None of us like to feel like a fool. We’ve been schooled to feel this way for so long that it is a natural brake on some things we might otherwise do.
Fools are, in one sense, the “bravest of the brave” but usually because their bravery is unwitting. If you like, they are brave because ignorance of their situation or its consequences leaves them, if not fearless, then not showing fear because they don’t realise their exposure.
Yet fools have been important in history. In ancient times and cultures, someone whose outbursts or conduct might have labelled them “mad” were often retained by village elders as seers, albeit erratic ones. This became more formalised in Medieval Europe, where the court had a court jester, or fool. The fool had one power no-one else in the kingdom had – that he could voice opinions to the king or in public which would have seen others executed.
This could sometimes uncover a plot which courtly silence had concealed and “trumped” the plotters. This role is partly preserved in playing cards. These first appeared in China, perhaps as early as the 9th Century. They reached Europe in the C14th via Africa in the suits Swords, Staves, Cups and Coins, now considered Tarot cards, which originated in Italy a century later.
Modern designs followed, with possible historical explanations for each royal card in each suit. Some interesting ones are Alexander the Great (King of Clubs, the only beardless king), Knave of Hearts (La Hire, comrade to Joan of Arc) and Lancelot (Jack of Clubs).
The Joker card, however, is a recent invention, around 1860. Usually the top card, sometimes wild. In the game 500, they always win, although some variants allow a Joker to be “always best”, i.e. able to go below a red 4 or black 5 in Misere.
Which brings me to a favourite saying, that “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread”.
It is precisely this which makes fools invaluable. How often have you seen someone do something you might have done a short time later which they regret and you learn from. A lesson to the foolish is often a lesson for many.
Angels can be inspirational, brilliant, liberating, awesome. They also tend to be naturally conservative, in my opinion, gathering wayward ducks in a row and waddling off leading them. After all, an angel has to allow for free will, while a fool can go anywhere, and often does!
Fools test the boundaries. As the saying goes, “it is hard to design a foolproof system because fools are so ingenious”. You see, fools don’t think in a straight line, except sometimes, when stupidity is the shortest route between A and B.
So if you do something and feel foolish, you are probably ingenious and worthy of praise. Sort of. At the least, others can now avoid the minefield you have walked into. If you are feeling foolish, you may have just done something that has saved us all some pain (or misery, misère in French).
Image source: The Fool, Tarot, Joker, Archangel Michael
Ursula,
My friend you are most welcome! I hear such joy and laughter in your comments. The back of all the Tarot cards are the same, like so many lives scattered through time. It is not until we choose to look at their faces, and consider their meanings, that we begin (or support) our journey. I want people to feel that journeying in some ways isn’t hard, providing you choose to take the path and use your second-lidded eyes and an open heart to stay on the path. Most people dismiss growth as too hard, and my stories try to throw a different light on that misconception.
I’ve just had a chance to read all three of your recent articles, this one…Love the FOOL……..I have the Crowley Deck and this one is my favorite card….and letting go, spiritual underpants, they are very inspirational and easy to relate to…for one, such as I, who is an avid and tenacious journeyer willing indeed to leave no stone unturned…these wise words are music to the ears….fun to travel through…..I sense that as one does indeed make progress on the spiritual path, we move beyond a stream of energy that functions in a particular way into an entirely different reality based on a perceptions and perspectives of another order ……….a time comes when we seem to leave one world and enter another…..of late it has fascinated me that what might be called foolish in one paradigm would be wise in the other….compassion makes sense in one and not the other……almost like a scenario where people who believe the earth is flat with the sun circling our bordered plate of a planet could not in fact hold a rational discussion with those who believe in a globe that orbits the sun!! Two paradigms, two belief systems and two energetic frameworks, one inner based and the other outer based………….letting go to one is anathema to suicide and necessary indeed to the other!!!
It’s a fascinating business indeed this growth of the part of self you initially only vaguely remembered being who you are now becoming……..yes underpants worn right side out or outside in…..mmmm I indeed find myself more and more looking across at people and instead of feeling compassion, rather entering a frame of reference where I say to myself………well yes, I do understand that if I believed what you believe, saw what you see, thought what you think……..yes, that choice would be mine too.
Thanks for your inspirational writings………Ursula