What does the Jester mean in the Tarot if you’re doing cartomancy readings?
I know it’s not traditional, but I’ve been leaving both Jokers in my deck. Been reading them like the Fool in tarot, but not sure if that’s right, especially with two of them. How do you interpret the Jester if you use it?
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You’re working with the Jokers! Yeah, they’re basically The Fool in traditional tarot, so you’ve got it right.
Having two is actually pretty interesting. I read them as The Fool at different stages, one as the innocent beginning (0) and the other as the wise fool coming back around (like Fool 22). The red Joker usually has more active energy, while the black one is more… receptive. When both show up, look at where they land in the spread. Usually, it means one big life cycle is ending while another starts up. That’s a lot of Fool energy in one reading.
Your instinct about the Fool connection looks right to me. The Joker-Fool parallel runs deeeep, though historically they developed separately and the Joker came from Euchre in the 1860s, not from tarot like many assume.
I keep both in my Cartomancy deck, too. After years of reading, I’ve found the red and black distinction really matters. Red Joker tends to be that beneficial surprise, the risk worth taking, almost like the Magician’s energy. Black is more the traditional Fool - pure potential… but just watch your step.
The two-Joker situation gets… interesting. Sometimes they show up as polarities in the same reading - one pushing forward, one pulling back. Think of them as Spirit’s “wild cards”. They’re telling you the normal rules don’t apply here.
Some old-school cartomancers won’t touch them. My grandmother never used them. But traditions evolve. The Joker carries that trickster energy that’s been in divination forever, just in a new form.
You’re not doing anything wrong by reading them like the Fool, and your intuition is right that they’re connected, but I wouldn’t just use it as the same card… You might as well just use a traditional Tarot deck at that point. The Joker is a much more recent invention than the Tarot’s Fool, so there isn’t a single “right” way to read it. There’s no ancient rule you’re breaking.
Since you have two, you have a great opportunity to give them distinct personalities. Many people see one as the classic Fool (new beginnings, blind faith) and the other as the Jester or Trickster. Someone who is clever, challenges the rules, and speaks truth through humor. The Trickster isn’t naive; they are very aware.
Think about which Joker feels like which energy to you.
In the hoodoo traditions, the Black Joker especially connects to Papa Legba energy - that gatekeeper between worlds. Not everyone’s comfortable working with that intensity, so you could just stick with using it as a Fool card. Just make sure you know what the card stands for before you start pulling more readings. The tarot can be confusing enough without you mixing up meanings between spreads.
I treat them like a wild card and their meaning comes from the cards on each side. If the spread doesn’t have any cards next to the Jester, I’ll pull two out on each side and read the combination for the meaning.
You’re on the right track, but the Fool and Jester aren’t exactly the same thing, more like cousins than twins. The traditional Fool card represents someone outside the social hierarchy entirely. Less court jester, more wandering vagabond. In the classic Tarot de Marseille, he’s in tattered clothes, carrying his stuff around. He’s not there to entertain; he’s the ultimate outsider. Kind of like how Heath Ledger’s Joker existed completely outside Gotham’s rules.
For your two Jokers, I’d read them differently. Maybe one as the beginning of the way (innocent potential) and the other as someone who’s been through it all? Or one could be choosing to step outside conventions, while the other is just naturally innocent. The Jester/Joker in playing cards does have that trickster thing from commedia dell’arte, unpredictable, boundary-crossing, but with purpose. The Fool’s power comes from being unranked, unnumbered, free from the system. Your Jokers could work well this way.
Jokers weren’t even in playing cards until the 1860s, when they were created for the game Euchre. So unlike tarot cards that have centuries of symbolism behind them, the Joker is pretty new. Maybe that’s why they feel so unpredictable… they were basically made to mess with the rules. When I get one in a reading now, I look at what old patterns might need disrupting in the person’s life.
Your instinct to keep both Jokers makes sense, maybe they each have something different to show you. Have you noticed if they tend to appear more for certain types of questions? Like maybe one shows up for internal stuff and the other for external situations?
The double trickster energy could mean you’re working with both the sacred fool (spiritual side) and the court jester (social side). That would make your readings pretty strong for questions about being authentic vs putting on a face in daily life.
Yeah, you found the Fool’s playing card cousin. The Jester/Joker is pretty much the same card, same unpredictable energy, just in a regular deck instead of tarot.
Having two of them is interesting. I’d probably read one as the beginning energy (fresh starts and all that) and the other as later in the journey, still unconventional but with more experience behind it. Good call keeping them in the deck.
Wait has anyone else noticed the red joker vs black joker thing? i’ve been pulling red when the answer feels like YES and black when it’s more like WAIT. or am i just making this up lol
You’re not far off, actually! Before the Rider-Waite-Smith deck made the wanderer-with-a-dog imagery popular, a lot of the older Fool cards showed figures that looked more like jesters - bells, colorful clothes, that whole trickster vibe.
So yeah, using Jokers as Fool cards makes sense to me. They both have that outsider energy, living outside normal rules. Two of them could work - maybe one for the lighter side of starting fresh and the other for the deeper fool-as-wise-person thing? Just thinking out loud here, still figuring this stuff out myself.
Interesting take. When you mention trickster energy, I think of the Magician-especially reversed. Upright, the Magician is confidence and making things happen; reversed, it leans into con-artist vibes. In the Tarot de Marseille he’s Le Bateleur, the Juggler, and even upright he has a street-performer, hustler feel. Reversed, that’s where the trickster shows up-sleight of hand turning into misdirection.
For your Jokers, you could read them with reversals in mind. The Fool reversed can be reckless or naive. Two Jokers might let you hold both sides at once: one for playful foolishness, one for plain foolishness. Or you can assign the red Joker to upright Fool energy and the black Joker to reversed. Reversals make that trickster thread stand out.
I use the jokers as prompts. Label one ‘first step’ and the other ‘resource check.’
When you draw them, just grab a clarifier card.
When a Jester shows up in readings, it often represents someone who can approach even the heavy cards (like Death or The Tower, not like the Fool) with lightness and transformation rather than fear. With two Jokers, I read one as the innocent Fool starting their way and the other as the wise Fool who’s completed the cycle. Same archetype at different stages of wisdom. Kind of like before and after photos of going through the Major Arcana.
With the moon waxing, I let the Jester show what’s gathering speed: next to a court card it’s a person stepping in; next to a pip it’s a situation unfolding.
When the moon wanes, I flip that - same placements point to what to gently let go. I also slide any Joker to the side and draw one card beneath it as a ‘stage direction’ so the reading says exactly how to move.
My partner just inherited his grandmother’s old cartomancy deck and she kept both Jokers in there too! She had notes calling them ‘Jester cards’ and treated them as wild cards for transformation.
From what I learned going through her system, the Jester can mean unexpected opportunities, divine comedy, or situations where normal rules don’t apply. Unlike the Fool’s innocent path, the Jester brings conscious disruption and deliberate shake-ups. When two show up in a deck, she read them as light/dark aspects, one for good surprises and one for necessary chaos. I’ve been trying them out as ‘plot twist’ cards. Wherever they land, expect something unexpected in that area of life.
At a tarot meetup last year, someone pulled out their deck and I got excited, thinking it was a rare jester-themed set. Turned out they’d accidentally shuffled in a Joker from poker night. It kicked off this same conversation.
Linking the Joker to the Fool makes sense. Some decks even show the Fool as a jester, the Enchanted Tarot does. The jester and the Fool share that mix of playfulness and hidden wisdom. For two Jokers, I read them as light and shadow sides of the Fool. One can be the fresh, open start (like the Fool stepping off the cliff). The other can be the wiser fool who’s been through it and learned something. Another take: one shows your inner approach, the other how that energy shows up outwardly.
Historically, jesters could say what others couldn’t by wrapping it in humor, which fits the Fool as the wild card. When a Joker shows up, I go by the feel of the spread and decide which role it’s playing.
Since the Fool changes so much between decks anyway-sometimes it’s a wandering madman, sometimes a court jester, sometimes just a young person starting out-your Jokers could work as any of these.
