The Fool reversed

Reversed keywords

• recklessness
• naivety
• hesitation at the edge
• folly
• a misstep

What The Fool reversed means

Reversed, the leap goes wrong or does not happen. The card shows recklessness that ignores a real danger, naivety that others take advantage of, a start made for the wrong reasons, or the opposite failure, a person frozen at the edge by fear of looking foolish. It can mark a time when the dog was right and you did not listen. The journey still wants to begin. Check the cliff, then step.

In love, reversed

Rushing in without looking, or refusing to step at all. Someone may be treating the relationship as a game, or you may be so afraid of looking foolish that you never make the first move. Check the ground, then take the step anyway.

At work, reversed

A leap taken without looking, or a start postponed out of fear of looking inexperienced. Check the contract, the finances and the exit before you jump. Then jump.

Money, reversed

Spending without looking, or a risk you will not take because you cannot see the bottom. Both are ways of not deciding. Read the small print, then decide on purpose.

As feelings, reversed

Here the excitement is tangled up with nerves. Someone may want to move closer and keep pulling back at the edge, afraid of looking foolish, or they may be treating the connection more casually than you are. The feeling exists; what is missing is the steadiness to act on it with care.

As a person, reversed

In its shadow form this is someone who leaps without looking and leaves others to land the consequences. They can be careless with commitments, restless when things get ordinary, or so wary of mistakes that nothing ever starts. Charming in short bursts, this character may be harder to rely on over time.

As advice, reversed

Stop and look down before you leap, or notice that you have been standing frozen at the edge calling it prudence. The advice is to make the step deliberate: smaller, perhaps, but chosen.

Yes or no, reversed

The Fool reversed is a yes held back. The promise of the upright card is there, but recklessness and naivety delay it; the timing or the approach needs to change first.

Waite's reversed meaning (1911)

Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.