The Fool

This is the Arcana over which more controversies exist nowadays, probably due to it's enigmatic character, not easily classified. Some consider it the most important Arcana, others, simply just one more step in the sequence. The origin of these discussions is based on the significance and number of the card. Some suggest it must be at the begining of the deck, like symbolising a state of ideal innocence. Some others (Waite and Etteilla among them) say it should bear the number 21, just before the World. Some others finally say it musn't have any number, free to appear between any two given Arcana, faithful to it's playful nature.

From the archetypical point of view, this last idea might be the most accurate. The Fool symbolises the latent inner psychic energies, good or bad, and is also a reminder of a lost innocence, from a time where we let use flow with life, instead of trying to guide it ourselves, and in which we were always protected by external factors, like the dog barking, warning about the cliff at the end of the road. In some decks the dog is instead a crocodile, an animal that even though is a much older one, and thus maybe symbolise more primal energies, was also considered an animal of infinite wisdom, which takes us to the central paradox of this card. The Fool knows everything, but doesn't know he knows; it has all his experiences aside of him, a step we must all take if we want to start into the road to self-knowledge.

Another traditional meaning for the Fool is that of creativity, and that apparent lack of care we must have when facing any creative process, that freedom needed for creation to flow without any kind of barrier. The jump into the unknown we face when starting any project, and that everybody that was ever in front of a white sheet of paper or canvas well knows, is here well shown with the jump from the cliff. From our role as observers we'll never know what awaits the Fool some feet below, like he'll never know either, lost in dreams. But that is exactly the challenge: have enough lack of self conscience to start things, because if we keep on eternally meditating and analysing each possibility we'll never be able to start anything, lost in cavilations.

That same energy we'll need, after all, to jump from state to state, symbolised by each of the following Arcana.

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