating to the image of the Fool which his buttocks revealed.

References:

Gikatilla, J. Translated by Avi Weinstein.  The Gates of Light. (HarperCollins, 1994)

Ifrah, Georges. The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the invention of the Computer. (Wiley, 2000)

Jastrow, M. Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature. (Judaica Press, 1996)

Lachower, F. & Tishby, I. Translated by  David Goldstein. The Wisdom of the Zohar. (Litman, 2002)

Scholem, G. Kabbalah. (Mereidian, 1978)

4) Then there is the factor of Alef being a 'silent' letter and the general connection made in several cultures and languages between silence - nothingness and the Fool [being empty headed, also as speech signifies complexity and intelligence so silence its opposite]. For example in English the word 'dumb' means both mute and ignorant, foolish and this general drift is common in other languages too. For example a Mutus Liber, a book of pictures or 'silent book' was also called a ‘Liber Idiotarium' a fools book. In Hebrew also we have AYLM meaning ‘dumb’ as in mute with the same root as ALM meaning ‘dumb’ as in foolish, ignorant In English too there is an old word 'nowt' still used in Northern dialect which derives from old Norse, it means 'nought', 'Fool' and 'ox'.

As speech is considered a sign of intelligence so being 'speechless' was considered a sign of a lack of intelligence [as in 'dumb' - foolish]. A Mutus Liber is a book in pictures, without words, and on Italian web sites you will often see the Tarot described as 'Mutus Liber Tarocchi'. The goddess 'Mutus' was struck dumb by Jupiter for spilling the beans on one of his liaisons, one of her other names is MANIA. It is connected to the concepts of Fool, Madman and Silence. We have also the concept of a 'mute' [silent] letter.

Some notes from Etymological dictionary:

MUTA id+ | CHANGE | sug> MUTATION
^u opp is IMMUTABLE
lat MUTIS for SILENCE
MUTUS MUTE
maxim> NON MOTTUM FACERE
KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT
fr MOT WORD
myth> ROMAN HASHEMDESS FOR SILENCE
DAUGHTER OF THE RIVER HASHEM ALMO
DEPRIVED OF HER TONGUE BY JUPITER TO
BE VOICELESS BECAUSE SHE BETRAYED HIS LOVE
FOR THE NYMPH JUTURNA
MERCURY FELL IN LOVE WITH MUTA AND SAVED HER
MUTA WAS ALSO KNOWN AS MANIA or MANES or
HASHEMDESS OF THE DEAD
MUTA THE DUMB or see> FOOL IGNORANCE
MUTA in TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY WAS RELATED TO
DARK FATE THE INCESTUOUS PRODUCT OF
CHAOS and NOXA or NIX or NIGHT
~ MUTE SPEECHLESS note drift toward DUMB
IDIOTIC MORONIC
med> SPEECH IS A MAJOR SIGN OF
MENTAL COMPETENCE
MOTOR COORDINATION needed to
ARTICULATE SPEECH which is VERY COMPLEX
as noted in MUTATED PRONUNCIATION

--Eng. MAD, "angry, insane" : OE. GEMAED (pre-1000), which changes to
ME. MEDDE / MADDE (circa 1300). Akin to OS. GIMED, "foolish" and
Goth. GAMAITHS, "crippled". OED mentions theoretical root *GAMAIDO-
and pre-Teutonic *MOITO- :Indogermanic root *MEI-, "to change". OED
also mentions the related AMAD (1200) : OE., GEMAEDAN, "to madden",
akin to the idea of "bruised, crazed, to maim".
: the further one goes back in time from about 1200-1300, the less
that words resemble Eng. MAD in spelling or meaning. After about 1200-
1300, definitions occur which further resemble Skt. MAD, "rejoice,
exhilarate, intoxicate", which has such verb forms as AMA'DISHUH and AMATTA. It is akin to Skt. MATTA, "excited, intoxicated, angry, mad, insane" (Cf. Hindi-Urdu MATT, mad; MATTA, intoxicated woman; It. MATTA, crazy woman; akin to MATTO, "insane").

3) As the Fool is described as encompassing the beginning and end of the sequence [frequently seen as divided into three levels], so Alef as both 1 and 1000 encompasses the three levels of units, tens and hundreds.