If you ask most of those actively involved in a mystical tradition, they will tell you that the secret to all knowledge and indeed all human experience lies somewhere within the Tarot. And within the Tarot are 22 important cards called the “Trump” cards. Most people know the Tarot as a form of divination, but it also stands on its own as a book about the lives of us all, told not in words but in pictures. And no greater beginning to this tale is there than the Fool, the Zero Card.
The Fool is depicted in modern Tarot as carrying a bindle in one hand, and a rose in the other. A white dog nips at his heels as both a scourge and reminder of pain, but also a constant companion. The expression on The Fool’s face is one of nonchalant neutrality as he steps forward about to topple over the precipice as though he means to step off into it.
It should be noted that though the fool is clearly nonchalantly walking off a cliff, there is no depiction of what lies beyond the cliff. One interpretation of the Tarot puts that the cliff itself symbolizes the future, the dog memory, and the fool the present. This is a partial interpretation, but a parallel but equally important aspect depicts The Fool as the participant in life, bereft of identity as he hurtles into a world of potential. The Fool itself is an image of potential, the card that depicts the participant rather than the experience itself, or rather the act of experiencing. He neither smiles nor frowns as he walks to the edge because he is the experiencer without the experience. He has nothing to laugh about and nothing to cry about, and can move only forward and ever onward driven by a desire to experience and no choice as the constant companion, his dog goads him on while ever at his heels demanding his attention.
In divination, extra care should be taken to see what card the Fool is immediately preceded and/or followed by as the card connecting to it may turn out to be significant to the self more than a future event. Predicting the future is only a limited possibility when it comes to the Tarot. The real significance of The Fool is its ability to bring the viewer out of the experience and rather focus on themselves as a spiritual being. Why do you feel? The fool finds death only in inaction, and must have other cards in order to be complete. When the Fool Card comes up, the reader should consider reflecting on themselves through deep meditation, and attempt to find time to remove themselves from the cards they are currently occupying, whether to return to them hours later or discard them and draw themselves a new hand entirely by radical personal change.
The Tarot’s 22 Trump Cards, or Greater Revelations, are significantly powerful guides not only about looking into the future, but looking into the present as well. The symbols dealt with within the deck are incredibly powerful to our subconscious minds, and any one single card could take up a lifetime of study. This is no accident, as each of the cards are one of 22 experiences we can have in any given lifetime.