The Major Arcana

0. The Fool

The Fool emphasizes the lesson of freedom and trust that we must bring with us into every single suit, card, and journey that is part of the tarot.

"Follow your heart, and have faith in the universe to provide."

- Anima Mundi tarot

This is where many descriptions of The Fool - the first card in the tarot, the start before the start and the finish after the finish - conclude: "The universe has your back. Trust in the goodness of the world around you, both visible and invisible. Don't be afraid of a cosmic trust fall. Don't be afraid, period."

But I want to begin with this sentiment, because this lesson of the tarot is both its most simplistic lesson and its most complex - and in my view certainly the most difficult to practice. Here stands the fool, eyes upturned to the heavens, a flower in his hand, a little dog at his heels. His arms are open, ready to receive, only one foot on the earth, trusting the ground under his feet. He has ascended to the mountaintops and is reveling in the beauty of that great height. Beneath him, however -- uneven limestone that appears ready to crumble if he puts his weight on it. Beyond that, the edge of a cliff and the yawning chasm below. Even the dog's position is precarious, his tiny paws resting but an inch from a jagged plunge.

Is The Fool, as Caponi's Guided Tarot puts it, "blissfully unaware that he is about to walk off a cliff"? Or does The Fool "[know] something everyone else has forgotten," as Little Red Tarot would have it Or is it both? Is The Fool a naive dumb-dumb or the holder of the universe's secrets?

Well, he's both, because he's us. The Fool is us. How often in our lives do we find ourselves at the edge of a precipice we didn't even see and suddenly realize that, leap or fall, we're going over? And as we journey through the tarot, The Fool will be present at every stage -- when the Wheel of Fortune spins or the scales of Justice balance; in the Hermit, the Hanged Man, the High Priestess; with the fire of the wands or the practical pentacles. He's Page, Knight, Queen, and King, because he's us, and we are all of them at one time or other in our long, long journey.

So, then -- the fool is us at the start of a new adventure. We are lighthearted, ready to take a big risk, ready to prance right up to the edge of the cliff, even if it means we plunge into the abyss. In this moment, it seems easy to trust our intuition, follow our hearts, have faith in the universe to provide. And that's the lesson we must take into every phase of our journey. When the devil comes, what do we do? Trust our intuition. Follow our hearts. Have faith in the universe to provide. When heartbreak arrives (Three of Swords, Five of Cups), what do we do? Trust our intuition. Follow our hearts. Have faith in the universe to provide. When complication and overwhelm overtake us (Two of Pentacles, Ten of Wands), what do we do?

Trust your intuition.

Follow your heart.

Have faith in the universe to provide.

This repeating lesson is not just the Lesson of The Fool. It is the Lesson of the deck. It is, on some level, the ONLY lesson -- or at least the only one that we absolutely must carry into our reading of every single card. Trust your intuition. Follow your heart. Have faith in the universe to provide.

The Fool Reversed

If you haven't yet read my notes on reversals, now may be a good time to do so. Reversals can be read in all kinds of ways, and many cards, turned on their heads, bear a very different and oppositional meaning to their meaning upright. That being said -- what do you get when you turn a fool, prancing at the edge of a cliff, spreading his wings as if to fly from the precipice, on its head? You get a fool in moon boots. Certainly, there's precedent for reading The Fool reversed as a call to look before you leap or make a plan - at least at times. But there's equally good reason to read that zero-gravity hang in mid-air as a call to even wilder abandon.

Then again, for me, The Fool Inverted is so reminiscent of The Hanged Man upright that I see them as brethren. So this reversal may also carry that meaning as it might apply at the start of a journey: before embarking, take a moment to suspend activity and shift your perception. The halo in the Hanged Man pairs with the sun at the corner of The Fool card; both represent illumination of the kind you may need when you're about to take a big leap -- or attempt to walk on air!