The Fool's Journey
The journey through the major arcana has ancient mythology, spiritual symbolisms, legends, and stories that dive deep into the human consciousness and experiences. When we understand The Fool’s Journey and the wisdom hidden within the major arcana, we’ll know the tarot patterns of the past, present, and future.
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At the start of their journey we meet The Fool, ready to embark upon a new chapter, The Fool is filled with excitement and enthusiasm. They are unafraid and barely prepared for the adventure that lies right in front of them. The Fool is carefree, innocent, young, unaware, and naive. Everything they own is in that bag and that dog is barking trying to warn them that they are walking off a cliff. But The Fool is ready to take a leap of faith, trusting within the journey even though they are unaware of what lies ahead of them. So The Fool continues to walk and laugh and smile right off the cliff and before they knew it their journey had begun.
Image by Mahogany Tarot
Image by Mahogany Tarot
When The Fool falls off the cliff, falls right in between The Magician and The High Priestess. The Fool sees The Magician and recognizes that they are gifted, dynamic, masculine, commanding, and mysterious. The Magicians is a master manifesto with the will to project themselves into the world. They are a mentor, guardian, and teacher showing The Fool what they are capable of through the mastery of the four elements, and their corresponding items. The cups represent the element of water and the energies of love and emotions. The pentacles represent the element of earth and the energies of material possessions and work. The swords represent the element of air and the energies of communication and intellect. The wand represents the element of fire and the energies of passions and desires. The Magician demonstrates their wisdom and teaching to The Fool through dreams, signs, and synchronicities. The Fool receives this guidance although they find the teachings to be confusing. The Magician tells The Fool that they will need to learn to master all four elements to gain success and completion upon their journey. The Fool begins to feel that they have a long journey ahead of them and they are overwhelmed and insecure. At this point, The Fool is beginning to realize that they don’t know much about the journey they’re on Noticing The Fool in a somber mood The Magician suggests that they go speak to The High Priestess. The Magician tells The Fool that The High Priestess will give them wisdom, guidance, and inner balance. The Fool then goes to see The High Priestess, she is seated patiently waiting for them at the gates of Solomon Temple; where she guards the secrets of divine power. The Fool notices that The High Priestess is beautiful, mysterious, and unlike The Magician. The High Priestess exudes feminine energy. She is listening and not talking. She is also a mentor and teacher. The Fool goes to The High Priestess and shows her the tools The Magician had given them. The High Priestess then grants The Fool permission to read the ancient scrolls of wisdom, which she holds counseled in her hands but The Fool does not understand the text. The Fool begins to get confused and frustrated at The High Priestess’s silence and riddles but she is showing The Fool how to trust their intuition and that all of the answers will be revealed in divine time. The Fool then learns how to go within and use their inner wisdom to gain more knowledge about their tools. The Fool soon learns that both The Magician and High Priestess are the masculine and feminine aspects of their higher self. Representing their conscious and unconscious worlds. Now aware of how to go within and listen to their inner wisdom. The Fool is ready to continue on their journey incorporating their new lessons.
Image by Mahogany Tarot
Image by Mahogany Tarot
The Fool runs into The Empress. She is nurturing, abundant, loving, giving, and beautiful. The Empress teaches The Fool how to love and nurture themselves. She also tells The Fool to be aware of the unknown and to be careful of whom they offer their love. The Empress then invites The Fool to meet her counterpart The Emperor. The Emperor is logical, he creates firm foundations and boundaries on the external world to protect those he loves. During their time together, The Fool tells The Emperor about what they learned from The Empress. The Emperor tells The Fool that it is important for them to be logical, handle their actions with authority and confidence, and to always put in the work and effort needed. This conversation with The Emperor sparks something new in The Fool. The Fool is now excited and has a new drive and attitude towards their future. They now have the nature of love, nourishment, kindness, unconditional love and care as well as rules, punishment, discipline, and the need for structure and consequences in life. It’s time for The Fool to leave The Empress and Emperor to become independent. Though The Fool is overflowing with their new lessons, they still have questions that they cannot answer.
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The Fool then seeks guidance from The Hierophant, in hopes they’ll find the answers to their questions and new opportunities. The Hierophant introduces The Fool to education and organized religion. They teach The Fool knowledge through the lenses of hierarchy and religious institutions. The Fool learns and studies society and they now understand what it’s like to be apart of the collective. After leaving The Hierophant, The Fool is starting to develop a sense of purpose and they began to formulate goals for the future.
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At this point The Fool discovers a crossroad within their path and now they have to make a choice. This is symbolized in the form of The Lovers. The Fool can stay true to their original path or choose the path of love. Through making their choice The Fool begins to understand that their destiny is in their own hands. By this time The Fool has developed a strong character and sense of self. They are confident and still very young. Regardless of the path they choose, after this their journey will speed up.
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​The Fool meets the brave and noble Charioteer. Through their encounter, The Fool learns to have a sense of necessary aggression in the pursuit of one’s own goals, to believe in themselves and to never give up. This interaction prepares The Fool for their first real life challenge.
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The Fool had to overcome their struggles by understanding that mind over matter is at times the best solution. They have learned that Strength comes from within They now know how to overcome bad sister and developed a new sense of confidence and courage through their new lessons. The Fool knows that some beasts need to be tamed with warmth and kindness and not force. Strength teaches them to have patience and they now understand quiet and personal inner strength.
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​The Fool push into the introspective world of The Hermit. Here The Fool is alone with their own thoughts and they are equipped with all of the lessons they’ve learned. Now away from the world, The Fool must go within to seek the answers to the questions they still have. They feel they need to know more in order to become more. The Fool begins to explore their inner world searching in darkness to find themselves. Their bag has now turned into a lamp representing inner knowledge and progress on their journey. The Fool is no longer focused on material possessions and they understand now that they only need their own inner light to guide their way to freedom.
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The knowing of going within manifest and The Fool encounters The Wheel of Fortune. They can now see life as a series of riddles, twist and turns that are caused by fate and free will. The Fool comes to accept that one day things are up and the next day things are down. They now know that the wheel keeps turning and everything is a cycle. The Fool then begins to reflect on their life and the lessons they’ve learned and they realize that everything has consequences and they admit to themselves that at times they’ve been wrong and they learned to forgive and make peace with themselves and they look forward to their future.
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Now that The Fool has learned from their mistakes and forgiven themselves, Justice must be served in order for them to start their new chapter. The Fool questions the lack of balance they may have created in their life between gaining worldly possessions and maintaining spiritual growth.
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The Fool then finds themselves hanging between the two worlds in order to find new perspective. They now take a pause to look at things from a new point of view. In this position of necessary discomfort The Fool realizes that the beliefs and ideas they were living by, were not of their own, instead they were living by the beliefs and ideas of their mentors, parents and teachers. The Fool is now free and ready for a rebirth and transformation towards growth and improvement. The Fool is now wiser, confident and changed by their experiences.
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They now understand peace, patience and balance. The angel of Temperance visits The Fool and tells them that anything is possible with the right balance and The Fool now understands. They now have a deep spiritual awareness and now they are in control of their emotions. At this point a middle path is forged between The Fool’s worldly possessions and spiritual growth to support and maintain balance.
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​As The Fool continues the journey they suddenly find themselves in the underworld and they know that it is ruled by The Devil. The Fool is surrounded by surrounding by temptation and sin but they soon realize that no one is being forced to stay. That can see that everyone is here by choice and they can choose to leave whenever they please. The Fool knows now that temptation isn’t enslavement or captivity, it is a choice. They understand now that acknowledge addictions and damaging impulses is the first step to overcoming temptation.
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Suddenly a lightning bolt strikes down from heaven and crumbles the walls of The Fool finds it to be horrific. The Fool sees that a lot of times foundations are built and are not secure and in order to rebuild a fallen tower it has to be torn down completely. Though The Fool understands this, they are still devastated and distressed about the intimidating process of rebuilding what was lost.
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The Fool then looks up to the stars to seek hope. The Star is one of the most encouraging moments in The Fool’s Journey. She appears when The Fool needs her the most, a woman whose eyes look like stars offers The Fool some fruit and through this interaction healthy new ideas are planted. The Fool now feels that they have the stars to guide them towards their future and it gives them hope.
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With The Star, The Fool discovers that they also have the profound and mystic Moon to guide them. The Fool finds The Moon to be uncontrollable and mysterious. They soon realize that though they have both The Stars and The Moon to guide them, they still can’t see all of the shadows that will be presented in their path and they have to learn to trust their journey. The Moon sheds light on The Fools subconscious thoughts, nightmares, anxieties and fears and they begin to fall vulnerable to their illusions and dreams. The Fool slowly learns how to overcome self defeating thoughts and the night does not last forever.
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​The Sun rises, shining brightly. The sky is clear, the day is beautiful and filled with laughter and children playing. There is this innocent child that has questions for The Fool, and The Fool has answers to give with joy, love and positivity. The Fool can feel it in their soul that they are at peace, in balance and they understand that their journey is coming to an end.
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Upon that realization, The Fool finds themselves at the gates of their ancestral castle ready to reveal all that they’ve learned on their travels. The Judgment card is The Fool’s call and revelation. This is where anything left unsaid or unnoticed is dealt with and the final inner work is now completed. The Fool can now fully let go and become at peace with their past.
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​The Fool is now ready to take their last step of the cycle and embrace the world at the end of this journey while embarking on the cycle that is yet to come. They know now that life is an endless cycle. It’s a chance to learn and grow through experiences and as long as we are humans on earth, there will always be lessons for us to discover and conquer.
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As The Fool continues on their path with gratitude, they realize that they are about to step off the very same cliff they started this journey on. The World shows The Fool that everything happens in cycles. But this isn’t where the truly stated. They have learned so much, they have experienced so much and now the journey start again. Only this time The Fool is evolved. We are all The Fool on our life’s journey and although we seem to come full circle, each time we are a little further along on our path.
The End.
