The Fool is one of the 78 cards in a

tarot The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, ...

deck. In

tarot card reading Tarot card reading is a form of cartomancy whereby practitioners use tarot cards to purportedly gain insight into the past, present or future. They formulate a question, then draw cards to interpret them for this end. A traditional tarot deck co ...

, it is one of the 22

Major Arcana The Major Arcana are the named or numbered cards in a cartomantic tarot pack, the name being originally given by occultists to the trump cards of a normal tarot pack used for playing card games. There are usually 22 such cards in a standard 78-car ...

, sometimes numbered as 0 (the first) or XXII (the last). However, in decks designed for playing traditional

tarot card games Tarot games are card games played with tarot decks, that is, decks with numbered permanent Trump (card games), trumps parallel to the Playing card suit, suit cards. The games and decks which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are cal ...

, it is typically unnumbered, as it is not one of the 21

trump cards A trump is a playing card which is elevated above its usual rank in trick-taking games. Typically, an entire suit is nominated as a ''trump suit''; these cards then outrank all cards of plain (non-trump) suits. In other contexts, the terms ''tru ...

and instead serves a unique purpose by itself.

Iconography

The Fool is titled ''Le Mat'' in the

Tarot of Marseilles The Tarot of Marseilles is a standard pattern of Italian-suited tarot pack with 78 cards that was very popular in France in the 17th and 18th centuries for playing tarot card games and is still produced today. It was probably created in Milan befo ...

, 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. In the earliest tarot decks, the Fool is usually depicted as a beggar or a vagabond. In the

Visconti-Sforza tarot deck The Visconti-Sforza Tarot is used collectively to refer to incomplete sets of approximately 15 decks from the middle of the 15th century, now located in various museums, libraries, and private collections around the world. No complete deck has su ...

, the Fool wears ragged clothes and stockings without shoes, and carries a stick on his back. He has what appear to be feathers in his hair. His unruly beard and feathers may relate to the tradition of the woodwose or

wild man The wild man, wild man of the woods, or woodwose/wodewose is a mythical figure that appears in the art and literature of medieval Europe, comparable to the satyr or faun type in classical mythology and to '' Silvanus'', the Roman god of the woodl ...

. Another early Italian image that relates to the tradition is the first (and lowest) of the series of the so-called '' Tarocchi of Mantegna''. This series of prints containing images of social roles,

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

figures, and classical deities begins with ''Misero'', a depiction of a beggar leaning on a staff. A similar image is contained in the German '' Hofämterspiel''; there the fool (German: ''Narr'') is depicted as a barefoot man in robes, apparently with bells on his hood, playing a

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Nor ...

. The Tarot of Marseilles and related decks similarly depict a bearded person wearing what may be a

jester A jester, court jester, fool or joker was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch employed to entertain guests during the medieval and Renaissance eras. Jesters were also itinerant performers who entertained common folk at fairs and ...

'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. In the Rider–Waite deck and other esoteric decks made for

cartomancy Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were first introduced into Europe in the 14th century. Huson, Paul (2004). ''Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancien ...

, the Fool is shown as a young man, walking unknowingly toward the brink of a precipice. In the Rider–Waite Tarot deck, he is also portrayed as having with him a small dog. The Fool holds a white rose (a symbol of freedom from baser desires) in one hand, and in the other a small bundle of possessions, representing untapped collective knowledge. In French suited tarot decks that do not use the traditional emblematic images of Italian suited decks for the suit of

trump Trump most commonly refers to: * Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th president of the United States (2017–2021) * Trump (card games), any playing card given an ad-hoc high rank Trump may also refer to: Businesses and organizations * Donald J. T ...

s, the Fool is typically made up as a jester or

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

, reminiscent of the Joker often included with the

standard 52-card deck The standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards is the most common pack of playing cards used today. In English-speaking countries it is the only traditional pack used for playing cards; in many countries of the world, however, it is used ...

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. 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

in tarot cards are numbered with

Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

. The Fool is numbered with the

zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation Positional notation (or place-value notation, or positional numeral system) usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (or ...

, one of the

Arabic numerals Arabic numerals are the ten numerical digits: , , , , , , , , and . They are the most commonly used symbols to write Decimal, decimal numbers. They are also used for writing numbers in other systems such as octal, and for writing identifiers ...

. The fool may be the precursor of

The Joker The Joker is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson, and first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book ''Batman (comic book), Bat ...

Examples

File:Bembo-Visconti-tarot-arcanum-fool.jpg, Pierpont Morgan Bergamo ( 1451) File:Fool tarot charles6.jpg, Charles VI (or Gringonneur) (15th century) File:Sola Busca tarot card 00.jpg, Sola Busca (1491) File:Jean Dodal Tarot trump Fool.jpg, Jean Dodal (1701–1715) File:Tarot Belgijski - A22 - Głupiec.jpg, F. I. Vandenborre (1780) File:Tarot de Besançon - Renault - Trump 00.jpg,

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerl ...

( 1820–1830) File:Minchiate card deck - Florence - 1860-1890 - Trumps - Il Matto -.jpg, Florence Minchiate (1860–1890) File:Piedmontese tarot deck - Solesio - 1865 - Trump - 00 - The Fool.jpg, F. F. Solesio (1865) File:TT Tarot.png, Lequart (1890) File:00 La Folie - Grimaud Grand Etteilla Tarot Deck.jpg,

Grand Etteilla Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and co ...

( 1890–1910) File:Papus Atout 22-mat-fool.png, 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

; the Fool's role in most games is independent of both the plain suit cards and the trump cards, and the card does not belong to either category. As such, most tarot decks originally made for game playing do not assign a number to the Fool indicating its rank in the suit of trumps; it has none. Waite gives the Fool the number 0, but in his book discusses the Fool between

Judgment Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to decision-making, make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct u ...

, no. 20, and

The World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

, no. 21. The only traditional game deck that numbers the Fool 0 is the

Tarocco Piemontese The Tarocco Piemontese (''Tarot of Piedmont'') is a type of tarot deck of Italian origin. It is the most common tarot playing set in northern Italy, much more common than the Tarocco Bolognese. The most popular Piedmontese tarot games are Scarto ...

. Since the 1930s,

Tarot Nouveau The Bourgeois Tarot deck is a mid-19th century pattern of tarot cards of German origin that is still used for playing card games today in western Europe and Canada. It is not designed for divinatory purposes.mullet as the corner index for the Fool. 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 trick taking games; playing the Fool card excuses the player from either following suit or playing a

. At the end of the trick, the player then takes back the Fool and adds it to their own trick pile and (in most games) gives the trick's winner the least valuable card from that same pile. If there are no cards to give in exchange, the Fool is worth one point less and an extra point is given to the trick-taker. Or, at the end of the hand, it can be awarded to a player or team that has won all the tricks. Usually the Fool can't be captured but in some games it can be won in the last trick which may yield a scoring bonus. In a minor variant option of French tarot, a player dealt trump 1 but with no other trumps or the Fool can make trump 1 behave the same as the Fool (''petit imprenable''). However, in official tournament rules, a player in this situation must declare their hand and force a redeal (''petit sec'').

As lowest trump

The 18th-century

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

ese game of Sedici and its variants treated the Fool as the lowest trump. Unlike most games, the Fool is worth only one point. This is similar to the role of the ''Miseria'' trump in

Sicilian tarocchi Sicilian refers to the autonomous Italian island of Sicily. Sicilian can also refer to: * Sicilian language, a Romance language spoken on the island of Sicily, its satellite islands, and southern Calabria * Sicilians, people from or with origins ...

As highest trump

In most Central European Tarock games, the Fool, or ''

Sküs The trull is a trio of three special trump cards used in tarock games in Austria and other countries that have a much higher card value than the other trumps. The individual cards are known as trull cards (''Trullstücke''). The word ''trull'' i ...

'', is simply played as the 22nd trump, making it the highest trump in such games. In

Königrufen Königrufen or Königsrufen (German: "Call the King") is a four-player, trick-taking card game of the Tarot card games, tarot family, played in Austria and Southern Tyrol, with variants for two, three and six players. As with other regional tarot ...

, the Fool can be captured but only if it is played in the same trick with trumps 21 and 1 in which case trump 1 wins; this is called the Emperor's trick or Fairytale trick. In

Hungarian Tarock The Tarock card game family is represented in Hungary by a variant for four players that uses a 42-card deck, variously called Hungarian Tarock ( hu, Húszashívásos tarokk), Hungarian Tarokk or Paskievics (german: Paskiewitsch in Austrian source ...

, the player that loses trump 21 to the Fool traditionally has to wear a silly hat.

As excuse and highest trump

In French tarot and

Droggn Droggn, sometimes called French Tarock (german: Französisches Tarock) is an extinct card game of the Tarock family for three players that was played in the Stubai valley in Tyrol, Austria until the 1980s. ''Droggn'' is originally local dialect f ...

, the Fool is an excuse but in a rare circumstance it will be the highest trump. If the player who holds the Fool has won all the previous tricks, in the last trick the Fool becomes the highest trump. In

Troggu Troggu is a member of the tarot family of card games. Synonyms for the game's name are: Trogga, Tappu and Tappä. It is played in the area of Visp, Switzerland, in Upper Wallis, especially in St. Niklaus and Grächen. After Troccas, it is the ...

, 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.

As excuse and wild card

Before and after trick-play of

Tarocchini Tarocchini (plural for ''tarocchino'') are point trick-taking tarot card games popular in Bologna, capital city of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and has been confined mostly to this area. They are the diminutive form of ''tarocchi'' (plural f ...

, the ''Matto'' (Fool) and the ''Bégato'' are called ''contatori'' (counters), a limited form of

wild cards ''Wild Cards'' is a series of science fiction superhero shared universe anthologies, mosaic novels, and solo novels. They are written by a collection of more than forty authors (referred to as the "Wild Cards Trust") and are edited by George R. ...

. They can be used separately or together to fill missing gaps in combinations or extend them but they can't fill in two consecutive gaps in sequential combinations. They can't replace the highest trump or kings. Both cards can be used in every sequence but as the Fool can't be captured while the Magician is vulnerable, the player holding the Magician would want to use it only judiciously. In ''

Grosstarock Grosstarock (german: Großtarock) is an old three-handed card game of the Tarock family played with a full 78-card Tarot pack. It was probably introduced into the southern German states around 1720 but spread rapidly into Austria and northwards a ...

'' 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 MELD may refer to: * Model for End-Stage Liver Disease, a prognostic model * A variant of the declarative language CycL * Molecular orbital diagram, Molecular energy-level diagram, a type of one-dimensional plot with a significant qualitative aspec ...

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.

Interpretations

In many esoteric systems of tarot card interpretation, the Fool is interpreted as the protagonist of a story, and the Major Arcana is 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. According to

A.E. Waite Arthur Edward Waite (2 October 1857 – 19 May 1942) was a British poet and scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider–Waite tarot deck (also called the Rider–Waite–Smith o ...

's 1910 book ''

Pictorial Key to the Tarot ''The Pictorial Key to the Tarot'' is a divinatory tarot guide, with text by A. E. Waite and illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith. Published in conjunction with the Rider–Waite tarot deck, the pictorial version (released 1910, dated 1911) f ...

'', the Fool card is associated with:

In media

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1987 to 2004, and was transferred to the monthly ''seinen'' manga ...

, a dog named Iggy has a Stand named after The Fool with the power to control sand.

References

Sources

A. E. Waite Arthur Edward Waite (2 October 1857 – 19 May 1942) was a British poet and scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider–Waite tarot deck (also called the Rider–Waite–Smith o ...

'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 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

: Essential Writings'' (John Dear, ed. 2002) *

Juliette Wood Juliette Wood is a British historian and lecturer at Cardiff University. She specializes in Celtic and Medieval history, magic, and folklore. She is a former director of the Folklore Society and an Honorary Fellow of the National Museum of Wales. ...

, ''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) * Robert Mazlo: ''A la recherche du Tarot perdu''. Les tablettes d'Hermès, , Ramuel Ed. (1998)

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fool (Tarot Card) Fool, The Divination