The divine Fool, fate and sacred fire.

How do we learn to deal with the world?, when there so few of us walking the path, those that there are can be often suspicious of the motives and actions of others, and with good right on occasion, those that are not upon this road also, if we are to be truly alone for much of the time of our journey how are we able to sustain our earthly needs, measure our achievements and failures, discover those who travel along side in the dark, who is there to guide us among the subtle ways of truth and knowledge.

The journey the solitary man or woman has to make is that of the divine fool, the perfect mentor to those without another more tangible teacher to guide us, a much over looked character by many, a word and term that has been linked to idiocy and carelessness within the modern world, however when we examine the fool we see perfection, absolute trust and one who excepts fate and all she will throw at him.

Within history the fool has been allowed to enter the homes of the poor and the castles of kings', a confident to all, the true records of deeds and time recorded by the one who is able to move between the wealthy and the poor, one who is above suspicion, trustworthy entertainer, inspiror to all and confident, chronicler and yet often unseen shaper of the realm.
The symbology within this character directly reflects those traits and attributes of the historical fool, this being a pointer, a sign to remind us all of who or what we are , or intend to become, we must of course attempt to look further at what makes this man what he is and how we can hope to become more like him, and to do this we will examine the fool within the context of the Tarot.

Often pictured in his simple form, at first glance he is unprepared about to step into extreme danger with foolish pride, to take his own life and that of his companion into the abyss, the modern, simple pictorial explanation is that he is beginning his journey and he needs to bring all of the aspects of the world together in order to achieve success and fulfilment.
As those who study this oracle with more perception than the fairground or parlour tricks now most commonly associated with it will know, this is not the case, the fool has no number he is above and below in the scheme of the cards, he is both beginning and end, there is no need for him to lay out and inspect his tools as he already knows that he has all the tools he needs, he is not about to carelessly leap to his death, he has reached the state where he is prepared to trust in fate and give himself to her in his whole.
In truth the fool appears to have little or nothing, what he has is knowledge, absolute faith and the ability to move through the world with relative ease, he is indeed prepared, he will accept the consequence of his actions whatever they may be, he will lead the others in his merry dance, yet he is also ready to be lead by those that wish to lead.
I could elaborate to the other images within this card but I am only interested in the man at this time, what the whole card may or may not represent is not for me with my limited knowledge to discuss at this time, we all should perceive these keys in our own way anyhow.
We must remember that in the past, the Fool has taken his place at both ends of the major arcana and this is indeed where he belongs.
On the start of our journey we must admit to ourselves that we have much to learn and far to go, as knowledge comes this also becomes quite apparent, we must not have the pretence that we have nothing to learn, and in that respect each step along the journey must be accepted as if it were the first steps of a child, to work with instinct requires the fools acceptance of fate and willingness to lead or be lead, to bend to your needs and the needs of others, when we arrive at the end we are able to return, to castles of Queens and the hearths of the poor.
The fool is appears as nothing yet he is capable of anything, this is how we need to be to accept our solitary place in this and all worlds, we have the tools for anything we could wish to do, we must be prepared to accept Fate and become part of her rich tapestry, we can take the leap into the abyss because we have faith, it may well appear Foolish to throw ones self from the cliff, but with absolute faith and the ability to accept the consequence it is not so.

So in those times when there is no mentor to light the way, we must look to the divine fool for inspiration, in time and even when judged by modern standards we can realise that The Fool is indeed no Fool at all.

Finally, in my own scheme of things and in an attempt to illustrate the above, I feel I must mention last weeks celebration of the lunar cycle, The Hecate's sacred fire celebrations were a global event, organised in no small part by Sorita D'Este who had prepared an invocation to our lady to use on the night, so I prepared to set aside my usual chaotic prancings in the dark and join with the theme of the night, putting instinct to one side yet at the same time instinctively knowing this was the right thing to do, I used Sorita's invocation instead of my usual off the cuff declarations and enchantments, took an all be it small leap of faith as it were.
A beautiful and inspirational invocation, and what transpired into for me, a night of what I can only describe as a long overdue moment of devotion to she who stands at the meeting of ways.
Well, I have been so caught up in the unlocking of doors that it became the right thing to take a night out to give praise and thanks to my guide and mentor in that other place, to show my devotion and to declare once again that I was Hecate's man.

Thank you Sorita for your words of devotion on that beautiful night, inspiration for this old Fool.

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