I haven't been around here for a long, long time.
But I've had occasion to return to Tarot lately, and re-establish a relationship with the cards for purposes of using them as an oracle. I've hit a time in my life where I need a friend, and this little deck of cards has proven to be a good one.
Reviewing this thread, I find that it stands up very well for the most part. It's been a little over five years since I wrote post #3 and some of the others. A great deal has changed since then, but I remain convinced as I was then about the meaning of this card.
When you look at the deep history of the Fool card, and take his original name into account and you want to get kind of a modern take on the idea, what I come up with is one of those shopping-cart guys you see in the park.
I'm not belittling that kind of people. They're the ones that Jesus said God loves the most. And I find a great deal of significance in this card for that reason.
Tom Tadfor Little has a nice page on the Fool at his tarothermit.com site (
http://www.tarothermit.com/fool.htm). It has three pictures at the top, one from an antique Italian deck, one from an ancient deck (Visconti-Sforza) and one from an ancient semi-tarot (Mantegna), which convey the variations in the traditional meaning of the card. I still resonate most with the earliest depictions, and still believe what I wrote here back in 2002, only I believe it more so than I did then.
Regards,
Dave B