0 - The Fool Tarot Card

The Fool Tarot Card represents the beginning of the “story” represented by the cards of the Major Arcana and usually depicts a young person who appears to be setting out on a journey in a natural environment. The tarot fool is often depicted as a young man carrying a packet of belongings and accompanied by a small dog.

The “fool” (a person who is setting out to learn and develop afresh) does so with trust. That includes trust in himself or herself, trust in good fortune, and trust that everything will present itself in the right time and at the right place. He or she is open to everything that the journey will bring.

The associations of The Fool Tarot Card typically include:

• intuition
• inner certainty or conviction
• the ability to listen to and act on ones inner voice
• ideals
• hope of a bright future

Drawing The Fool in a spread does not necessarily mean that the sitter is behaving foolishly. It is more likely to indicate a fresh start or fresh attitude - which can have a similar effect, willingness to set-out on a journey of discovery, to take risks, to learn, and to open oneself up to new opportunities.

When the meaning is interpreted more literally, it can indicate a fool in the context of an entertainer, the court "Fool" being a forerunner of the more modern circus clown or other professional yet playful entertainer - possibly one who's purpose is to encourage people to laugh and relax.

Note: The image of this tarot card shown on the right (above-right) is from an early 1900s French tarot deck that has been made available for general use via the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This shows a distinctly different style of illustration from that of modern tarot decks but is of historical and artistic interest.