The Fool (tarot card)
The Fool is one of the 78
Iconography
The Fool is titled Le Mat in the Tarot of Marseilles, and Il Matto in most Italian language tarot decks. These archaic words mean "the madman" or "the beggar", and may be related to the word for 'checkmate' in relation to the original use of tarot cards for gaming purposes.[1]
In the earliest tarot decks, the Fool is usually depicted as a beggar or a vagabond. In the
The Tarot of Marseilles and related decks similarly depict a bearded person wearing what may be a jester's hat; he always carries a bundle of his belongings on a stick (called a bindle) slung over his back. He appears to be getting chased away by an animal, either a dog or a cat. The animal has torn his pants.[4]
In the Rider–Waite deck and other esoteric decks made for
In
History
In the decks before Waite–Smith, the Fool is almost always unnumbered. There are a few exceptions: some old decks (including the 15th-century Sola Busca) labelled the card with a 0, and the 18th-century Belgian decks labelled the Fool as XXII.[6] The Fool is almost always completely apart from the sequence of trumps in the historic decks. Still, there is historic precedent for regarding it as the lowest trump and as the highest trump.
Traditionally, the
The fool may be the precursor of The Joker.[7]
Examples
-
Pierpont Morgan Bergamo(c. 1451)
-
Charles VI (or Gringonneur) (15th century)
-
Sola Busca (1491)
-
Jean Dodal (1701–1715)
-
F. I. Vandenborre (1780)
-
Besançon (c. 1820–1830)
-
Florence Minchiate (1860–1890)
-
F. F. Solesio (1865)
-
Lequart (1890)
-
Grand Etteilla (c. 1890–1910)
-
Papus (1909)
In tarot card games
In tarot card reading, the Fool is usually considered part of the Major Arcana. This is not true in
In almost all tarot games, the Fool is one of the most valuable cards.As excuse
In most tarot games originating from Italy and France, the Fool has a unique role. In these games, the Fool is sometimes called "the Excuse". Tarot games are typically
In a minor variant option of
As lowest trump
The 18th-century Piedmontese game of Sedici and its variants treated the Fool as the lowest trump.[11] Unlike most games, the Fool is worth only one point. This is similar to the role of the Miseria trump in Sicilian tarocchi.
As highest trump
In most Central European Tarock games, the Fool, or
As excuse and highest trump
In
In Troggu, the Fool is the highest trump but if it is the last trump in the player's possession, the player can elect to throw in another card instead of following suit. Once this occurs, the Fool is no longer a trump but an excuse that must be reserved for the last trick.[16]
As excuse and wild card
Before and after trick-play of
In Grosstarock games, of which Danish tarok is the last survivor, the Fool can take the place of a missing card during declarations before play. However, a meld completed using the Fool is worth only half the points compared to a natural meld. Also, when leading a trick the Fool can turn into the weakest card of any suit the player chooses but it will be sent to the player's trick pile just like an excuse. If, however, the opponents lack the suit named, then they may get the right to set the trick's suit.[20]
Interpretations
In many esoteric systems of tarot card interpretation, the Fool is interpreted as the protagonist of a story, and the Major Arcana are the path the Fool takes through the great mysteries of life. This path is known traditionally in cartomancy as the "Fool's Journey", and is frequently used to introduce the meaning of Major Arcana cards to beginners.[21][22]
According to
Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, bewrayment. [If the card is] Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.
In media
In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, a dog named Iggy has a Stand named after The Fool with the power to control sand.
In Persona, the protagonists of the third, fourth, and fifth games wield The Fool arcana.
In Street Fighter, The Fool is used to represent the characters of Ryu (Street Fighter) and G.
In the Adventure Time miniseries Stakes, one of the members of the Vampire King's court is named after The Fool.
In Phasmophobia, The Fool is one of the 10 cards that can be pulled when using the Tarot Cards. When first pulling the card, it appears as a different card, before shortly turning into The Fool and doing nothing. During a Hunt, all cards turn into The Fool, effectively wasting any possible positive effects that could be gained from other cards drawn.[24]
In The House of the Dead, each of its bosses in the mainline series are named after the Major Arcana Tarot Cards (excluding The Devil). The second boss of its third installment (Type-0028) is named after The Fool card, battling the players in its cage by slashing them with its claws or by dropping the remains of bodies onto the player.
In The Binding of Isaac, the player can use a The Fool card to teleport Isaac back to the starting room of the floor that he is currently on.
In Cyberpunk 2077, The Fool tarot card can be found on the wall of the protagonist V's apartment.
In Gravity's Rainbow, the protagonist Tyrone Slothrop is associated with the Fool. He also appears on the cover of the only album released by the (fictional) British rock band, The Fool.
In The Fool's Errand, The Fool is the protagonist who travels through four suit-based kingdoms, encountering characters who represent every card in the major and minor arcana.
See also
- Divine madness
- Sacred fool
References
- ^ Talia Felix, "The Cartomancer's Key"
- ^ Images from the Tarocchi de Mantegna, accessed April 9, 2008.
- ^ Hofämterspiel images, accessed April 9, 2008.
- ISBN 0-8052-0559-4)
- ^ Gray, E. (1960). The tarot revealed: A modern guide to reading the tarot cards. New York, N.Y.: Bell Publishing Company.
- ^ Belgian tarot
- ISSN 0033-2925.
- ^ Tarot Nouveau decks manufactured in France
- ^ Tarot Nouveau deck from Austria
- ^ Petit imprenable rule
- ^ A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack, Dummet & McLeod, 2004. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. Vol.1, page 169-170.
- ^ Tarot games
- ^ Konigrufen rules
- ^ Hungarian tarokk
- ^ French tarot
- ^ Troggu rules
- ^ Tarocco Bolognese deck
- ^ Tarocchino Bolognese
- ^ Tarocchini sequences
- ^ Danish tarok
- ISBN 0-85030-940-9).
- ^ Place, Robert M. (2005). The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin. p. 129.
- )
- ^ Podany, Cole (17 April 2023). "All Phasmophobia Tarot Cards, Meanings, and Effects". GINX TV. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
Sources
- A. E. Waite's 1910 Pictorial Key to the Tarot
- Hajo Banzhaf, Tarot and the Journey of the Hero (2000)
- G. Ronald Murphy, S.J., The Owl, The Raven, and The Dove: Religious Meaning of the Grimm's Magic Fairy Tales (2000)
- Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings (John Dear, ed. 2002)
- Juliette Wood, Folklore 109 (1998):15-24, "The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Tradition: A Study in Modern Legend Making" (1998)
- Vici Dwyer-Thomas: The Fool and her Facebook (2012)
- ISBN 2-910401-86-3, Ramuel Ed. (1998)
External links
- Media related to Fool (Major Arcana) at Wikimedia Commons
- Learning materials related to Tarot#The Fool at Wikiversity
- The symbolism of The Fool - how to interpret this card
This article incorporates text from the