The Fool
The Fool
Number 0 Air Uranus
A major arcana card: the big weather rather than the daily forecast.
Upright
beginningsfaiththe first stepinnocencerisk
Something is starting, and you do not have enough information to start it properly. The Fool says go anyway. This is the card of the step taken before the ground has been surveyed, not because surveying is foolish, but because some ground only appears underfoot. It carries no guarantees and it is not asking for any.
Reversed
recklessnesshesitationnaivetya badly timed leap
The leap is there but the timing is wrong, or the caution is. Reversed, the Fool is either someone about to jump without looking at all, or someone who has been standing at the edge so long the jumping has become the problem. You will know which one you are.
What is in the picture
The Fool steps off a cliff edge with a small bag and a white rose, and a dog barking at his heel. The bag holds everything he owns and it is not heavy. The dog is either warning him or coming with him; the card does not say.
What it says about…
The line a reading leads with, depending on what you said you were asking about.
A bit of everything
Upright: a beginning you cannot see the end of, and are meant to take anyway.
Reversed: either a leap made too fast or one you have been putting off until it went cold.
Love and relationships
Upright: something new, or something old approached as though it were new. Go in without the file of evidence you have been building.
Reversed: rushing in before you know them, or endlessly waiting to be certain about someone nobody is ever certain about.
Work and direction
Upright: the job you are not qualified for, the pitch you have not rehearsed. Take it; you learn the rest on the way.
Reversed: a move made without checking the numbers, or a move endlessly not made while you check them again.
Money and security
Upright: a risk worth taking, but only one you can afford to be wrong about.
Reversed: money going out on optimism alone. This is the card that asks whether you have read the terms.
Me, honestly
Upright: you are allowed to be a beginner. It is the only way anybody has ever started anything.
Reversed: the fear of looking foolish is costing you more than looking foolish ever would.
A decision I am stuck on
Upright: go. Not because it is safe, but because standing still is also a decision and it is the worse one.
Reversed: not yet, or not like this. Something about the timing is off rather than the idea.
With other cards
With Eight of Cups
Leaving, then beginning. Not a warning about running away: the deck putting the departure and the arrival in the same reading.
If this card leads
Start before you are ready. You will not be readier later, only older.
As a yes or no
Upright, it reads as yes. Reversed, no.
“I can begin something I am not yet good at.”
Draw it in a reading
The meaning above, applied to something you are actually asking about.
