The Fool’s Thread ~ Major Arcana & the Fiber Arts
- Sönna Schuttner
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
Welcome to The Fool’s Thread, a blog series exploring the symbolic language of the Tarot through the lens of fiber arts. I plan share my reflections on the cards of the Tarot, beginning with the Major Arcana and the stories they tell, as I consider how they echo our relationship with our craft and the rhythms of our creative lives. The patterns and symbols presented in the cards are a language we can use to communicate with ourselves and others about deeper stuff that is just downright hard to describe.
Jump to:
Tarot As A Tool
Within ourselves, we carry a deep knowing of what we need and a vision of how to create healthy relationships and a beautiful life. Tarot allows us to tap into that inner wisdom and bring it into form.
I consider a crocheter who holds a vision for a stunning finished object only they can see:
That vision guides them as they choose fiber content and combine colors. They understand the symbols presented in a chart and the method of making the stitches represented. They read the language of their craft. (I mean this literally because ch-sp, BLdc, and FPtr mean absolutely nothing to me without looking it up in a guide.) They carry the knowledge to direct them as they look up the techniques that may be unfamiliar. This understanding of symbolism, patterns and language provides them with the capacity to share their vision with others before their yarn is even wound. It empowers them to manifest that vision as a beautiful finished object.
I see the Tarot in much the same way. It can serve as a key, allowing us to make use of its symbols to translate the hard-to-put-into-words aspects of our deeper knowing. It can help us read our inner crochet chart and decide which stitches to make next.
As the archetypal backbone of the Tarot, the Major Arcana directs our attention to the larger patterns at play. They speak of those soul-level shifts and mythic challenges that shape who we are as makers, as humans, and as members of a wider creative web.
The Major Arcana's Place In the Fiber Arts & the Tarot Deck
It may be helpful to place the Major Arcana in the context of the Tarot as a whole.
The Tarot is traditionally divided into two parts: the Major and Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcana, made up of four suits and their court cards, speaks to the mundane—our daily rhythms, the ordinary moments and small choices that carry great weight.
While the word mundane might sound plain, don’t be fooled—there’s powerful magic in the hands-on, day-to-day flow of our lives and our craft. Whether it’s choosing yarn, casting on, or ripping back with a sigh, the Minor Arcana reflects the stitches of everyday life.
The Major Arcana, on the other hand, invites us into the mythic. These 21 cards (plus The Fool) chart the path of transformation. They echo the larger story of our lives that is told as we grow and learn. They speak of the soul-deep shifts, the challenges, and the invitations that shape us and our approach to our craft.
Ending at the Beginning: The Fool's Journey
As we examine the Major Arcana, we approach it as a story. The Fool, unnumbered or labeled 0, can be considered the traveler through the path laid out in these cards. Some tarot readers place The Fool at the start of the sequence, others at the end, but most agree that both are true. The Fool moves in a spiral: ever beginning, ever becoming.
And isn’t that also the journey of making? Every project begins with a breath of possibility, and every finished object boldly displays our errors and our successes. Those finished objects also hold something that is often only visible to the maker themselves: the lessons learned and skills gained in the creating of that object. We, as makers (or Fools), are empowered to cary those lessons and skills with us as we spiral on, begin again and cast on our next project.
You can explore the Fool and Fiber Arts, Their Gifts and Shadows, and practice working with them in The Fool's Tarot Spread in the three part Fool's Thread Blog series here.
Archetypes in Action: How We Show Up to Our Craft
If the Minor Arcana encourage us to relate to our every day stitches, the increases and decreases we make with our hook, the Major Arcana want us to examine the garment and the quality of the fabric those stitches are making. They encourage us to lean into a pattern and rhythm when that fabric serves us well and learn a new pattern or alter our tension when it does not.
These archetypes reflect how we show up to the work of making:
Are we nurturing ourselves and others with our stitches, as the Empress might?
Are we following the rules and counting stitches with precision as the Emperor would encourage?
Do we follow the intuitive pull of the Moon or leap into the unknown with the Fool?
When a Major Arcana card shows up in a reading, it often signals a greater thread at play. If our lives are the fabric, we might ask: How might these choices/challenges/lessons learned shape my life's path? It is an opportunity to consider if this is the quality or shape we desire and if not, how we might influence the shape our lives are taking? What new pattern or skill must we learn in order to do so? Do we want it bad enough to spend the time unraveling or picking out the tangles?
A Conversation With Ourselves
Tarot offers us a quiet, intuitive way to check in with ourselves and open a dialogue with the part of us that often gets buried beneath the noise of daily life. When we take time to sit with the cards, we’re not searching for answers outside ourselves. We are listening inward.
Quite frankly, for many of us, life is like a complicated intarsia sweater with different stitch patterns interacting and multiple bobbins threatening to tangle with one another. Sometimes we become so focused on preventing bobbin chaos that we forget about the other ways we influence our project: our tension, our color choices, or even whether we’re enjoying the process at all.
Tarot is a tool we can use to redirect our attention. Just as we might pause mid-row to step back and look at our knitting, the Major Arcana invites us to shift our gaze from the tangle in our hands to the full pattern emerging. These archetypal cards of the Tarot asks us to tend to the deeper movements: the overarching patterns, mythic lessons, and transformational threads that weave through our relationships with others, our creative work, and our selves.
Whether your stitches are neat or your bobbins are a mess, the greatest lesson of The Major Arcana lies in the reminder that we are always in the middle of becoming, one stitch at a time.
If you enjoyed this blog post in The Fool's Thread, let me know! Leave a comment and share your thoughts, I would love to hear from you!
Happy Making! ~Sönna
Interested in more?
If you find value in my work and wish to offer reciprocity, you can support my efforts below.
🌀
Explore Sönna's knitting patterns:
🌀
Purchase the yarn, fiber, and tools you intend to get (and take advantage of Sönna's discounts) while financially supporting her at no extra cost to you by shopping one of her affiliate links.
Thank you for your feedback and support!
SDK Designs: empowering makers to knit with confidence and intention, shaping not just our stitches but our connection to Earth, craft, and community.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase via one of the links in this post, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. All affiliate links are labeled as (affiliate). This blog post contains no adds. However if you want to support my work in other ways, feel free to fuel me with a kofi. Â