Learn the Tarot: The Fool

We are switching it up with these new Friday episodes!

I will be walking through all 78 cards in the Tarot and doing a deep dive into the meaning of each card, covering all aspects including career, relationships/friendships/family, love and money.

This week we are coving the first card in the tarot deck: The Fool.

**DIFFERENT EXAMPLES OF THE FOOL CARD**

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, hello, and welcome back to the show. This is Stop Start Continue, and I am your host, Sarah Cook. I am back this Friday, this beautiful Friday, to give you a little bit of a different episode. So typically, if you've been following the podcast, um, this podcast has been very strictly a once-a-week I give you a tarot card reading for the week ahead. Cut, dry to the point. We still love that. We're still doing that. That is still happening. But what I've been or what I have decided, not even what I've been, but what I've, yes, I guess what I've been thinking about and have now decided upon is that I'm gonna take every Friday to do more of a teaching moment, more of a, you know, let's break down the tarot deck and talk about the different cards in the tarot deck, which, if you don't know, there are 78 cards in a tarot deck. So we have many, many weeks that we are gonna be able to talk about every single card in the deck. Um, it's gonna obviously take us over a year to do this, which I'm super excited about because I think that this is going to be a great way if you are wanting to learn tarot, if you are wanting to integrate tarot into your life. This is a really digestible way to start to learn more about the cards. Um, we're gonna do deep dives into every single card, and I'm gonna kind of break down the card into different categories, like how it relates to your money, how it relates to career, how it relates to love, to family relationships, to friendships. So we're really gonna explore all of the different facets of the card. Um, I'm also gonna have some episodes as well, and you know, not quite sure when that will happen, but stay tuned where we just talk about um, you know, different aspects of tarot, like if your card comes up reversed, um, or you know, what is the difference between the major arcana or the minor arcana? We're gonna start talking about all those things as well. So stay tuned for that. But for now, we're gonna start going through all 78 cards in the deck. We are starting today with, I'm sure you saw the title, The Fool. Um, so I'm really excited to get into this specific card. Lots of great notes for you today. I do just want to point out as I'm kind of introducing this series to you, um that it a tarot deck is always gonna have 78 cards. I think this is something really important to point out. So a lot of people talk about Oracle decks um as well and adjacent to tarot decks. And um Oracle decks are also wonderful. I, you know, anytime I use an Oracle deck, it's more of a supplemental to my tarot reading. An Oracle deck is never really leading my reading. Um, and the reason for that is because Oracle decks are there's no um consistent structure to them. So it's completely up to the creator of the Oracle deck as to how many cards they're gonna have in there, what kind of cards are gonna be in there, you know, like there's there's no uh framework or specific, you know, cards that will be in an Oracle deck. So you could have an Oracle deck with 15 cards, with 175 cards, and they could, you know, not even be the same whatsoever. With a tarot deck, you're going to see consistency. So there's always going to be 78 cards. There's always going to be a major arcana, which is like our fool card, magician, high priestess, you know, that's that zero through 21 cards where we kind of have the different chapters of life, as you might want to refer to them as. Um, and then you're going to have all of the different suits. So you're going to have wands, swords, cups, and pentacles. Now, what can differ is that sometimes a tarot deck creator will refer to the a certain suit with a different name. So sometimes you see pentacles being referred to as coins, um, or you can see cups being referred to the element of water, because each suit in the tarot deck does relate to a certain element. Um, and again, that's that's a whole other podcast episode, so I'm not gonna get into that right now. But that like you might see those variations, right? You might see different variations in the name of um the the name of a certain number card in the major arcana. So I can't think of one specifically right off top off the top of my head, but you know, maybe for the strength card, it is named Perseverance in a different deck. But it's we as tarot readers know, okay, this is representative of this archetype, of this symbolism, of this energy. And so for me as a reader, I have learned to work with this system of tarot, and that is why I'm able to give a better reading because it's like it I know this language, it's a language that I know with an Oracle deck. Um, especially because there's no set structure, there's not really a universal language of Oracle decks. Does that make sense? Um, again, you can pull them and you can read the card and you can see what the author meant by that card, and you can definitely have a really nice experience with Oracle cards. But I think if you're trying to really treat your readings as more of like you are interpreting a language, it is very important to have an actual tarot deck where you know exactly what is in there and you understand what the different cards mean and what then you know what messages is coming through. So I just wanted to point that out really quickly before we get into this episode today, because I think there's a lot of questions about that. Um, and so this is why breaking this down into every single week, we're gonna talk about one of the 78 cards is really just gonna help you in your knowledge of the deck because they are universal. Again, they might have different names, they might have, you know, different imagery, but at the end of the day, the language is the language, the card is the card, the archetype is the archetype, and you can carry that through. Um, I will say one other thing. Um, I am not a huge uh, you know, I did initially study the Rider Weight deck, which is known by a lot of people as kind of like the original tarot deck. It's one of the older tarot decks I think we could debate. There are there were decks that came before that deck, but it's kind of the one that is the most known, kind of again, like the the universal deck. If if you've ever seen, you know, kind of generic tarot imagery, you've definitely seen the riderweight deck. Um, I am not a reader that connects very deeply with that deck. So you will not in this ep in these episodes at all um be getting me speaking about specific imagery in the writer weight tarot. Um, that is just not what I do. And I I don't feel that it's necessary. So um there are and there's also plenty of people that dive very deeply into the riderweight uh tarot imagery. And so you can find that. That is definitely out there, and and I learned all of that originally when I first started studying tarot. So, like, you know, I'm aware of it, but it is not something that I'm gonna deep dive into in these episodes. So just be aware of that, that I really just focus more on the archetype itself, and I will talk about some of the imagery that you see. Um, and then also I'm gonna link this in the show notes. I'm going to be putting a blog post on my website um with pictures of different examples of each card. So you can kind of look at the imagery, connect with the imagery in that way as well. So know that that is available to you. But yeah, I'm definitely taking this approach of my personal connection with these cards, what I've learned about these cards, and and really just giving you an opportunity to learn about these cards uh from some different perspectives. Okay, so without further to further ado or to do or any of that, um, we are gonna get into today's card, which we're just starting right at the beginning because why not? I feel like that makes the most sense. We are starting with the fool card, which is I've never seen it any other way in any tarot deck. It is typically always the number zero card in the deck. So we talk about the major arcana, which you can kind of um understand as the cards that represent the different chapters or the different themes that somebody comes upon as a human being as they go through life. And the fool is number zero, quite literally meaning that we also sometimes refer to the major arcana as the fool's journey. So the fool is not a chapter, the fool is a person experiencing something, the fool is you going through these different chapters. And so again, I always say to people, you know, if if you pull the fuel the fool card um in a reading, you know, this this is not really representative of uh a new chapter in life. To me, this is very representative of an entirely new book, an entirely new story, um, a new narrative, and again, representative of you uh completely redirecting. And again, this can be in a lot of different areas of life, like you know, your career, your romantic relationship, you know, and we're gonna go into depth of all of those different categories. But this is not a stop along the journey. This is a brand new journey. I think if if you could really take anything from this episode, like if you were just to turn this podcast off right now, you could walk away with the understanding of that. That if if you understand nothing else about this card, it is that this is the idea of a fresh start um in every sense of the word. This is a blank slate. This is, you know, the path is completely wide open, and we have no idea what we are gonna run into, but we are gonna, we can pretty much guarantee, right, that we're gonna encounter it all, which is why we call it the fool's journey, which is why the rest of the major arcana, which is the cards one through 21. So these are the cards like the emperor, the empress. So anytime you're you're not seeing a suit in a card, like strength, the death card, the tower, the star, those are major arcana cards, and there is 22 of them. The fool is one of them. So again, the fool is really seen as the archetype of a of a soul, right, going through a journey, and then the one through 21 is the different, I would say, life experiences, kind of life chapters that we all have. So I want to go through. I I kind of see, I I thought about this for a while. And I think that when people are either giving themselves readings or receiving a reading, um, it is really it comes down to kind of these four main categories. And of course, yes, can we veer off into, you know, other um, you know, kind of subcategories and things like that? Absolutely. But I I think the main things that I typically see come up um for people when they are going to tarot is their relationship with money, their relationship with their career or their career path, their romantic relationship or their love life, or their, you know, uh romantic experience in life. And then their greater relationships just as far as friends and family. I kind of lumped those two together. I would also say another category could definitely be um, you know, like again, I think we could we could go deeper into health, spirituality, emotional health. Um, but I would say the big things that typically the big the big themes that team seem to come up or seem to be asked about are money, career, love, and relationships. So we're gonna start there. And I'm gonna kind of go through these different categories and share what this particular card of The Fool could represent in these categories. And so again, I want to remind you that as I go through these, that The Fool is not a chapter. The Fool is a whole new book. I cannot hammer that home enough. The Fool is the ultimate fresh start, clean slate, and that can be both terrifying, that can also be something that you didn't necessarily want, plan for, ask for, but I often find this as the greatest gift. And typically in this imagery, you're going to see a young person, you're going to see a joyful person, you're sometimes some of the decks that I have don't even have a person on the card. It is just a a really kind of like long and vast path in front of you. Um, it represents, you know, again, the unknown, but also endless possibility. And I really think, again, a big theme of this card is it is both equally terrifying and uh endlessly opportunistic. And you get to kind of choose what narrative you want to go with with this card. Um, you can play into fear and resistance, um, but a lot of times, you know, these these fool moments, sometimes we choose them, a lot of times we don't. And I think it uh again, we have a choice to embrace these moments of okay, I am I'm starting new, I'm starting fresh, I am, you know, putting my first step on this new path. And how how am I gonna choose to be open to this? And what am I gonna do with this blank slate? What am I gonna choose to fill this with? So let's talk about money. Let's start there because you know, it's not all about money, but money is a hot topic. It is, it is, it is a hot topic. Um, it's funny whenever I talk about money on my TikTok or you know, just just any time it comes up. I it is something that it quite literally does make the world go round, and it is something that we cannot ignore. And I think that the tarot actually can teach us a ton about our relationship with money and really help us um grow and mature and have a healthier relationship with money. Um, money, again, is just a resource, and money, you know, highly, highly uh relates to one of our tarot suits, which is pentacles, which is sometimes referred to as coins. Um, it is an integral part of our life, you know, whether it was dollar bills or some other type of resource, um, having resources, creating resources, and being able to exchange resources has always existed. And so, you know, this kind of comes down to our most um when we talk about money, it is it is the most visceral, um, I would say, you know, at that root chakra, it is a very, very uh uh sharp topic. And so when we talk about this uh archetype of the fool, this fresh start, this blank slate, this I am on a you know, completely new trajectory with this. I think for a lot of people that can be a breath of fresh air when it comes to finances. For some people, this might be, hey, I was doing great financially. I had a massive loss, I lost a lot of that wealth. Things have changed for me, and now I'm starting fresh. Regardless of what this is for you, whether it's like a blank slate in the best of ways, which I think money um in the fool can sometimes talk about bankruptcy. It can talk about, you know, paying off a bunch of debt, whether that's in a way that, you know, you feel good about or don't feel good about. You know, sometimes we can pay off debt because somebody loaned us money. Sometimes we paid off debt because we saved a bunch of money and we, you know, were very um we were able to do that, you know. I I'm trying not to create any sort of bad, like negative or positive language around any of this because I think that we really get an opportunity again with this card to decide how am I going to uh react to what is happening? Am I gonna be really ashamed that I had to file bankruptcy or am I gonna see it as a blessing that bankruptcy exists and that I was able to take advantage of it and then I have a fresh start? And so for me, the biggest thing with the full card when it comes to money is this idea of are you taking your past mistakes, whatever happened in the past with your money situation? Even if you had a ton of money, right? Are you able to see what you did that was, you know, beneficial, supportive, maybe got you to that place? But can you also be really honest about why were you not able to maintain that wealth or why you, you know, maybe had some missteps that led to where you are now? Or on the other side, if you have always struggled with money, haven't had a lot of money, and now all of a sudden, you know, you just went from making $30,000 a year and then you just got a dream job where you're making $120,000 a year, you again have an opportunity not to just run down this new path and be like, I'm never thinking about the past again. No, the fool is like you're getting a you're getting a fresh slate, but you if you're gonna do it right, like, and I feel like I can say this confidently, if you're gonna do it right, you absolutely need to take notes on what you did in the past. So if you were able to survive off $30,000 a year, you need to bring that forth into your $120,000 a year life because you don't wanna just blow through that, like more money for more problems, right? You you have gained wealth, you have gained opportunity, and you need to be really conscious of how do I use this in the way that I hope to use it, instead of just kind of mindlessly getting so excited by it and and feeling such a big change that you just blow through it all, which we've seen so many people do, right? This is a tale as old as time. So for me, if you get the full card, it is a blessing, it is it can be um, you know, oh my gosh, fresh start, fresh chance. But I'm gonna tell you right now, you need to be very, very mindful about what your past history was and how as you step onto this new path, it will be different. That's how you do this card justice. That's how you take this opportunity and make the most of it. So again, if this if this card is coming up for you in as far as a money situation goes, this could mean that you are paying off debt. Again, whether it be because somebody loaned you the money or because you have saved and paid it off yourself. This could be bankruptcy. Um, this could also be, you know, maybe doing something. So maybe you had a really well-paying job and you stepped away from that because you knew that in order to do what you really wanted to do, you were gonna have to step away from that job, which means you're making less money, but you are holding faith, you're having gratitude, and you're trusting that things work out. The fool is also very much a card of jump and the net will appear. So I think as far as the money goes with the fool, it is a fresh slate, and the biggest thing as well is that we drop the shame aspect and we focus on the opportunity. The fool card is an opportunity, it is not a look what you've done. You had to get your mom to pay off your credit card. It is thank God I have a mother who could pay off my credit card, and I am going to do everything in my power to use this opening of opportunity that now I don't have to worry about this credit card right this second to get my stuff together and make sure that I never get here again. And I say that like that might have sounded a little bit like self beat up y, but it's it it's really like just I think seizing seizing. The opportunity and running with it. So as far as your money goes in the in this card, it is very much a fresh start in a beautiful way, but using it wisely, using your past mistakes or what you have learned in the past to bring forth in this second chance and do it differently this time. Let's talk about your career. So if this comes up and we're kind of having a career question, a career crisis, um, and you see the full card, I really believe that it means hey, you need to do something completely different. It is time to go. So this might look like leaving your job without a next clear step. Now you have to do this in the way that's gonna work for you. But I'm never gonna be somebody that tells you you have to have a year, you know, of emergency expenses saved up and this and that, and da-da-da-da-da. I don't think that there is an equation here to do this properly. You have to figure out what you're comfortable with. So maybe it's I have two months of expenses saved up. Maybe it's I have no expenses saved up. That gave me a little anxiety to say, but if I'm trusting you, the fool is very much a card of self-trust as well. If you have reason to believe that that is a good move for you, then by all means, and that's what you need to do. You need to get the hell out of the situation and do something quick and change something quick, or you are clear as days what you're gonna go do, then by God, believe in yourself because you know what? Life is short in this world is crazy, and why not? That is the that is the energy of the fool. A hundred percent. This is a this is a conversation between you and your deck, not between you and your mother, you and your father, you and your sister, you and whoever, right? Obviously, I understand there's people that might be affected, like your partner, you know, some somebody like that, and you might want to discuss this with them out of respect, right? But at the end of the day, there's so many decisions that we make in life that nobody can give us the exact right way to do it or answer to, and you just have to have that belief and understanding and trust within yourself. And that is the very essence of this card. So as far as a career goes, it could either indicate that you've already done this thing, that you are, you know, leaving one career, entering a new one, um, or that it is time to finally, you know, I I think this card doesn't come out of nowhere, right? This is this is something that you've been thinking about, considering, you know, kind of pondering in this card is that push of it's time. It's like that meme, it is time. Yeah, like that's um, that's the Lion King, I guess, right? Isn't it? Okay, anyways. I'm on TikTok too much. All right, let's talk about love. So, as far as a love reading, a love situation, the fool card. Um, to me, this is uh pretty I'm I I'm I can't sugarcoat this one. This is indicating a a separation, a breakup, a long needed, a long pondered um ending of a relationship. And this also is not, I'm not talking about your two-month situationship, you know. I'm not talking about somebody that you saw for a few months. I'm I'm talking about 10, 15, 20 year relationship. Um, you know, again, I go back to the fool is not a new chapter, it is a new book. The fool is uh a totally new story. And I think when this card comes up, um it is quite literally a pat on the back of you you can do this. You it is it is your time. Um people have done this before, and people have walked this path before, and you are just as safe to walk down this path. And so I see this as a lot of validation toward uh an ending being needed, um, a a chapter coming to a close. And I, you know, I want to bring up because I'm all about the order of the cards, and and if you if you so the major arcana, it's zero through 21, it's the fool's journey. But many tarot card readers believe that it's an endless cycle, right? It's not that you just live this cycle once in your entire life. You might live this cycle many, many, many, many, many times. And the last card in the major arcana is the world card. And the world card is one of the most beautiful cards to me. It is a card of completion, of just big picture understanding, peace, love, just just unconditional love and understanding and acceptance and you know, understanding that everything has happened in a certain way for a reason. Um, you wouldn't change anything, right? And I think that this is the energy that, and and then we have the fool again, right? Because that's the last card in the cycle, and then we go to the fool, and that's the new, that's the new beginning, that's the new chapter. And so to me, this is not a this is not indicative, and I don't think should be, and I think if anything, it's telling you to avoid this that this does not have to be a knockdown, drag out fight. This can be we had something beautiful together, but it it has concluded. And what is next? This can also very much a hundred percent be indicative of an unhealthy situation, and that freedom is needed, that openness is needed, that a new path is needed, one hundred percent. But I it's not always that, and I want to be really clear about that because I think we need more of this in life and in love and in relationships, that not every separation has to be uh, you know, vile. Sometimes it is, sometimes that's unavoidable, but it doesn't have to be, and this card and the order of the cards actually reminds us of that, that that things can just really end on a kind of full circle moment and a a bigger understanding um and a releasing and a and a knowing that things are at their at their conclusion and that is okay, and that is the natural process of things. Let's talk really briefly about friends and family. So relationships, but platonic relationships, family relationships. I think that this can mean a lot of different things when we see the fool card. I think the biggest thing I want to bring up is the fool kind of you know, it's always it's always just one person on that card. If the if there's a person on the card, it it's just one person. And that's what you have to remember about the fool card. I know I mentioned this a little bit a few minutes ago, but I'm gonna say it again. You know, this is not something that you can um explain. You know, I I think that when you're having your fool moment, you're gonna have outside opinions, you're gonna have people that are worried about you and that feel that they need to give their two cents to protect you. And your job during this time is to remember that they are simply human and they love you and they are they are nervous for you. It doesn't mean that anything is wrong. It doesn't mean that their fears are gonna come true. It just means they're a human and they're observing you and they have their own things within them, right? We don't have to be critical of that, we don't have to be even annoyed by that. We can just simply observe it and go, yeah, this is, you know, they've never done what I'm doing. Maybe they've always wanted to do what you're doing, and so it's it's scary to them and it's scary to watch. But the fool, if I could say any card is like, you know, outside opinions are not needed right now, it is the fool. This is your unique journey, your unique fresh start. And so I think that's the first thing here, as far as like your friends and family and kind of the people around you go, is that this is saying, you know, this is an individualistic journey, and you cannot get an answer or validation from anybody but yourself and your soul and your connection with the divine. That is where the answers lie. I think a couple other things that we can consider here is you know, uh something that I wanted to mention as well is this can also be when you make a big move. So maybe it is that you're actually physically moving, you're physically moving away from your friends and family. The fool is a reminder that you are rebuilding and that with that will be new support systems, new people, new community. I think another part of this too, and this can kind of just relate, this is kind of an umbrella theme for this card in general, is that if you are following your heart and if you are following your your authentic um, you know, what has authentically just come up for you time and time again. So if this, whatever it is that you're starting to walk down the path of, if this thing has been present for you for a long time, keeps coming up, you know, this is not just a one-off idea. Again, the fool is not like, hey, you got an I you got a random idea one day and you just decided to run with it. No, typically it's like this has been in the works for a while. And if that's the case, if this is something that has been coming up for you for a while and you are finally trusting it, it's this idea that everything is gonna fall into place. And one of those things is, you know, the support system that you might need and the people again, especially if you move, this fear of will I will I meet people, will I have what I have in this other place? And this could again be as far as a job, as money, as a relationship. This could mean so many different things. And I think this card is saying, you know, if you follow what your soul, right, which I believe are all of our souls are connected to the bigger universal plan. If you are following that, of course, of course, all of the other steps will fall into place. All of the people that you need to meet, all of the support that you will need is there. But again, this is so much a card of we cannot look to outside validation. This is a card of relationship with your inner knowing in yourself. And if anything, it's also indicating to you to start to learn more about yourself, about your intuition, about your knowledge, your inner wisdom. And that might be hey, start learning about the tarot, right? I mean, and I'm not even saying that ironically because I'm starting these episodes. It's like really and truly, how can I start to tap more into learning about myself and having a relationship with myself and learning how to trust myself and learning to trust my inner navigation system? All right, my friends, I could go on and on and on and on and on. This card is so good, but I will say if you get this card, you know, every card can have a negative and a positive connotation. But to me, this card is a card of beauty, relief, the freedom, joy, second chances. It is a gift. This card is a gift. Again, it is not a new chapter, it is a totally new book. Use it wisely. Take all of your wisdom from the past, everything that has led you to this point, and bring it forth on this new journey. And it will serve you well. Thank you so much for listening. Um, I will put in the show notes the link to the blog post for this. You can check out the images. Um, if you're not signed up for my email list, definitely do that because I send out a card of the day every single day. So you'll get that to your inbox. Um, otherwise, thank you so much for listening. Have an absolutely incredible rest of your week, and I will talk to you soon.