0: The Fool - The Innocence of Unknowing

The first thing I notice with this fool is those eyes - those wide eyes with nothing behind them.  They are wide open to the world and haven't yet been subjected to the rose colored lenses that we use to filter experiences.

I used to view The Fool as that simple innocence, a happy and care-free kind of innocence.  But now, I have seen The Fool in a different light.  This is the epitome of ignorance as bliss.  Unknowing is an innocence that is borne from, well, not knowing.  I was innocent to physical abuse at the hands of an alleged love one, until it happened.  I was innocent to the feelings surrounding the death of a loved one, until my first husband died.

Meditation upon The Fool was not a fun thing.  I recalled the instances where my innocence was shattered by experience.  Betrayal by a friend, failure, disappointment, heart break, loss.  But they weren't all negative things, though.  I read in The Prophet (Khalil Gibran) that the soaring of joy can only be measured against the depth of despair.  The Fool is like that center line between the two.  Once Despair is felt, Joy becomes a possibility - a reflection of that depth.  (and of course, vice versa)

But how to use this in an interpretive sense? I guess that I would look to this card as a pivot point.  And perhaps that is what is has been all along.  This card could indicate the brink of a journey - either external or internal.   Depending on location and surroundings, it could teeter either direction - towards dizzying heights or downward to the depths of one's very being.