Tarot Card Meanings: The Fool

Today, I had nothing and everything to do.

In the vastness of having nothing to do: I look to fill it. I measure and analyze: what do I do with these five precious hours while my husband is working, and my son is at preschool? This place can feel sticky and overwhelming.

I used to be better at doing nothing. But because my wants and needs are only fulfilled these days in small sips, I put a lot of pressure on my alone time.

These are MY five hours. I could fill them with marketing, writing, exercise or dance, or cleaning our always-a-wreck kitchen. With “figuring out my business” or our finances. I could waste them on Youtube, where I exclusively watch energy readings, alien disclosure hypotheses, and how to build your own chicken coop content.

The Fool, in the Tarot, is the card of making the leap.

It’s the first card of the deck, and that’s no mistake. This energy is of vast importance. It is “I am setting off to find myself.” Traditionally, it’s the beginning of the spiritual journey.

We often only think of The Fool as we make HUGE leaps. Quitting the job without another one lined up. Taking a solo trip to Europe. Ordering the chicks for said chicken coop.

But we make little leaps every day. What will I do with this brand-new day, the only one like it?

With these five hours, what leaps will I make into the unknown? The Fool lives in the present moment, and is a reminder to keep returning, over and over, to your inner voice.

The Fool looks at her internal landscape, at who she truly is, and forges her next step into the future, from her unique self and experiences. She has the courage to move from intuition and impulses that are purely her own. She doesn’t care how it looks to the outside world. In fact, it often looks confusing, maybe even repulsive, on the outside. Moving as ourselves is to move against societal rules.

When Rachel Pollack talks about the Fool tarot card in her book Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom, she highlights how the Fool looks foolish to others. It’s out of line with the status quo. The Fool is dangerously herself. She isn’t foolish, however: she has learned from her experiences, and those experiences inform her, rather than control her. She is on her soul-led path.

When I look at the Fool tarot card from the Rider-Waite deck, I hear the lyrics, “It’s gonna be a bright, bright, bright, bright sunshiny day.”

From the Fool, we can see ourselves clearly. And yet is the beginning. We don’t know where we’re going, necessarily. But we are following divine inertia. We have our wild spirit, we have our go-bag (packed with knowledge and prior experience), the sun shines upon our instincts. We’re at the edge of that cliff. Time to jump?

There are times we’re in the Fool and we fall off the pictured cliff, right on to our faces. Sometimes we are foolish. We didn’t do the research. We thought we knew it all. Our subconscious parts weren’t taken into account. We needed to learn a karmic lesson. Whatever the reason, when we draw the Fool reversed, we pause and look at our intentions. Are we moving too fast? Are we too worried what others might think?

As I was writing, I queued up some music. After I can See Clearly Now that the Rain is Gone (those “bright sunshiny day” lyrics I referenced), the Spotify oracle played Wild World by Cat Stevens. How fitting. Cat Stevens plays society here, plays the part of the inner critic, watching The Fool as she takes her leap, warning her:

But if you wanna leave, take good care
Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware
Beware

Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
And I'll always remember you like a child, girl

Yes, Cat’s the jilted lover in the song (remembering his lover and her capacities like a child … ew), but he plays the part of: I know better than you. What you’re doing, it will never work. Don’t follow the inner guide. Come back to me, come back to society, we know better. We’ll keep you safe.

In the Wild Unknown Tarot Deck, The Fool is a chick, a fledging, on a branch. Is it time for her to fly? Is today the day? Can she follow the instinct and trust the wind, trust her own wings?

Today the Fool led me here: through time spent working on my website, doing the dishes, dancing up at storm while cleaning the house, to writing this article. Now I see the bright sunshiny day outside, beckoning me to rest beneath the trees.

When you pull the Fool in a tarot spread:

Generally, we only draw the Fool when we are heading off into the unknown in some way. Moving, starting a new relationship, taking the first big step toward a big dream, changing careers, quitting a job.

Drawing the Fool Tarot Card right-side up means:

• It’s go-time, baby! You are on the right path. Leap.

• Tune into the embodied feeling of your leap, and daydream into the best possible outcome. What does that feel like in your heart?

• It’s a beautiful time to move forward, into the dream.

• Reversed: Something’s afoot. Are you taking into account all facets of your desired outcome? Have you done your research? Are you lying to yourself, or leaving behind a part of yourself that’s freaking out? Slow down and regroup. Now is not the time to leap.

Stay tuned for the next installment, where we’ll feel into the Magician and how their energy shapes our connection to the Divine, and what we bring down from heaven into matter.

It would be an honor to give you a tarot reading or astrology reading! Book a reading with me.