1. Tarot
2. Card meanings
3. The Fool

Major Arcana · 0

The Fool

• extravagance
• light step
• eager walking

Upright meaning

A fresh start taken lightly and with trust. Waite's young traveller pauses at the edge of the heights, eyes on the open sky: an invitation to begin, while still noticing where your feet are.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, the card points to carelessness or a drifting attention. A gentle prompt to slow down and look at what you may be overlooking before you step.

• carelessness
• negligence

Symbolism

A young man in bright clothes stands at the brink of a height, looking up and out rather than down; a small dog bounds beside him.

Group

Major Arcana

Element, astrology

Not given by Waite, so we give none

Source

Our own plain-English summary of A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1911), Part II §2 (symbolism); Part III §3 (divinatory meanings). The keywords are Waite’s own words. Waite’s fortune-telling lists also contain harsher terms; we keep to the reflective readings he gives and never state an event as certain.

Tarot is a tool for reflection, not a prediction of fixed outcomes. This is not medical, legal or financial advice.