The traditional meaning for The Fool is a new beginning. The Rider/Waite/Smith deck depicts a young person standing on a cliff. The symbology of his clothes and surroundings suggest he is about to embark on a spiritual journey. The Fool is sometimes referred to as a new soul, just learning about life on the physical plane. He is inexperienced but prepared for the leap of faith he is about to make. One of the first things that new readers ask about this card is the title, The Fool. In today’s language a fool is someone who has made bad choices or is just not very smart. We rarely think of him as innocent or inexperienced – quite the contrary. He is someone who knows better and still makes decisions that can be quite destructive. The Fool position in the Tarot cards is not describing such a person. So when Expanding Dimensions thought about a representation for this card, we asked ourselves who in today’s world exemplifies the qualities of The Fool. Key 0 Beginning shows a young college student who has just opened her first deck of Tarot cards. She is embarking on several different journeys. She has just left home for the first time and is on her own, making her own decisions. She is studying for a career and she has chosen to learn the Tarot to develop her spiritual awareness. While she is certainly inexperienced in all these things, she is not foolish. Her companion animal urges her forward, just as the white dog does in the R/W/S deck. The dog is sometimes associated with our lower animal nature which often encourages wrong choices but the cat in Today’s Journey Tarot is wise and suggests that she will be helped along the way.

Teresa Sue McAdams, co-creator of “Today’s Journey Tarot”, co-writer of “Today’s Journey Tarot, A Traveler’s Journey”, and author of “Lessons, The Wisdom Within Each Moment”