La Fou
The Fool on the Precipice of Madness and Genius
I returned to what I lovingly call Tarot Church yesterday morning, a six month journey through the Major Arcana, facilitated by Jessica Dore. The real name is Sunday meeting, which does have a bit of a churchy ring to it. This is my third round. I took a break last year, but this is Jessica’s sixth rotation. It is grounding and always eye opening, reminding me we never truly “learn” the cards. Voyaging with the cards is “a school in the art of learning.” (Meditations on the Tarot, Anonymous) The process operates on the idea that you can keep returning to the same texts (the cards) with different groups of people and always get a fresh perspective or new learning from the cards.
We start with The Fool, though in Meditations, the writer puts The Fool between Judgement and The World, and as the card is “zero,” it can really go between any of the cards, as a bridge or adjacency or vehicle. As I began to think about The Fool “anew,” I kept coming back to the idea of madness or a recklessness of spirit which can feel like losing a grip on reality. The Fool, or La Fou in French, El Loco in Spanish, in other words an intentional depiction of madness, and The Fool’s instability, his untetheredness almost requires he have cards on either side of him to help him remain of this world.
We can also consider The Fool and the role of The Trickster in world literature, a figure who turns “the truth” on its head, lightens the mood, reminds us of the folly of over-seriousness, and is in the words of the author of the Meditations “a mocking spirit.” The Fool in this respect is a rule breaker, and is not foolish at all, but exists to challenge societal structures, and to reveal the idiocy of those in charge.
A common interpretation of The Fool in a tarot reading is fresh starts, new beginnings, starting over, of freedom, but also of the illusion of freedom. This illusion of total freedom is both The Fool’s superpower and can also be his detriment. I gave a reading to a dear friend last night and at her base card in the Celtic Cross spread, the third position, was The Fool. I told her I’d been thinking a lot about this archetype and that in her situation it was important to find the balance between risking everything for an illusory freedom, and finding the cards to support The Fool on either side of her. In her case, The Hermit and The Star appeared, a beautiful trio for moving forward, hope and solitude, spiritual groundedness and balance.
In the Meditations, the writer addresses the freefalling nature of The Fool:
Now the Arcanum “The Fool” has a double meaning. Indeed it can be understood in two different ways: as a model and as a warning at the same time. For on the one hand it teaches the freedom of transcendental consciousness elevated above the things of this world, and on the other hand it clearly presents a very impressive warning of the peril that this elevation comprises—lack of concern, inadequacy, irresponsibility and ridicule…in a word, madness.
Meditations, p.603
So The Fool gives us a permission slip to think and behave unconventionally, to take risks, to have the courage to start over. But it also presents us with a warning to be careful of letting go of everything solid which tethers us to the world. A life must be balanced—freedom for freedom’s sake alone is a form of madness. A life of vagabonding may work well for some. But most would agree having a home is preferred, or at least a home base to return to after exploration and travel.
See you next week. Thank you for taking the time to read.
xoHanna
I loved this "A life must be balanced—freedom for freedom’s sake alone is a form of madness."