A Love Letter to The Fool

03/20/21

It’s the first day of Spring and it’s got me thinking about the Fool card – some would call it the first card of tarot’s major arcana whereas others consider it outside, in a class of its own. Card zero. The archetype of the traveler on a mythic journey through all the ups and downs of existence.

The Smith Rider Waite image of the Fool depicts a person about to step off a cliff. They are seemingly oblivious to this fact, merrily going along with their bindle and their little dog. And yet the Fool does not stand for foolishness or stupidity – the Fool is wise, the Fool has faith. The Fool knows that to stay on the beaten track is to have one’s soul wither away and that even if there are falls from cliffs to navigate, the only real way to live is to learn to follow the subtle directions of the inner compass. Have you ever felt inexplicably called to explore an opportunity that defies logic but just makes your heart do little excited leaps when you consider saying yes to it? Have you ever had an experience where the same word or symbol keeps showing up in unexpected places until you can no longer ignore it? I start paying attention when I see the same thing twice and if it appears for a third time then I really stop and take notice. What is it telling me? Where is it leading me? I put up a picture of it on my shrine or my desk and let it work its magic. Sometimes it’s not the end point but just a breadcrumb on the trail to something else. To me there’s nothing more exciting than having a breadcrumb trail like this to follow.

Over the past 25 years or so I’ve experimented with various ways of going about life and I’ve found that it never really works to follow paths that I feel I should be following, or that seem like a “good idea” or that other people tell me will be good for me. I can keep going for a while in those directions but it never pans out unless my heart’s in it, unless my soul is whispering “yes” to me on a regular basis to let me know I’m on the right track.

I find it really beautiful that we all have this capacity but that each of our paths is different – the magical breadcrumbs dropped for me to follow will likely be quite different from yours but the following of the trail will give us both a feeling of being in touch with life in a deeply nourishing way. To be clear I’m not necessarily talking about epic life changes here – I know many people don’t have the privilege to be able to “follow their bliss” into a different job or a new location. But have you ever heard 3 different people mention the same book in the space of a week and then picked up a copy and found some wisdom in it that changes the way you think about things and moves you a couple of steps further along your path? That’s an example of following the call of the Fool that’s just as valid as quitting your job and driving across the country to start a new life in Idaho because you kept having potato synchronicities.

Maybe you’re already in a nourishing relationship with your inner compass in which case, yay – keep going! If you don’t feel so connected though, and feel you’d like to be, here are a few ideas to get you started:

Set an intention and speak it out loud (bonus points if it’s a new moon or full moon but really any time that feels right is good) that you want to connect with your intuition and be more open to signs and messages from your inner compass
Start a tarot practice and get in the habit of regularly asking for guidance from your deck
Try some automatic writing – I find putting on some slightly hypnotic music helps get me in the zone – drop into a dialogue with your inner self and just write whatever comes through your hands without letting your brain get in the way. You can start with something like “hello inner self, what would you like me to know about you in this moment?”
Go on an intentional walk for an allotted amount of time with a question in mind, or something more open-ended like “I am asking to be shown a symbol or an image which will help me on my path” and be as open and receptive as you can to what shows up
Google “tarot fool” and choose an image that speaks to you in some way. Save it as your phone’s background image for a week or so and use it as a kind of talisman reminding you that you want to connect with your inner wisdom

My heartfelt wish is that everyone on the planet be in touch with and open to their inner Fool in this way, deeply nourished by the relationship and moving through life in contact with a sense of meaning and magic.