Playing Card Fool

The Fool represents beginnings, openness and the risks of inexperience. In tarot used for divination, it belongs to the Major Arcana: the set of named picture cards, such as the Magician and the World. It is often numbered 0, though some traditions leave it unnumbered.

Its imagery varies between decks: you may see a wanderer or a fool, and in some familiar designs a traveller approaching a cliff. Tarot readers interpret it through themes such as taking a first step, trusting the journey or overlooking danger. These are symbolic interpretations, not a prediction built into the character.

Tarot was a game before it was a reading

Early tarot records come from northern Italy in the 1440s and 1450s. The Fool is called Matto in Italian. Tarot began as a card game; occult interpretations and fortune-telling became more widespread in the 19th century.

In French Tarot, the Fool is called the Excuse. Players each lay a card in a round called a trick. The Excuse lets its player avoid following the required suit or playing a trump, a card that outranks ordinary suits; it normally does not win that trick.