The Fool Card in the Major Arcana
Ahh, this New Moon is in Aquarius and I feel particularly nerdy and eccentric. I cherish the Aquarius in my chart (3 whole planets in the same house? It’s Aquarius on steroids!). The best adjectives that come to mind are inquisitive, oddball, spacey, yet clear headed. There’s a charming openness to experience in Aquarius energy.
Perfect time to get cracking on the History and Meaning of Tarot’s Main Character, The Fool. The Fool’s Journey is the story of a spiritual evolution that weaves its way through a cycle of 22 cards. The Fool is classically understood to be experiencing each of the other cards in the set as moments in their journey toward self knowledge.
The Tarot De Marseilles was the OG fortune-telling Tarot, which established the archetypal pattern of 78 cards, popular in France in the 17th and 18th centuries. In this deck/pack, the card we’re looking at is called Le Mat or Le Fol, meaning “the Madman,” or “the Beggar.” The most common image is a dude with a bindle on his back decked out in bells, with a dog ripping his pants as he strides forward. Real “Why me?” moment. But that’s the kinda shit you get into when you are a wandering soul. And despite this little dog ripping his pants, it does not stop his bold steps forward. When pulled, this card evokes freedom, movement, energy, and music.
‘Le Fol’ from Tarot De Marseilles
Now, when the Golden Dawn got their freaky little hands in the mix, the most commonly referenced tarot deck was born in 1909. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a British secret society for occult studies established in the late 1800s. Two members, A.E. Waite and Pamela Smith, came together to craft the iconic symbolism and imagery that inspires most decks today.
The Fool in the Rider-Waite interpretation pictures a young man walking toward a cliff’s edge. He isn’t looking where he’s going but he is riant in the sunlight. His little sidekick dog is happy, too. Folly, blissful ignorance, and adventure are commonly evoked here.
‘The Fool’ from Rider-Waite Tarot
My particular cultural outlook helps me imagine this nonsensical energy through a unique lens (1). It feels like a step into the Bush, mountain crests hunching over sprawling thick forest. There, in the vine-veiled depths, there are groves, secret dewy places. The music of the rustling trees, the wonder in not knowing; a curious seeker like the Fool feels called to it.
The Fool dances toward the rhythm, whether that song is a threatening siren or a herald angel. Either way, in following the call, you’ll end up somewhere new.
When this card is pulled, I wonder about my client’s sense of this calling. What motivates their steps forward? Are they ready to answer the call? Are they ready to see who is appointing them? I wonder what they have been selected for, and try to clarify with them.
When the Fool is pulled, it’s time to balance childlike wonder and the aquarian drive to freedom, to turn away from naivety and the comfort of home. To begin or begin again, we have to move through what we’ve never felt. A different state of knowing that we must build for ourselves to herald in the new - a new career, a new home, newness as a principal. When this card is pulled, you should ask yourself a few questions. What journey or experience are you undertaking? What things do you have control of in this new undertaking? What things must you let go of to be able to move forward?
We can never know what is on the other side of the next step we take. With candor, mirth, and faith in what could be, we take our first step into the jungle.
Maybe that’s foolish. It’s powerful, too.
Next post is a journal and some thaumaturgical action shots for the next full moon.
After that, I’ll post about the Magician and the High Priestess.
Footnotes:
1)I am a descendant of Bakongo peoples, among a few others. My Ancestors from that region had a notion that the forest and the ocean were places of liminality between the spirit world and the mundane. After the middle passage, those Ancestors met my other Ancestors, the Taino people. The forests in the Caribbean were also under the domain of the Supramundane. This idea of the forest or jungle as a spiritual space resonates with me deeply.
