The Fool

UPRIGHT

The Fool steps off the cliff with a white rose in one hand and the whole sky open above him. He is the first breath of any journey — innocence before experience, the leap taken because the path demands it, not because the ground beneath has been surveyed. In the Rider-Waite-Smith image, the small dog at his heel is the part of the world that consents to come along.

REVERSED

Reversed, the Fool is the leap refused, or the leap taken without the rose. The card warns of recklessness mistaken for courage, of beginnings entered into without listening to the small voices that try to slow them down. It can also name a person frozen at the cliff's edge, mistaking caution for wisdom, when the only honest move left is to step.

Return to the full deck, or draw the cards and see The Fool in context.