How did that happen? It was January yesterday. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re acting the fool.
It’s an interesting tarot card, that one. I disliked it for a long time, usually depicting some carefree folk in colourful clothes prancing right towards a cliff. Looking up at the sky, completely unaware of the danger. I disliked the implication, that hopefulness and stupidity were intrinsically linked.
But that was then, and this is now. We are over a year into a global pandemic. I’ve had a lot of time to sit with myself, longer and slower than ever before. Before, the world came at me like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, constantly sprinting to stay in place. And that was just what it took to keep steady, a sprint. We all sprint and keep our heads up to stop that crown from slipping.
The fool has their head up too. And I have to imagine a hat weighs less than a crown. And having lived my life much slower, I find I prefer that pace.
But that’s foolish, isn’t it. Stupid.
Reversal
The one thing I always liked was the concept of upright and inverted cards. Inverted represents the poor qualities. Chaos, folly, poor judgement, stupidity. Upright represents the opposite. New beginnings, innocence, hope, improvisation. And in some texts, they speak of a Leap of Faith.
I’ve never much liked that notion either. It always struck me as…foolish. A leap of faith, indeed. No one catches you when you jump. When you fall. I’m already sprinting and now you want me to jump? I’m a queen, not a horse. And besides, when they jump and land badly they get put down. No thank you. I’ve seen what happens. I’m not a fool.
But interestingly, the fool is associated with a degree of luck. And luck is created by circumstance. And circumstance, well. You only get to influence so much of that.
Maybe the fool has it figured out. They know that the world is chaotic, they know that to think much different is folly. You think you know what the future will bring, but no one does if the massive array of divination techniques is anything to go by. Every day is a leap of faith, whether it feels like it or not. Anything could happen. There are probabilities, but no predictions.
Maybe the fool knows they aren’t stupid. That a stroll will get them to their goal as reliably as a sprint. And with time to smell the flowers, at that.
Really, what’s so foolish about that?
Yours,
Elmswood <3
