Keywords: Beginning a new cycle, confidence, innocence, beginner’s luck, unconsciousness, inexperience, carelessness. Taking a risk, leaving the familiar behind. Entering a new way of seeing and living life. Instinct. Naive, pure and curious person. A cheerful and carefree wanderer, not mature.
The Arcanum of the Fool is numbered 0. This is because of what it means. Everything in the card refers to the symbolism of freedom and beginnings.
But why the 0?
0 stands in the middle of duality, it represents the nothingness from which everything emerges. This ties in with the energy shown in the card. Every great journey has a beginning, that energy that initiates is powerful, but also in a way, unconscious.
The Fool has launched himself into a new way of living, in which his outlook is positive and innocent. He does not know; he feels and moves, he is a nomad who has broken with his structured life and has decided to start a spiritual/transformative journey. His soul guides him along the paths, his instinct is his fuel.
He often appears at the edge of the precipice, referring again to nothingness, to the abyss of unconsciousness that must be overcome to begin the path of self-knowledge and self-improvement. By abyss of unconsciousness, I mean embracing trust in the Universe, in mystery. A small animal usually appears at your feet, preventing you from falling into the void; this is the unexpected help from the Universe, the reward for trusting in something greater.
Ultimately, the Fool began to walk by an instinctive feeling and since then his days are always sunny.
To interpret this in a spread it must be put in context. It usually means that something new is beginning. The “new” part is the most important part, whatever it is you are starting is unknown, but you start with the right attitude: open and courageous if a little reckless.
If you use face-down cards in your spreads, in this case, it would mean a start as well. However, upside-down, what it symbolises is a start without confidence, a reaction and an attitude that has not left the previous world behind; visually, the world is falling on you. It can refer to an unhappy wanderer, someone who walks without direction or illusion; a start-up without spark, without foundation.
Creative visualisation connecting with the card:
I entered the arcane of the Fool using the Arthurian Tarot. I was surprised at how quickly I connected with the archetype, and how easy it was to visualise. I found myself with the Fool, who was strolling happily. The landscape was multicoloured, in HD, vibrating… but only the landscape in front of his eyes. When I looked at the landscape that the character had already walked through, everything was grey. There was no life, it looked like a barren place. As if the colours depended on where the Madman looked at.
