What It Means To Be The Fool

As some of you may have seen on my Instagram stories (check it out here), last week, I went to the Tarot: Origins & Afterlives exhibition at The Warburg Institute. It’s a small, free exhibit in London that delves into the history of the tarot, and I found it incredibly interesting. One of the things I love about tarot is that it’s an endless treasure trove - there is always more we can learn, more to research, more to study. Anyone with an interest in tarot who is able to get to the exhibit before it closes at the end of the month, I would certainly recommend it.

One thing at the exhibition that particularly caught my eye was a tableau of Etteilla’s original 78 cards.

Photo taken at The Warburg Institute’s Exhibition - Tarot: Origins & Afterlives

Etteilla (a pseudonym for Jean-Baptiste Alliette) is believed by many to be the first tarot reader to earn a living from it—back in the 1700s!

The system was different to what we know today, and the minor arcana was made up of pip cards without illustrations, but I could spot many elements that we see in Pamela Coleman Smith’s imagery for the Rider Waite Smith deck in the images.

There was, however, one particular card that stood out to me, The Fool.

Etteilla’s Folie card

Etteilla’s Fool is accompanied by his dog, armed with his bindle, just like his Rider Waite Smith counterpart, but the big difference is that he’s an older man, with a walking stick and a slight stoop.

It’s a small detail, but this difference is massive.

We traditionally see The Fool as representative of youth, immaturity and naivety. The Fool is the blank slate that journeys through the other 21 majors, susceptible to making ‘foolish’ decisions, but also yet to be affected by the harsh realities of life, and so bold and brave enough to take risks. The Fool is fearless, both a blessing and a curse, because he is yet to experience any reason to fear.

The Fool’s youth is fundamental to how we understand this card, and yet, in this earlier form, The Fool was not youthful at all.

Pamela Coleman Smith’s artwork for The Fool in the Rider Waite Smith deck, on which most modern decks are based.

How This Changes The Meaning

The older man in Etteilla’s image has no doubt lived a lot of life. He’s experienced hardship, loss, pain, discomfort, betrayal, all those ugly inevitabilities that we all deal with and learn from.

And yet, still, he ventures into the unknown. This positions The Fool’s leap of faith as a conscious choice, rather than a product of his innocence.

Anyone who’s started dating again after a painful break-up, who’s lent someone money after the last person never paid them back, who’s opened their heart to a friend after a previous one broke their trust, will know that doesn’t come easy. It goes against every instinct within us and defies the walls we built to protect us.

It takes a radical sort of bravery, to behave like The Fool, when armed with the wisdom of experience.

And that’s the thing - none of us reading tarot, or thinking about tarot, are blank slates. We all come with our own baggage. But each time we stand at the precipice of a fresh start, we are given an opportunity to reflect. In this way, The Fool serves as an invitation to reassess the baggage we are carrying and choose what to take with us in our next chapter.

What truly matters? What’s important? Who will be our companions? What’s useful wisdom to be mindful of going forward (for us to store in that little bindle) and what’s a defence mechanism?

In this way, Etteilla’s version of The Fool actually feels more accurate to our human experience than the RWS version.

We can look at the major arcana as a journey that The Fool takes, from first step to completion. After all, it is referred to as The Fool’s Journey. While this does indeed mirror our entire life cycle, from birth to death (and beyond), we also complete this journey many times over in our lives, from new beginning to completion. And that’s generally when we meet the tarot, not in our first chapter.

And so when we pull The Fool, we really are (unfortunately) more like that old, hunched, bearded man (sorry), our mind, body and soul a little weary and worn down, choosing to throw caution to the wind, forget all we know about the pitfalls of life, and boldly venture out into the unknown.

Of course, we could also talk about the foolishness of ignoring all of life’s lessons and going ahead with something we know is doomed for failure, but perhaps that’s for another day. Isn’t that the beauty of the tarot, that there are always more angles in a card, for us to consider?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this version of The Fool! What impressions do you get from the imagery? How do you think it compares to the more traditional Rider Waite Smith? Join me in the comments below!

N x