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| The Fool, the unnumbered card of the Tarot deck's Major Arcanum - AI generated - by TyliJura. Related images can be found here. |
"the hero receives a call to adventure
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they refuse the call
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they meet an inspiring mentor
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they decide to “cross the threshold” and accept the call
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they leave their home and face obstacles, enemies, and allies
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they fail to achieve the goal
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they try again and succeed
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they come home with a reward"
- A list of the chronological order of events present in an archetypal heroic tale compiled by Joseph Campbell for his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces found in this Substack article.
"The Fool is not foolish — he is brave. He reminds us to begin again with openness, to trust the journey even when we can’t see the destination, and to listen to our instincts and higher self. He is the hero before the story begins, the spark of curiosity and freedom that initiates transformation.
Whether you’re starting a new venture, moving through change, or seeking deeper wisdom, The Fool invites you to embrace the unknown with a light heart and a willing soul."
- Interpretation of The Fool of the Tarot found here.
"In Europe, the divinatory meanings of the Fool tend to be darker than in the Anglo-American world. These meanings include illusion, confusion, passive drifting, irresponsibility, and impulsive actions leading to chaos. At best, the card symbolizes radical freedom and a detachment from societal restrictions, allowing for a kind of creative genius."
- Another reading of The Fool card (Le Mat), alluding to its negative, or inverted meaning in divination.
"And perhaps most fittingly for our reading of Tarot cards, William Blake says 'If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.'
When dealt this card, we are given a call to adventure, the beginning of a grand new journey, or we are being shown our own silliness, the missteps that we have taken. In truth, these are the same thing, a chance to start again."
- Excerpt from an article featuring Fool archetypes from the classical tarot decks.
For, yet, another (tarot) Fool offering on this blog, see this post.
Interestingly, the Fool is also interpreted as a "madman." Arthur E. Waite, on the other hand, refers the Fool as an alchemist, although in a derogatory way:
"The conventional explanations say that the Fool signifies the flesh, the sensitive life, and by a peculiar satire its subsidiary name was at one time the alchemist, as depicting folly at the most insensate stage." (See Sacred Texts.)
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It will be the 12th day of Christmas when this post goes up, and the 5th day of the official New Year. Weirdly enough, at least in my experience, that official juncture - or portal - between 2025 and 2026 which we have so recently experienced has held true. For me, it's as if I walked into a different dimension of reality - and/or human experience - I had never (exactly) visited before; overwhelmingly similar to my general perspective but turned up a notch... like an increment on a dial. Then again, space-time might be (metaphorically) represented by a dial... but, possibly, in ways the Vitruvian dialers (Chapter 8)* could not have foreseen.
That being said, the image introducing the post is possibly the weirdest image I've seen in a very long while, so, naturally, I thought I'd share it!
The Fool is a Tarot image, an AI creation by the enigmatic TyliJura. You'll note by now, that many AI images seem uncannily similar in ways. In theory, the programs are developing certain synthetic archetypes - possibly a synthesis reflecting the culmination of a million bytes of information unwittingly donated by both the living and the dead artists of the world. This Fool is unexpected, however. Even if we study the Fool in the classic tarot decks, and similar figures inspired by Northern Renaissance artists, or, perhaps painter, Georges Mazilu, TyliJura's genderless Fool remains alien, dreamlike, uniquely mystical, and, yet, true to the Fool's enigmatic childlike nature. Here the Fool has been elevated to a child god.
These days, of course, just getting out of bed in the morning is a heroic deed. Then again, the real heroes may not even have a bed to sleep in. In the last analysis, we all, in our own ways, are heroes.
Happy New Year!
* Excerpt: "15. The hole being lowered through the space of Scorpio and Sagittarius, in its revolution it returns to the eighth division of Capricornus, and, by the velocity of the water, the winter hours are produced. To the best of my ability I have explained the construction and proportions of dials, so that they may be easily set up. It now remains for me to speak of machines, and the principles which govern them. These will be found in the following book, and will complete this Treatise on Architecture."
Note: Apparently, the ancient "dials" were not sundials, as much as the were water clocks based on the 12 signs of the Zodiac!
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Well, it's only fitting to include this tune here, no? Not merely because of the song's title, but David Bowie (Jan 8, 1947 - Jan 10, 2016) was a child of January... and a hero to many of us, including Mac, who would have approved of its inclusion here. Performed in Berlin, Germany - where Bowie resided in the 1970's, and which inspired Heroes - is, possibly, his best recorded live performance of this tune.
And, there's a third reason I posted the video here. The country in which I live and Mac resided - and, in which Bowie eventually died - is now being torn apart by a toxic regime lead by a madman - sound familiar ? - which may, in the end, lead the world into a war from which none of us will ever recover. Where are our heroes when we most need them?
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Addendum
(Added January 30, 2026)
“I’m Pierrot, I’m Everyman. What I’m doing is Theatre and only Theatre…What you see on stage isn’t sinister, it’s pure clown. I’m using my face as a canvas and trying to paint the truth of our time on it. The white face, the baggy pants – they’re Pierrot, the eternal clown putting over the great sadness…”
- David Bowie (1976). A quote harvested from Adam Steiner's terrific (2024) article: Tears of a Clown - David Bowie and the Infinite Melancholy of Scary Monsters.
She was tired, you can't hide beat
And when I looked in her eyes
They were blue but nobody home
She could've been a killer
If she didn't walk the way she do, and she do
She opened strange doors that we'd never close again.
Scary monsters, super creeps, keep me running, running scared."
Inset left is Bowie in his Pierrot costume which is featured in the official video of another tune from Monsters: Ashes to Ashes, a favorite of Mac's and mine.
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The best performing artists are those who engage with us (their audience, the anonymous spectators) on several levels: the iconic, the personal and, lastly, the subliminal. The iconic is made evident by adoring crowds and social media stats... quantified (but not qualified) by the popularity of film recordings and record sales. The personal draws us closer to the heart of our individual selves, those private muses or motivators which inspire us to create and express our own personal experiences and/or our own "performances". For some, it is here the workings of love are to be found.
Lastly, we have the subliminal level where lie the underground streams and night shining stars that lead us just a little bit further down our existential paths to a place we'd never been to before. This is where the magic lies... the mysterious and, ultimately, alchemical ingredients; the sub-rosa of the psyche or soul, if there can be such a thing. This is where we dream and are realized in dreams.. the place we generally forget upon waking.
David Bowie was one of those performers.
For more information about the Pierrot figure, who shares the same major family which includes clowns, jokers, jesters, harlequins and fools see Messy Nessy's History's Quietest Icon - The Many Faces of Pierrot.
