tarotfool

This is also true of the journey one takes with the Tarot. Everything is possible. As with all the cards in a Tarot deck, the Fool is all I have described and so very much more. The Fool can be a circumstance, an influence or a person. It can represent where you are, who you are or what you are doing or going to do. It can characterize a faction of our personality or the part of the character of someone else. Does that mean the Tarot is poking fun as you and telling you that you are an idiot? Not necessarily, although if you are doing idiotic things in our life, it very well could be telling you exactly that! Depending upon its placement in a spread, it can easily answer who someone is or where they are.

One way to think of the Fool's significance in the tarot is to consider it to represent a journey of a personality through life's experiences. As the Fool depicts, we all start out in life very young and throughout our existence on tis plane we metamorphize into the person we are when we die. someone once said, "You are born and you die. What you do in between those two things is what is really important." And it is. Through our experiences, our journey through life, we seek, learn and grow, becoming many, many aspects of ourselves as we encounter diferent things and people. So, too does the Fool. Look at the other cards in the Major Arcana. Here he is, starting out young, fresh and new. Then, he becomes each of the otehr 21 cards in the Major Aracana, absolrbing their lessons and adding their experiences to his repertoire until he finally achieves cosmic consciousness as The World XXI.

Why is the Fool usually dressed as a Jester? That is a question many of my Tarot students have asked me over the years. I have spent a great deal of time pondering this question. I believe it is because many times the Court Jester was the wisest man in the kingdom. He was certainly one of the few who could get by with familiarities and sallies leveled at the royal family. His jests were amusing and often critical, but the jester could get by with anything because he said it as a joke with a smile on his face. This hardly makes him crazy. More truthfully, it makes him crazy like a fox. Afterall, it takes a lot of intelligence to play an idiot! The Court Jester knew that when you make people laugh, you can tell them almost anything and they will accept it. A spoonful of suger to help the medicine go down. If this is the only lesson we learn from this first card in the Tarot deck, we have still learned a great deal. If you apply the Fool to the Kabbalah, he is the first and final path on the Tree of Life. Here is the beginning and the end. As Ellen Cannon Reed says in her book which accompanies the Witches Tarot based on the Kabbalah, "This is the path that represents both our starting point and our goal: reunion with our Source." The Fool is the journey. Such is the way the journey begins with the Tarot.

Reversed Meaning: Of the many meanings this configuration can bring to a spread, one is that something has been completed. This could be a task, a cycle of life or anything else which took time, effort and dedication. These can include such things as a marriage, career, particular job, aspect of life such as an illness conquered, education, etc. Now that this has been completed, the Fool has earned the right to take a break and then go ahead with the next task or goal to achieve. It can also reflect that the light-heartedness and inhereent joy of life present in the upright position is absent here. Instead, there is a feeling of carelessness. Literally, this foolish one could "care less" about anything or anyone but themselves and their needs or desires of the moment. This is the ultimate vanity, but it is especially ill-placed here because the Fool is so self-centered that he uses very poor judgment, if he attempts to use judgment at all, which is doubtful. Absolutely nothing exists but his wants and desires. Nothing or no one else is important and, of course, real injury can come from this attitude. The result of this lack of self-control means the Fool has no influence over his environment or those around him. Inherent in this aspect is also a comoplete unwillingness to learn and change, much as a two-year-old refuses to learn how to behave and pitches a fit when we impose discipline on him. Here, the brigh young, new graduate deteriorates into the brat.

The first card in the Major Arcana is number 0 and, in most decks, it is called the Fool. The picture on the card usually depicts some variatioin of a young person richly dressed as a Court Jester in colorful silks, carrying a sack over their back walking through a lush countryside with a small dog at their heels. Manay decks show him walking through a mountainous area or on top of a mountainside. Some decks show the Fool so entranced with the beautiful scenery that he is about to walk off the side of a cliff into oblivion.

Regardless, all the decks I have seen of the Fool show him to be truly joyful, exhibiting sincere joi de vivre (the joy of life). And why shouldn't he be happy? The Fool symbolizes the beginning of the journey. He is unrestricted in every way and truly free in every sense of the word. The world is spread at his feet like a magic carpet. This really is the first day of the rest of his life. He knows it. He has anticipated it. And he is determined to succeed. Nothing is impossible. He can do or be anything. To me, this card is the Commencement Card. Like the fool, young people graduating from school feel happy, exuberant and full of anticipation. They believe they can do and be anything, go anywhere and be anyone. They are right. Just like the Fool, the world is their oyster.

Learn to read the Tarot

This is the first of 72 cards that we will be featuring on this site. Take the time this month to become acquainted with The Fool. Next month we will feature the next card in the Major Arcana. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at cws@charlotteswebstore.com

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