Happy New Year 2025, and welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. Today’s New Year’s Day blog post is about walking your own path via the Fool’s Journey! As it is the first day of the New Year, it is the ideal time to see this as the beginning of a brand-new journey. The Fool’s Journey is the story told by the Major Arcana of the Tarot. The Fool is the unnumbered card of the deck, and the Fool takes the Journey through the whole of the other twenty-one cards. In the next paragraph, I will go over the traditional outline of the Fool’s Journey.
The Fool first meets the Magician, the Master of Manifestation. Second, the Fool meets the High Priestess and is initiated by her into Occult knowledge. Third, the Fool meets the Empress, feeling her nurturing and abundant presence. Fourth, the Fool meets the Emperor, feeling his strong masculine protection. Fifth, the Fool meets the Hierophant, learning the art of imparting Divine Knowledge from the great sage teacher. Sixth, the Fool meets the Lovers and learns about the Union of Opposites and the balance of Masculine and Feminine Energies. Seventh, the Fool meets the Chariot, who teaches lessons in triumph and success. Eighth, the Fool meets Strength, embracing the balance of physical and emotional fortitude. Ninth, the Fool meets the Hermit, tasked to go within and examine the internal landscape. Tenth, the Fool meets the Wheel of Fortune, learning that everything in life is cyclical and that we must appreciate that which is good while we have it. Eleventh, the Fool meets Justice, deepening into the understanding of Divine Truth. Twelfth, the Fool meets the Hanged Man, finding that there is deep insight to be found in being bound. Thirteenth, the Fool meets Death, a time of realizing what must be released. Fourteenth, the Fool meets Temperance, the card of balance in all things, reminding us that everything should be handled with moderation. Fifteenth, the Fool meets the Devil, a card often maligned as simply being bound by addictive behaviors but truly more nuanced and relating to our inner wild nature. Sixteenth, the Fool meets the Tower, the cleansing destruction that needs to occur to move forward with clarity. Seventeenth, the Fool meets the Star, an endless Beacon of Hope. Eighteenth, the Fool meets the Moon, a period of psychic awareness and learning to overcome uncertainty. Nineteenth, the Fool meets the Sun, a time of warmth, optimism, and joy. Twentieth, the Fool meets Judgement, a time of renewal and rebirth. Finally, the Fool meets the World, the ultimate culmination and ascension of the journey before it begins anew!
It must be noted that this is just the basic overview of the most traditional path of the Fool’s Journey. I also want to note that the Strength card and the Justice card are sometimes swapped in their positions in the deck, making these two cards interchangeable in the Fool’s Journey! I think the fact that there are two Major Arcana cards whose place in the deck is sometimes swapped numerically shows a very important thing about the Fool’s Journey. It shows that the Fool’s Journey is not set in stone to flow through these twenty-one distinct energies in this exact order. Like with anything in life, especially of a magickal and spiritual nature, the Fool’s Journey does not look the same for everyone. It does not even look the same for each of us the various times we journey through the path.
Sometimes, you may find that you skip several cards to get to the next place on the path or that you circle back to the same Major Arcana energy time and again before completing the chapter of your journey you are working through. This diverse and ever-evolving nature of the Fool’s Journey is what is truly magickal about it! After all, it is often stated that we are always the Fool on the Journey in one place or another, and I think this is very true, for when one end occurs, another beginning is soon to follow!
In 2025, the Fool is likely to take you on many a journey, and reflecting on where you have come from will help you navigate where you would like to go next. I hope you have enjoyed this overview of the Fool’s Journey with some insight on how to use the Fool’s Journey to help you plan out your course of action this New Year. What is your favorite thing about the Fool’s Journey? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is the Fool card from the Labyrinth Tarot Deck. I found the picture on https://tarotshop.se/labyrinth-tarot-deck-and-guidebook.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries
Further Reading
- The Only Tarot Book You’ll Ever Need by Skye Alexander