The Fool

Symbols

• White RoseA white rose held lightly — unspoiled desire, purity before naming.+

  The rose is the flower of passion; its red shed for white marks desire refined into spiritual longing, no longer aimed at possession.

• White DogInstinct bounding at his heel — a loyal companion that warns as it encourages.+

  In the Marseille pattern an animal tears at the Fool's clothes from behind; Smith turns it into a small white dog leaping at his side, and Waite notes that the dog is 'still bounding' while the man has already stopped.

• The PrecipiceThe seam between the known and the leap — as if angels waited below to uphold him.+

  Waite stresses that he surveys 'its expanse of sky rather than the prospect below': the drop is drawn right at his feet, yet nothing in his posture attends to it — the stride is still in his body, the gaze already elsewhere.

• The SunThe sun at his back knows where he came from, and how he will return by another path.+

  Waite sets the scene 'amidst the morning glory, in the keen air', so this is early light. The sun sits in the upper right corner, behind him; he faces the other way, walking away from his source toward the left edge of the card.

• Snow-capped HeightsThe great heights of the world — distant challenges that do not yet demand him.+

  Smith draws the snowfields below and behind him rather than ahead, so the 'great heights of the world' in Waite's text are the ground he already stands on. Their white repeats the white of the rose and of the dog.

• Wand and WalletA costly wand shouldered with an embroidered wallet — he travels light, carrying the seeds of past journeys.+

  Waite's adjectives carry the point: the wand is 'costly' and the wallet 'curiously embroidered', so the stick-and-bundle of a ragged wanderer becomes the luggage of 'a prince of the other world on his travels through this one'.

• Laurel and Red FeatherA wreath already on his brow and the red plume of the life-flame — victory anticipated, vitality unspent.+

  Waite's text says nothing of a wreath or a plume; both are Smith's additions to the figure. The feather rises from his cap, a small red mark set directly against the open yellow sky.

• Robe of RoundelsA tunic patterned with roundels over white, and yellow boots — the dress of a traveller of rank, not a vagabond.+

  Waite insists on 'gorgeous vestments' where the Marseille Fool goes in torn clothes. Under the patterned outer tunic Smith keeps a layer of plain white, the same white as the rose he carries.

Story

Light comes from the upper right, from behind him, and falls across a figure caught on a ledge at the top of the world. He faces left, away from that light, chin lifted toward an open yellow sky; the ground runs out a step beyond his front foot. The stride is still visible in his body and the small dog is still in mid-leap, yet the picture has stopped him — a pause held between one step and the next. Everything else is distance: thin, bright air, and far below, the white of the mountains. Nothing in the scene looks down.

Correspondences

Shadow

Related Cards

The World

The Magician

The Hanged Man

Combinations with this card