The Fool Tarot Notes and Thoughts by Talisman
Foolish? Not So Much!
Does the Fool live up to his name? Should he simply be interpreted as meaning it's foolish to try when he appears? If only tarot reading was that straightforward!
Despite being called the Fool the appearance of this card does not generally mean you're a fool or doing something foolish any more than Death means you're going to die.
The Fool is like a new-born baby. Both are at the very beginning of a journey. The baby of course, is just starting life and as yet has no personality, no fear, and is trusting by default. An open book waiting to be written.
The Fool too is just starting out but he is at the beginning of a new phase of life. He may well appear many, many times in your life as we are all always starting something new. Indeed you may get the Fool in your readings many, many times in a year.
Some readers do interpret the meaning as foolishness (perhaps even more so in its reversed form) and point to the fact that in Rider-Waite based decks he appears to be stepping off a cliff which, after all, would be a foolish thing to do. But... is he?
I think it is a mistake to interpret it as foolishness. We cannot see the ground in the illustration. Is it three feet down? Or a hundred? The difference between the two would easily be the difference between life and death. Thinking it's a cliff is an assumption and assumptions can indeed be foolish! It could simply be a bank. Only time will tell.
Personally I believe what the card is actually picturing is simply a metaphor for stepping into the unknown. There are risks in doing this, but then we take risks all the time in life, don't we? Sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don't.
But even when they don't that doesn't mean that the Fool was wrong to set out on that path. He wasn't foolish to take that step into the unknown. Life is not predestined. The Fool is all about conquering fear and having the faith to try.
See Notes & Thoughts on This Card by: Charis