The Meaning of The Fool in Tarot

The beauty of the tarot deck is that to different people the same cards tell a different story.

Symbols speak to us, and our personal experiences and lessons learnt determine our interpretations.

This is my own interpretation of The Fool card, and the tarot itself being the encoding of the Universe, each interpretation is a valuable addition to the understanding of the All.

My interpretation of a fool’s card is that it doesn’t depict a fool at all.

The fool’s card in the tarot shows a dreamy young man ignorantly walking towards the cliff, with eyes fixed on the sky.

This is the depiction of how the masses view a particular type of person. That person is the master of life, therefore the number 22 (fool’s card can also be numbered 0), but to the masses such a person looks like a fool.

He’s looking up because he’s trusting his higher self, whilst most people look down because they trust only that which they can see. Even most religious people are hard materialists, because when some bad event shakes them, instead of trusting God, they make fear-based decisions according to what they see in this reality.

He looks like a fool because he doesn’t do things the way the masses do. The masses think he makes decisions randomly, and that only by luck he escapes dangers. Yet what the masses don’t see is that he is led by higher intelligence, thus in the card you see him looking up.

So the way I see this card, is the way such a person is viewed by the masses – looking in the sky whilst ignoring ‘the reality’, which to the masses seems like a quick way to fall off a cliff.

Since he’s not relying on worldly intelligence, the masses think him fool. Yet he’s tuned into the higher intelligence, and this higher intelligence is greater than the worldly intelligence. So what seems to happen by luck, is actually happening by definite laws, but those laws are not understood by the masses, so they think that the fool is simply lucky.

So the fool’s card is a good card, and we all should aim to be such ‘fools’ no matter what the masses will think of us. The masses will laugh at you when you make unusual decisions, and will make excuses when those decisions turn out to be right. What’s important is to be constantly tuned into the source, the higher intelligence, so that you’re always protected by it, although the masses may think you are going over the cliff.

You see in the card the fool carrying only a few personal belongings, which shows his meager investment in the world. He’s not attached to the world, which the look up shows too, and thus he’s truly the child of God, protected from world’s traps of success, money, fame, power, worldly love, and so on.

The fool holds a flower in his hand, which can be a symbol of otherworldly beauty, lightness and goodness. The white color of the flower can represent purity and innocence, pure spirit. The white dog beside him is spirit guidance and protection, which is always present with those who are innocent and pure.

From the look you can see that the young man in the card lives a care-free life; he’s not worried or afraid of the future. That’s definitely an example we can all learn from this fool. The world will be less mentally sick if people would stop worrying of what lies ahead, but instead, holding the connection to the source strong, trust that they will be protected, and that they will make the choices that are right for their growth, no matter how random and silly those choices seem to the world.

Fool’s card stands apart from other tarot cards, like a seeming fool stands apart from the society. Some may call the fool too innocent for this wicked world, but little do such people understand that this innocence is the greatest protection there is. Innocence is not ignorance.

So this is my interpretation of the fool’s card. It’s no coincidence that the fool’s card is sometimes numbered 22, which is the master number. It’s truly a master-card, though the world doesn’t usually recognize masters, but look up to those who are most flashy and talk loudest. When the world stops worshiping wealth and ego, maybe their tired eyes will catch the radiant ones standing outside the system, and will re-assess their ‘foolish’ judgments.

Resource: simonarich.com