☽︎Sky and Signs

Tarot · The Major Arcana

The Fool

The Fool: A young man in bright clothes stands at the edge of a cliff with a white rose in one hand and a bundle on a staff over his shoulder, a small white dog leaping beside him.

The picture

A young man in bright clothes stands at the edge of a cliff with a white rose in one hand and a bundle on a staff over his shoulder, a small white dog leaping beside him.

The meaning

The Fool carries the number zero and stands before all the other cards. The tradition reads him as setting out into the open, with light luggage and no finished plan. He stands for curiosity and the trust that the next step will show itself. Waite calls him a wanderer with his eyes on the sky, who has not yet noticed the edge.

Reversed

Reversed, the card is read as carelessness or as hesitation: you leap without looking, or you never set off at all.

In love

In love the Fool stands for an unguarded beginning, for lightness and an appetite for something new.

At work

At work he is read as a fresh idea or the courage to step into an unfamiliar field.

As your card of the day

Something may begin today, even if you do not yet know where it leads. A small first step is enough.

The Fool is a reminder that you need not know everything in advance. Still, glance at the path once before you go.

The Major Arcana are the 22 trump cards, from the Fool at zero to the World at twenty-one. The tradition reads them as stations on a life's journey: large themes that touch everyone at some point.

Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909, public domain (Wikimedia Commons).