The Fool as Intentions: To See What Happens, With No Plan at All

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Fool as intentions is the honest absence of a plan. Here is what I would read in it, upright and reversed, and why that is not the same as not caring.

If you want the short answer, I would read the Fool as intentions that are open and unplanned. In an intentions position the card suggests the person means to take a step toward you, or with you, without having thought about where it leads. They intend the beginning. They do not intend anything after it yet, and asking them to will not produce a plan that does not exist.

This is the figure at the cliff edge looking at the sky. They intend to step. The rest of the path is not in their head.

The Fool upright as intentions

Tina Gong's the Fool guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with beginnings, innocence, spontaneity and a free spirit. When the card lands in a position that asks what someone intends toward you, I read those meanings as the shape of their plan rather than as a promise about what they will do. Feelings and intentions are different questions; the Fool as feelings covers the first, and this page covers the second. The Major Arcana overview at Biddy Tarot is a useful second reference.

Upright, I read the Fool as a person whose intention toward you is to try: to say yes, to go, to find out. The intention is sincere and it is light. They are not holding anything back and they are not holding anything in reserve either, which is its own kind of honesty.

What I would not read into it is a future. The Fool intends the first step. Whether there is a second is a question they will answer when they get there.

What the card does not tell you

The card does not confirm the person intends a relationship, that their openness is exclusive, or that they will still intend this once the step has consequences. No card lets a reader see another person's plans. What a card can do is describe the kind of intention that fits the person's behaviour, and give you something to check against what they actually do.

The Fool reversed as intentions

Reversed, the Fool as intentions describes recklessness or paralysis: a person who intends to leap with no regard for what it does to you, or one frozen at the edge who intends to step and cannot. It can also describe someone who intends to keep every beginning as a beginning and never let it become more.

In your own question, ask whether the person seems interested and frozen, or whether they leap into things with you and out again without noticing the cost. A reversed card as intentions is a prompt to compare what is said with what is done, not a diagnosis of bad faith.

The Fool as an ex's intentions

Asked about an ex, the Fool as intentions can suggest a wish to start again as if nothing had happened, light and hopeful and without much reckoning. That can be charming and can be a sign nothing was learned. The card does not say which. My guide to asking a psychic whether an ex will come back explains what a reading can and cannot say about that question.

The Fool as a new person's intentions

For someone new, this card is a cheerful beginning: they intend to try, openly and without expectation. Meet them there. Asking the Fool where this is going tends to send them off the cliff in the other direction.

What their intentions look like in action

Look for lightness and willingness: they say yes to things, they are easy company, they do not play games because it has not occurred to them to. A Fool intention is uncomplicated. If complication arrives, it is a different card.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the question you asked, the step the person seems to intend, and whether you can enjoy a beginning without needing it to be a middle. The third note is the honest one.

For comparison, the Page of Wands as intentions and the Hermit as intentions describe different intentions. The the Fool card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Fool as a person and the Fool as a yes or no cover the other questions people most often ask of it. For a personal interpretation, my guide to a love psychic reading online explains how I work, and the three-card tarot listing and customer reviews are worth reading before deciding whether to order.