The Fool

With a light step, as if the earth and its burdens held little power to restrain him, a young man in gorgeous vestments pauses at the brink of a precipice high among the great heights of the world. He surveys the blue distance before him—more the vast expanse of sky than the prospect below.

Though he stands still in this moment, his act of eager walking is still implied; his dog continues to bound with joy. The edge that opens onto the abyss holds no terror for him—it is as if angels are waiting to uphold him, should he leap from the height.

His countenance radiates intelligence and a sense of expectant dreaming. In one hand, he holds a rose; in the other, a costly wand, from which a curiously embroidered wallet hangs over his right shoulder. He is a prince of another world, traveling through this one—bathed in morning glory, in the sharp, clean air.

The sun, shining behind him, knows where he came from, where he is going, and how he will return by another path after many days. He is the spirit in search of experience.

Many symbols of the Instituted Mysteries are summarized in this card, which—under high authority—reverses all the confusions that came before it. In his Manual of Cartomancy, Grand Orient offers a curious suggestion about the role of the Mystic Fool as part of a higher process of divination. Yet it may require extraordinary gifts to bring such a role into practice.

We shall see how the card is interpreted according to the common arts of fortune-telling. For those with discernment, it stands as clear evidence that the Major Trumps originally had no place in the art of psychic gambling, where cards serve merely as counters and pretexts.

As for the exact circumstances under which this art arose, we know very little. The conventional explanation holds that the Fool signifies the flesh, the sensitive life—and, in a peculiar satire, was once even called the Alchemist, representing folly in its most senseless form.