This is the base state of man. This is man as he is born. But there is a secret here that each man and woman carries within themself. It is a riddle that each and every man and woman faces in the mirror every day of their life. This is the base metal of the alchemist and forms the foundation that leads towards personal divinity - the Graal. It is the fundamental condition necessary for the walk(Quest)towards personal enlightenment, and it is the condition which remanifests again and again as each new understanding manifests into consciousness revealing anew another question and mystery to be answered.
Roger Whitaker (raensept@dnaco.net)

The fool is being guided forward but not outward, in other words, he is not looking to where he is leaping. He is being guided by an "inner guidance". Better known as a gut feeling or a hunch. Fools are gifts to the world and give a lot of themselves. The outer world views him as a fool....but inside he's a master!
Alison (alisond@anv.net)

The fool message is not one of just ignorence but of hope for future knowledge.
If one is to stay in blissful ignorence the whole lesson of life will be lost on the investment of thier birth. One must look before they leap for how may you judge the distance of your jump with out knowledge of the crevice. Sure the fool has not jumped alot and thus lacks experience and training in life's spiritual and physical aspects. It is, though, through being the inexperienced fool that one learns of life in it's physical and spiritual essences. Then useing this knowledge one may pass on to the first card and really start thier journy.
Don't be decieved that this card preaches the happiness of ignorence, rather it cautions against it.
E.Gonzalez (egonzale@utcvm.edu)

Not a blind fool, but a blithe one. If you always look before you leap, you'll never leap. The fool may fall--or he may simply continue to walk out onto the thin air. Think of flying in your dreams: the point where you wonder why you never tried that before.
Kristine (kfb279@lulu.acns.nwu.edu)

Opening a new chapter in life; naivete, carelessness.
Jaime Kimpton (maraya007@aol.com)

Not aware of his own potential. He could do everything if he just tried.
It is the nature of the Universe to protect the fool. As long as he stays a fool, no harm will come to him.
Knowledge means that you have to take responcibility, the fool haven't done that (yet).
Hans (hle@nethotel.dk)
The fool is courage. This courage comes from knowing that the body is not the self. The body is temporary whereas the soul is the eternal part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.
Szander Starr (starr108@flash.net)

A situation or person is not being judged clearly. The querent is not seeing the truth about the problem he's facing. Basically not doing the right thing.
Katie (gint28@hotmail.com)
The fool may be viewed as a revolving door, an opening and a mirror between our physical world and the world of spirit. Many choose to view the fool symbolically as the idea, or the initial seed of the idea, but perhaps the fool is the membrane through which the idea must pass in order to assume form. In other words the fool IS serendipity.

In relation to the self, the fool may be seen to represent the "child's eye" - our ability to view the world without knowledge or preconditions so that each moment becomes an experience.

Where the fool is personified externally, the intellectual may choose to laugh AT rather than WITH him/her. In doing so they miss the opportunity that the fool provides for reflection. Despite their lack of finesse and social conditioning, such people provide living examples of the patterns and moods of spirit untamed, and hence, extremities of the influences that we all struggle to control in our lives.

By understanding our heart we may understand the fool, and by understanding the fool we may understand our heart.
Leighton McAndrew