The Fool's Journey

The Fool in Tarot is unnumbered in the Marseilles Tarot deck or 0 in other Tarot decks such as the Rider Waite. Some decks place the Fool in the beginning order of the major arcana and others at the end of the major arcana. Arcana means secrets or mysteries. The Fool learns these secrets as he goes along in his journey.(picture: The Fool, Mythic Tarot)

Who is the Fool? The Fool looks like a very scruffy yet fancy jester with embellishments i.e. bells, tassels etc.

We mostly see the embellishments above the waist and the shabbiness below the waist. The Fool has been described as a vagabond which is to say that the Fool is a traveler, nomad, or wanderer (someone without a homebase). In the Marseilles Tarot the Fool is Le Mat, (or Il Matto in Italian) which is madman, beggar. It doesn't seem like a nice thing to say about a person, but there are many traditions and stories about individuals who wander about without any direction to be insane or have madness and yet seen as elevated spiritually or as a mystic. (picture: WiX)

When we look at the Fool, we see someone aloof, carefree and not watching where they are going. Sometimes we think the Fool is going to walk off the edge of a cliff and it doesn't seem

to bother him, nor does the animal nipping at his heels or pants. What we can sense from the card is the energy. That energy that makes one want to move in whatever direction the energy takes them. We can't really tell where the Fool is going because he's not looking in the same direction as his feet. He's looking up. It looks like he is not paying attention to the direction or are he is hearing a message - maybe a "calling" Is this "calling" directing him where to go? Or is