Many people make the mistake of looking at tarot cards – particularly the Major Arcana – through the lens of modern usage and popular concepts. These people end up taking the cards at name-value, i.e, they assign interpretations to the card based on what they understand of the name.
Take, for instance, the Fool.
Many people will try to interpret this card based on that name alone, and say that the card represents ignorance or buffoonery. Fortunately, tarot cards go a lot deeper than that.
First off, check out the number of the Fool: Zero. The zero essentially means that the Fool stands outside the numbered order of things. He fits just as comfortably in the beginning, as the middle, as the end. It is no surprise, therefore, that the Fool eventually evolved into the Joker of modern card decks.
Incidentally, in the really old tarot decks, the fool was called the madman. And in those times, madmen were often considered to have been touched by gods and therefore had access to wisdom that was unavailable to those within the ordered – or numbered – realities of rationality.
Next, consider the imagery of the card. Of course, the images change with every deck – I use the Waite-Smith deck – but since we’re dealing with archetypes, the variations lie mainly in the presentation; the symbology remains intact.
So, first notice the white–hot sun. This represents wisdom – the kind of irrational wisdom available to the fool who, as a zero, is free of rational boundaries and traditional forms. The sun’s placement in the sky represents the divine source of this wisdom. The Fool, therefore, is someone has been ‘touched’ by divine inspiration – a ‘holy madman’ whose intuitive wisdom can often be misinterpreted as lunacy.
Notice now the bundle tied to the end of the Fool’s stick. He literally carries all his belongings on his back, symbolizing his emancipation from worldly things. This resonates with the fact that the Fool’s face is youthful; that his posture indicates a care-free existence; and that he seems to be unconcerned that his next step will take him over the edge of the cliff. The Fool represents both an innocent’s sense of wonder and and the willingness to undergo risk in the pursuit of life.
Notice how the Fool holds a rose? The rose symbolizes hidden knowledge, mystic secrets, spiritual truths. That the fool holds the rose is no coincidence then, nor just a symbol of his appreciation for beauty. Rather, this intimates to us that mystical truths can be grasped only by those who have freed themselves from the strictures of mundane reason and logic and are therefore able to intuitively accept knowledge hidden from most everyone else. The Fool, therefore, shows us the way to understand the hidden reasons of why things are the way are.
In his other hand, however, the Fool holds a stick – a balancing force and a steadying influence. The Fool may be innocent, but he is not foolish.
The cliff itself is symbolic; a stand-in for the extent of human knowledge and experience. Beyond the cliff’s edge lies the undiscovered country where be dragons. And it is into that territory that the Fool traipses with head held high. The dog sees the fool about to fall off and seeks to warn him or distract him from the path he is about to take. The dog, therefore, represents mundane reasoning – or the real world, if you will. In either case, the dog is an artefact of the life that the fool is leaving behind.
In sum, therefore, the Fool does not signify a foolish young person, but a person who is about to embark upon a journey of discovery. A journey that may entail discarding some dearly held stereotypes or conventions, but one which will ultimately lead to greater comprehension and, perhaps, enlightenment.
Reversed, the Fool signifies an unwillingness to accept new ideas, perhaps resistance to change. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it might indicate that a person is not willing to see the truth of things and may therefore be in denial. The journey off of the precipice is not for everyone.