The Fool - RWS edition

Element: Air

Zodiac: Aquarius

Planet: Uranus 

Magickal Applications: An initiatory shock of energy for launching new projects, overcoming stagnation/procrastination, and radical self transformation 

The RWS Fool

Mixed media, approx 16”

The Fool features a concealed, 3” zippered chamber, for loading with materia magicka, petitions, etc. 

Our RWS Fool poppet will look familiar to even the most casual tarot readers, in the Western World, as it is a tribute to the iconography of the ubiquitous Rider Waite Smith tarot deck. Illustrated in 1909, by British occultist and artist Pamela “Pixie” Coleman Smith, the so-called RWS tarot is a nearly universal shorthand for Tarot iconography, in the English-speaking world (and far beyond). We had great fun, incorporating Smith’s many immediately recognizable Fool elements…from the massive red feather, to recreating the lovely pattern, for his tunic, to the legs, inspired by her little white terrier. This Fool steps away from the Continental tarot’s hapless dullard, or filthy beggar modalities. Smith’s Fool has the energy of a bohemian ‘enfant terrible’, ready to disrupt convention; with charm, and style. 

It feels appropriate to launch our 2026 release slate, with a figure that is so rich in the symbolism of *new beginnings.* The unnumbered arcanum is all about initiatory energy; a new project, a journey, a new persona. The Fool is an oft-misunderstood cypher of an archetype; with his esteem - and fortune - seemingly dependent on era, context, and artistic impression. 

Viva la Fool! Here’s to a year of revolution. 🔥