The twenty-second arcana can indifferently also be the first because the Fool counts for nothing.
He is an irresponsible, reckless, and passive being who drags himself through existence aimlessly following irrational impulses. The colorful dress is meant to indicate the many incoherent influences that propel him hither and thither with the bundle full of his silly treasures, and the dangling yellow stockings reveal what is to be concealed. The Fool makes us understand how much reasonableness is needed in order not to leave the field of reason from which he borders too easily.
A lynx, symbol of lucidity and remorse, bites into the madman's calf, pushing it, rather than holding it back, towards the inevitable. But the red tulip at his feet reveals that the Fool's spirituality has not withered and he can still try to recover his reason.
The Fool is the card in favor of changes, new projects. He indicates unexpected displacements, intuitions, premonitory dreams, detachment from material aspirations. Situations to seize on the fly, new professions, travel, experiences. The arcane invites us to continue without losing heart. It symbolizes spontaneity, pleasure, enthusiasm, adventure; nullifies the bad omens of the previous cards and advises to refrain from continuing the game.
In the negative: the Fool alludes to passivity, excessive impulsivity, uncertainty. He warns, inviting reflection, about wrong paths, wrong decisions. He announces breakups in sentimental or professional relationships, stasis, melancholy, anxiety, confusion, aberration, illusion and disappointment; nuisances, impediments, obstacles; blocks, arrest, incapacity. It is the blade that signals the irrational: emptiness, indifference, materialism, loss of free will; immaturity, exhibitionism, immoderate spending, superficiality, indiscretions, obsessions, infatuations; deceptive and excessive optimism, physical ailments, sensuality, disorder, damage, ruin; exhaustion. He advises to retrace your steps. He corresponds to a treacherous person, to autumn, to Tuesday, to the sign of Scorpio, to the planets Sun and Uranus, to the fire element.
The advice of the arcane
Don't lose heart, go ahead.
Pairings
- Between the Empress and the Lover: love at first sight.
- Between the Force and the Tower: depression.
- Next to the Hanged Man: header.
- Followed by the Devil and the Moon: madness.
- Followed by the Tower: Suicide.
- Followed by the Stars and the Force: ingenious ideas for success.
- Followed by the Moon and the Force - aggression, provocation, uncontrolled action; gratuitous violence, confused feelings.
- Preceded by Judgment: divine illumination.
- Near any card of Cups - crazy love, passion responsible for a rash decision.
- Accompanied by an arcanum of Wands: clear ideas, goals achieved.
- Next to an arcanum of Pentacles: squandering, gambling.
- Close to an arcanum of Swords: violence, uncontrolled instincts.
