Tarot Card Meanings - The Fool

The Fool is one of the Major Arcana cards, and the tarot deck is based on the journey of the Fool, also the Major Arcana begins with this card and ends with the World. The Major Arcana represents the circle of life in all its complicated stages such as spirituality, mortality, love, and change. When a Major Arcana card shows up in a spread it often indicates that there are major changes and lessons to be learned. The circle or cycle of life is also a circle that happens many times in one lifetime, and is not just a chronological cycle, and it seems that most everything that happens to us in our lives as a beginning, a middle, and an end.

The journey of the Fool who is the first of the 22 Arcana cards starts with our birth. We emerge from the womb into the world of the unknown, the beginning of our journey from childhood to adulthood. It is worth stating at this stage that this card is a rite of passage card just like all the other Arcana cards. With the Fool as we reach the end of a journey we begin a new cycle, however, this new cycle will be either higher or deeper than the last one.

So when this card appears in a tarot spread it puts us on notice that a new chapter of life is about to begin. There is a call for us to step out into the unknown, take a risk, and trust that we will be supported. Even though we will not know whether the outcome will make us look foolish or give us the awareness we are looking for two allow us to go on to the next cycle.

The image on most tarot decks is usually depicted by a young and carefree person who is embarking on life's journey, and can represent an irrational need for change and freedom for the individual. This card is often associated with Uranus, the unpredictably powerful planet of change.

In the upright position the card indicates a need for change and a willingness to leap into the unknown in order to achieve this goal.

In the reversed position the Fool can indicate an individual's energy is low, and because of this they are unable to move forward in their challenging cycle, thus slowing them down on the circle of life.

In this article, I have tried to give some basic practical knowledge about the Fool, however, it is my belief that we should always allow our intuition and psychic ability to guide us in a tarot reading.