Breathing is good.
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Held the fool between my palms, and at first it felt like chaotic mess, thoughts of random events came to mind.
Soon I realized I was near a cliff and the fool was there, he put his arms around me and as I heard the words “hahaha, thy should not worry” as he walked with a big smile on his face.
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Beautiful, Zen!
The Fool is frozen in time. It doesn’t matter that he’s about to walk off a cliff, he is immensely happy! He will never walk off that cliff, either. Whatever happens, joy! It doesn’t matter what the situation is, it’s our reaction to it.
Guess i jumped the gun on this one. Sammy hasn’t posted the meaning yet.
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Or will a bridge appear just as he steps off?..or he grows wings…
Either way, the journey begins.
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UPRIGHT: Beginnings, innocence, spontaneity, a free spirit
REVERSED: Holding back, recklessness, risk-taking
Rider Waite Description
The Fool is numbered 0 – the number of unlimited potential – and so does not have a specific place in the sequence of the Tarot cards. The Fool can be placed either at the beginning of the Major Arcana or at the end. The Major Arcana is often considered The Fool’s journey through life and as such, he is ever present and therefore needs no number.
On The Fool Tarot card, a young man stands on the edge of a cliff, without a care in the world, as he sets out on a new adventure. He is gazing upwards toward the sky (and the Universe) and is seemingly unaware that he is about to skip off a precipice into the unknown. Over his shoulder rests a modest knapsack containing everything he needs – which isn’t much (let’s say he’s a minimalist). The white rose in his left hand represents his purity and innocence. And at his feet is a small white dog, representing loyalty and protection, that encourages him to charge forward and learn the lessons he came to learn. The mountains behind The Fool symbolize the challenges yet to come. They are forever present, but The Fool doesn’t care about them right now; he’s more focused on starting his expedition.
Short Description
The Fool represents new beginnings, having faith in the future, being inexperienced, not knowing what to expect, having beginner’s luck, improvisation and believing in the universe.
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Whilst you’re enjoying your exploration and contemplation of the card and waiting for Sammy’s undoubtedly wise post, a couple of questions you might like to play with:
- What’s the dog doing in the image? What’s the intention of the dog or what is the dog trying to do?
- Why might “they” have put the dog in this image?
- What’s the relationship between the man and the dog?
- Where’s the man looking? What might he be looking at?
- Why do you think this card is called “The Fool”?
Have fun!
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I just remembered something else, well almost. Hoping I will remember by writing this out. Those of you who are used to my explorations might laugh, as parts of my intuition come alive while writing. I was taking a walk yesterday, thinking about the card. I kept telling myself I was supposed to write it down, but didn’t. One thing I remember that unless I missed it there is air, earth, and water but no fire in the Fool card. Perhaps his fire is burning inside of him. Maybe his zeal for the journey is what motivates him. Maybe we can call for his fire within to propel us ahead on the journey. Okay, that wasn’t it, but it is something. Will have to revisit it later. 
And I can for sure use that fire. I’m a water sign (glug glug) although I think I have Mars in the first house. Fire, Love, Joy.
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I’m curious, into which of those 4 categories that you wrote about, would you classify the light that The Fool is looking up to?
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I considered it air for the sky. So you are saying the sun is the fire. cool I still think his motivation comes from his inner fire though.
Addition: I just realized that the wands are fire, so that would be the stick slung over his shoulder with his pack attached. In my mind it’s a magic wand, so he is ready to use it for magical purposes whenever he should see fit. Also, it’s okay that he never needs magic, as he himself is a magical being.
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Actually, I was asking, honestly, because you’re the one sorting into your categories. (And maybe this is a “higher” level conversation for this beginner thread? I don’t know. Of so, we can continue it in my Mysteries of the Tarot–for all levels thread, if Sammy prefers.)
I don’t think there’s a “right” or “wrong” answer. It depends on our criteria. Are there 4 categories? 3*? Or 5? Or I could say that we “know” that there’s air all around him (and the dog) but the majority of that air is dark, so why is that upper portion light? Does that signify something else? And that wouldn’t make you “wrong” at all.
One of the interesting things about The Fool in the Rider-Waite lineage of cards is that the “sky” is clearly yellow, rather than the blue of the sky in other cards. That indicates a deliberate choice by Mr. Waite and Ms Smith.
One explanation for the yellow sky is to include the “5th element” of Spirit/Akasha. As I babble on about in that other thread, this interpretation sees The Fool as Spirit about to emanate forth as a “separate” extension of All-That-Is (also indicated by the rays of the sun in the Rider-Waite card).
I agree with you that The Fool’s fire is burning within him. Again, this might be a question for that other thread but what does “fire” mean to you? (Because there can be a number of different interpretations for “fire,” which could come up later in this thread.)
Interesting insights!
*IIRC, the very early Greeks (that we know about) worked with 3 elements, which map over to the 3 Doshas and to the 3 Treasures.
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Looking at the fool card. I noticed the colors are the higher chakras, heart, throat, the third eye, and the crown.
I think this is the fool following his higher intuition, belief in divinity, following his heart, perhaps not only speaking his truth, but acting on it.
in comparison to a dog is also present in the card “the moon” in the traditional deck. There’s a dog and a wolf one domesticated and one wild.
And I think the dog represents the more primitive aspects of who we are, which society tend to look down upon. Man is dogs best friend, the dog doesn’t judge so maybe that’s why the fool is with an animal and not a normal member of society.
so basically higher chakras by the colors and maybe the dog could represent a more “domesticated” root chakra. The dog is there to keep the fool from danger. More grounded in reality.
i don’t believe the fool is a real fool i think he just looks that way to the outside world. He is alone, away from society. to start his own journey. To the outside world that may seem foolish to look at other ways of life.
This Is A Person Who Understands That The Way Society Has Taught Us To Live Has Actually Not Made Us Anywhere Near Becoming Whole.
He Knows That Nothing Outside Of You Is Going To Make You Feel Whole.
The Fool Is Willing To Learn From Scratch And Not From Society.
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@SammyG I’m confused. I see images from the Corpus Spiritus Deck posted. Which images can’t we post?
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Hello friends. I unfortunately missed the boat on this deck, but I am thrilled to watch everyone dive deeper into it.
Uh, if I may, as a fellow lifelong tarot student, it seems the meanings come from Biddy Tarot, no qualms there, but another good supplementary resource is Joan Bunning’s site, from which I started to learn many years ago.
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i will use
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It is currently still available right now if you want it:
https://sapien-medicine.creator-spring.com/listing/sapien-medicine-tarot-card-nft
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Thanks! I’m so used to NFTs selling out 0.5 seconds after they’re posted, so I just assume if I blink then I’ve missed it. 
glad to know it’s still there.
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You threw me off at “categories” so I couldn’t respond. Could you explain what you mean? Do you mean earth, air, fire, water, aether?
Last night I wrote: one-pointed, single-minded, happy in current state, content
Just after typing that I heard the words: what is he hiding?
He is the world pushed out, he knows the whole path from the beginning, but normally he is not telling. Yet, if we ask, we can find out here and now. There are no mysteries, there are no secrets. All is revealed now.
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Sure. In order to do that, let’s keep this conversation in context: You meditated, contemplated and connected to your card (Yay, you!) just as Sammy asked of us. And you shared with us your experience. (Thank you.) That experience of yours is you, connecting to the card AND your own higher guidance.
So, this is key: I don’t want to impose myself on your higher guidance (or substitute myself for it). Your higher guidance knows precisely what you need to know, in a way that you will know it. And I honor that.
So, I’m going to be careful (as best I can) not to mess up your experience with my “stuff.” That’s why I’m asking a lot of questions here in this thread (and saving my pendantry for that other thread).
In your own exploration, you (clever one that you are) were the one who looked for earth, air, etc. I know what those things mean to me but I don’t yet know what they mean to you, which is key because we’re talking about your insight. So, I used a generic term, “categories,” to continue our conversation. I really wanted to use the word, “piles,” to say something along the lines of “as you were contemplating the different parts of your card and you were sorting those parts into your piles of earth, air, etc…” but that seemed even more confusing to me. 
I asked you my question about “categories” because I wanted to check in with you to see if you might have been limiting yourself with a preconceived idea of how many categories/piles there should be. (And that’s sort of natural that we might do this.) Because isn’t that one way we sort? By defining our piles first and then assigning what’s in front of us into our different piles? I wanted to know if you were also sorting into piles of—say—animal (dog and possibly The Fool himself), vegetable and mineral or however else you were categorizing the parts of your card.
When I sort the parts of my cards, I do sort into earth, air, fire, water and spirit, yes. For me, that ties nicely into the suit of Pentacles (among other things) when we get there.
Is that The Only Way (or The Right Way)? Hell, no. I’m not that arrogant.
I’m a firm believer that the Tarot (this or other decks) is a tool to inspire your connection to your Higher Self and to your Higher Truth. I ask my questions here on this thread to, hopefully, inspire us to explore more. That’s all.
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