The Fool's Journey
off a cliff and into a new season
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Last week, the sun moved into Aries on the spring equinox, beginning the astrological year anew. Zero degrees Aries is the starting point for all earthly, energetic, and spiritual happenings. It is a beginning of a new journey.
Aries is the season of The Emperor in the Tarot, the king of kings, as it were. We see a nice pairing of correspondences, with March 25th being the Feast of the Annunciation, when a member of the heavenly host announces to Mary that her Child will be THE Son of God, the King of Kings.
This is a season of masculine energy, fertilization, action, and dominion taking hold. The sun's warming and generative power are quickly expanding, causing all kinds of changes on the earth.
But what of us mere mortals who are neither emperors, kings, or the Mother of God? What movement, engagement, and experiences are we offered as the sweep of the zodiac begins again in the skies above us? Enter The Fool. We, each of us, fools in our own right, will stumble into a new seasonal year full of potential for growing new ideas, reaching greater enlightenment, digging for deeper wisdom, furthering our understanding of the spiritual world, and cultivating the conditions for encounters with the Divine.
We will celebrate April Fool’s Day in a few days, an auspicious day to stumble into our inner journey guided and energized by the new season. April Fool's Day began in the 1500s when the Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian. Those who forgot the change and attempted to celebrate New Year's (previously celebrated on the 1st of April) on the wrong date were teased as "April fools." Today, we have the luxury of choosing when and how often we mark a new beginning. While our official new year began on January 1st in deep winter, there’s no denying that spring is the earth’s new year, one we can mark and celebrate as well.
The Wise Fool/ Holy Fool Archetype
Wise Fools (or Holy Fools) often have a sense of not belonging to the time and place into which they were born. They frequently feel out of step with popular culture and the spirit of the times.
The Wise Fool is a person who lives their beliefs and acts on them even when they defy what is considered normal or conventional ways of thinking and acting.
Joseph Campbell said,
The Fool is the most dangerous person on earth, the most threatening to all hierarchical institutions. He or she, has no concern for naysayers, and no one has power over him (or her). She is not limited, not stoppable, nor controllable. She knows what she has to do and is doing it, no matter what.
In a poem that could be written for the Wise Fool in all of us, Rumi reminds us:
Forget safety
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.
Holy fools subvert prevailing orthodoxy to point to the truth that lies beyond conformity.
Let the fool lead the way. The wise and the sacred fool provides
● truth,
● balance
● play
● recreation
● destruction
● creation
● change
The Sacred Fool, Holy Fool, or Wise Fool is the destroyer of our well-ordered world run by foolish fools.
The wise fool is the creator of the new through play. The sacred fool initiates change, and it is through change that we are made new.
We are all Phoenixes, capable of rising from the ashes, and the Wise or Holy Fool shows us the way.
The Role of the Wise or Holy Fool
The fool gets to tell the truth, the hard truths that might provoke trouble if anyone else were to say such things.
The fool can get away with telling the hardest truths because he is a fool. He cloaks the truth in parables and paradoxes, making it difficult for us to grasp their meanings immediately.
He can speak harsh truths; we must listen because the telling is captivating, entertaining, or amusing.
We must listen because a Fool of any sort is a simpleton, a misfit, and cannot be held fully responsible, and so is free to speak the truth.
The fool entertains, and everybody believes it only to be foolishness and fun. His words are not taken seriously so he can speak about difficult, controversial issues through lighthearted, silly play.
In the Middle Ages, there was an implicit understanding of this. The belief was that the Fool joking about a brutal truth would be shielded from the consequences.
The Fool as a Traveller in the Tarot
The Fool in the Tarot lands much closer to home and becomes more personal as a symbol of our inner self or soul. The Fool in the Tarot is our most foolish, uninitiated, and savvy, mature, wisest self rolled into one, innocent, perhaps naive, hapless, and trusting in divine providence. Most importantly, The Fool is willing to take the leap of faith.
The Fool is labeled zero, everything, and nothing, a paradox straddling the tension created by knowing that if one gains the whole world but loses one's soul, they have achieved nothing of lasting value. Yet, we must somehow travel in and through the world, keeping our pure souls intact.
Books have been written about how The Fool travels through the Tarot as if on a journey through life, individuation, initiation, enlightenment, and more. He ends at the end of the major arcana, transformed into The World. Did he (or you) make the journey and gain the world but lose your soul? Does he finally transcend, or does he need to, like the zodiac, go around again and begin at zero degrees Aries? Are these journeys stages of one life or many lives?
You can contemplate this by laying out the major arcana of a Tarot deck into three rows of seven cards, beginning with #1, The Magician, and ending with #21, The World, while holding The Fool, zero, out. Many hours of beneficial introspection can be had as you ponder the relationship between The Fool and each card, noticing the flow of initiation, enlightenment, and spiritual movement the Tarot cards laid out this way express.
I’ve done this many times and have gained new insights with each engagement. In fact, it’s a favorite April Fool’s Day meditation for me each year.
If you're not ready for such a project or don't yet have a thorough working knowledge of each card, you can still delve into the meaning of The Fool simply by engaging with that one card. You don’t need a Tarot deck to do so; a quick internet search will show you many versions of this card interpreted in many ways across the centuries.
The two fools above are the most well-known. The older iteration is the Marsaille Fool from the 17th century. The Rider-Waite-Smith deck was published in 1909.
There are similarities and differences, but each tells us important things about our soul’s journey through life. Perhaps the most shocking thing about the Marsaille Fool is that his canine companion (representing instinct as a loyal companion) has ripped his pants and exposed his bum. In some decks, his genitals are exposed, yet he seems unconcerned about this. The risk of being exposed is gone because the Fool is embarking on this journey precisely as he is, a fool. There is no mask, pretense, imposter syndrome, or claims to being more than he truly is. To progress in inner life, we must begin exactly where we are and accept who and what we are. This is a humbling experience. From that realistic assessment of ourselves, we start on the firm ground of self-acceptance and reality. It is interesting to note that genitals and genius share the same root. Your genius comes from your ability to fertilize, gestate, create, and bring forth as you journey through life.
The Marsaille Fool is dressed as a fool, and not only that, but he wears bells. The ringing of his bells lets everyone know he is coming, just like the bell you would put on your cat’s collar to alert the birds. Bells also have a history of expelling any evil spirits in an area. So, the Marsaille Fool, fully accepting himself, his human limitations, even his own ridiculousness and spirtual forces that might oppose him on his journey of inner spiritual growth places himself under the care of Providence and embarks on a journey into the unknown territory of personal transformation, fitting him for encounters with the divine realm. This is the moment he steps into the empty white space before him. The message here is pto repare and trust that you are equipped and enough to make this journey just as you are right now. Believe that you are called to the inner work that transforms your inner being.
While the Marsaille Fool seems to begin his journey moving from the solid ground of the earth and crossing a threshold that leads to ascent, not in a spatial sense but in the sense of gaining the ability to perceive more and higher truths. The RWS Fool seems to begin in the heights and is ready to descend into the lower worlds. Many interpret the RWS Fool as our pre-born soul incarnating on earth. This Fool tumbles into the world and begins his/her (the figure is somewhat androgynous) journey through the Tarot and thus through life. The Marsaille Fool seems very human, a creature of the earth. He carries a pack with the essentials for survival, a walking stick to support his physical body, and a loyal dog for companionship and protection.
The RWS Fool comes from the heights and is equipped with those things and a little more. His white undergarment and white rose denote purity of intention, purpose, heart, and mind, in short, innocence. The red feather may harken back to the Egyptian goddess Ma’at, keeper of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Her feather was used to weigh the purity of the heart at the judgment after physical death. The RWS Fool’s pure soul is clothed with the tunic of an earthly body symbolized by solar disks and vegetation, vitalized matter, growing and alive.
I love the insight shared by the creator of The After Tarot (2 images up). The Fool has blithely stepped off the cliff but not to disaster; he is safe hanging on, unconcerned about his peril, inhaling the beautiful fragrance of the white rose of purity and spiritual love. The little dog seems both surprised and relieved. This is the soul’s journey through this life, fraught with dangers but surrounded by Divine protection to meet each step, each obstacle, each sorrow if only we continue to inhale the fragrance of Divine presence and love.
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.Psalm 91
One of the insights I have gained from comparing these two representations of The Fool is that there are different ways of beginning and continuing the soul's inner journey through life. The Marsaille Fool is earthly, grounded, honest, and even ordinary. He seems practical and determined. His path begins in the down-to-earth here-and-now, with little understanding of the spiritual realm that calls him forward. This in no way deters or stops him. He heeds the inner call and steps into the white light of spirit determined to progress in his spiritual life even as he lives in this ordinary world.
The RWS Fool seems to me to be more intuitive, already predisposed to have an innate understanding and awareness of spiritual things. He or she is less practical, given to imaginings, unrealistic optimism, and filled with emotional intelligence wrapped in naivete, but very sensitive to spiritual promptings even if uncertain of their meaning or origin. She falls into the spiritual journey almost unawares and, therefore, unconcerned. Her gentleness and pliability allow her to be carried along, oblivious to spiritual dangers or the scorn and ridicule of others.
These two personality types, or perhaps they are temperaments, each journey through the Tarot of life, learning the same essential lessons differently. Eventually, they both arrive at the same destination.
The point is that both ways, experiences, approaches, and temperaments are perfectly valid, and having one or the other or a combination of both does not impede your inner journey. The journey of the soul through life to greater spiritual understanding and transformation is for everyone, and the Tarot cards have a powerful way of showing that.
I enjoy these modern Tarot Fools for the insights and lessons they offer us. The first from the Steampunk Tarot reminds us that we tend to think that we can build our own protections and support systems, that our own strength and intelligence are necessary for successfully undertaking our journey through life and our inner spiritual journey. Look at the face of the Sun, as if he is sighing and thinking “Poor soul, thinks he can do this through his own strength and means.” Whatever we have built for ourselves is an illusion. Spiritual impulses and forces fuel our inner and outer journeys. The only necessary ingredient we supply is purity of intention.
The Gilded Tarot Fool connects us to the parade of the zodiac and, thus, to the seasonal shifts that lend qualities and atmospheres to each season of the year and our lives. This depiction of the Fool also hints at who the Fool will encounter first along his journey path, The Magician. That encounter changes everything, and rightly understanding its meaning sets the stage for how the Fool will develop on his journey through the archetypes of the Tarot and what he will learn from them.
Finally, the Fool in The Modern Witch Tarot, plugged into her phone, points out technology's role in distracting us, for better or worse, on our journey. This depiction certainly seems to highlight the effect of being numbed into obliviousness. Perhaps the misstep off the cliff is precisely what’s needed to jar her out of her disconnect to life and spirit.
We Are but Fools Stumbling into a New Season
We’ve just crossed into Aries season, the beginning of the zodiacal year and the true beginning of the Earth’s year. We stand like The Fool on the edge, ready or not, to engage with entirely new energies and cycles of seasonal time.
The Fool is a crucial archetype to integrate into your self-understanding.
Spend some time exploring how you understand the archetypal pattern of the Fool in yourself. Do you relate most to the Holy or Wise Fool? How have you seen that pattern play out in your life? Are you the down-to-earth Marsaille Fool, the distracted Fool of the Modern Witch Tarot, or the Fool who still lacks the trust needed for the journey like the Steampunk Fool?
Working on seeing your life experience and spiritual growth as a story unfolding through the images of the Tarot is a more advanced practice but well worth the effort.
This is the season of newness, energetic infusion, solar power, growing light, and the Emperor. Ironically, one way to take command of your life and rule your inner empire well is to be the Fool rather than the Emperor. Let the Fool within you speak the truth the Ego Emperor needs to hear to make progress on your spiritual journey.
What is the most important lesson The Fool has taught you?
The comments section is a safe and welcoming space to share your insights and experiences.
Comments and conversations are always appreciated and enjoyed, so feel free to let your voice be heard. I read them all and try to respond to each one.
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That's how I've mostly read the cards for myself since I got my first deck (the Marseilles) when I was 14. Thank you for the validation of my 'way's.
Your writing on the Fool's importance has brought much depth to my understanding of this card and really made me think. I plan to pull the Fool card out of each of my 7 decks tomorrow and ponder each one for new insights, on April Fool's day, as you suggested! Thank you so much.