“The Fool”
The Fool represents a purity of energy, its’ vision in line with potentials and possibilities. Not purity in terms of just positive intent only but free of conditioning by the outside world. Unhindered by past events, emotional baggage, or what is, the motto of this character is “No Fear”. When the card shows up, it is time to ‘be in the moment’, optimistically focused on newness, novelty, & the opportunities available in right now. Practice positive expectation & put effort into recognizing, acknowledging, and moving beyond fear (i.e., negative responses and expectations of the unseen).
Make no mistake, The Fool is not empty in the sense of a zero (0) or lacking in any intensity, but rather open to all that can be. A clarity of attention and self-knowledge determine its’ actions. This also applies to the adventures a person embodying this archetype is bound to experience. When meditating on this card be as curious as The Fool. Ask questions of yourself. What are your most passionate impulses telling you about the world around you and your relationship to it? Are you behaving in alignment with the manifestation of your needs and desires or in reaction to your pain-fueled fears? What are your beliefs about yourself & the world around you helping you to co-create with the Universe?
Rider Waite
“He is the spirit in search of experience. This card reverses, under high warrants, all the confusions that have preceded it.”
Arthur Edward Waite
Thoth
“The really important feature is that its number should be 0. It
Aleister Crowley
represents the Negative above the Tree of Life, the source of all
things. It is the Qabalistic Zero. It is the equation of the Universe, […] Air, in this card, therefore quintessentially
means a vacuum.
Kori Writes on The Fool
Evolved Expression:
The fool lives to pursue with passion the fulfillment of his soul’s agreement with God at conception. It is the divine urge to act fearlessly and in accordance with personal needs, aspirations, and integrity. Express your authentic self, without regard to appearances, opinions, attachments to the past, or societal norms. It maintains no attachment to worldly or material status, social affluence, or emotions. To many, a foolish attitude… but what the fool holds to instead is their sense of Godhood within.
A person operating in Fool energy understands that placing their faith in the self clears the way for the mundane to become a divine experience. The Fool’s choices reflect self-awareness, understanding & autonomy. While they may have a tendency toward impulsiveness, The Fool always does its best & expresses its’ truth. The Fool’s priority is freedom to move, speak, progress, or just be as authentically as is possible.
Shadow Expression:
The unconscious expression of The Fool is avoiding uncertainty. Fear influences their personality, taints creativity and restricts decisions & communication. Impulses lead to destruction without purpose rather than in the interest of productivity or progress. This is the ‘cat backed into a corner’ syndrome. Recklessness is a common response to feeling out of control.
Someone operating under this energy may have mental, emotional, or financial baggage. It’s even more likely that all three problems develop alongside or as results of one another creating a negative synergy internally. Laziness is also a trademark in this fool’s life. Stagnancy seems to coat this character’s existence and holds back its’ movement in any direction of import, growth, or security. Be careful if you find yourself trapped in fears associated with the past. Work on releasing the impetus to limit your movement or holistic self-expression due to preoccupation with negative potentials.
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
― Corrie Ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook
KeyWords to Remember
Active Imagination, Limitlessness, Leap of Faith, Irrationality, Spontaneity, Innocence, Child-like, Lighten Up!, Enthusiasm, Naïveté, Foolhardy, “Green”, aloofness, irresponsibility, cowardice, attachment, agoraphobia, Folly, extravagance, delirium.
Popular Resources on The Fool
2 Degrees Aries (Poem by Kori Woo)
“The Fool” by Lynn Araujo
Lesson 1: The Fool in Kabalah & Tarot by @misstarottales
?The Qabalistic Tarot Book by Robert Wang
Check out the next card in the “Tarot Profile” series: “The Magician”, coming soon!
Bibliography
* Waite, Arthur Edward, and Pamela Colman Smith. The Pictorial Key to the Tarot: Being Fragments of a Secret Tradition Under the Veil of Divination. New Impression, Vintage/Ebury (A Division of Random House Group), 1986.
* Ziegler, Gerd. Tarot: Mirror of the Soul: Handbook for the Aleister Crowley Tarot. Red Wheel Weiser, 1988.
* Pollack, Rachel. Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness (a New Edition of the Tarot Classic). Third Edition, Revised, Weiser Books, 2019.
*Russo, Antonio. Tarot: Powers, Characteristics, Matches (The Tarot of Marseilles Book 1). AltriParaggi Editions, 2014.
