What to look for:
The world is new and shiny to the Fool. Chances are taken, consequences a dim whisper. The cocktail of curiosity and immaturity is potent, and the lack of fear helps the world to shine brighter. The Fool is with you when there is: a beginning & end, inexperience, possibility, innocence, a new journey, purity of spirit, ignorance, immaturity, impulsiveness, recklessness, caution, subconscious connection to youth, playful innocence, exploration.
The Vibe
You say yes to a date with a new crush. The party they take you to–both of you giddy with excitement and each other’s company–is wild, loud, and crowded. Music is blasting, people dance and kiss and shoot down more liquor. The danger and newness is magnetic.
A small voice of caution rises up, but you push it away. Your date asks you if you’ve tried this before, revealing two small pills in their palm. You haven’t. But you’re here and it’s now. You swallow it, then kiss, then laugh and join the dance floor.
The world is new and shiny to the Fool. Chances are taken, consequences a dim whisper. The cocktail of curiosity and immaturity is potent, and the lack of fear helps the world to shine brighter.
The road trip with no map or plan, the positive pregnancy test, the job offer in another country, the temptation of someone who’s taken, a huge investment based on a gut feeling…this is when the Fool walks beside you.
The Fool never leaves you, even when the shimmer of adult life has dulled. Too many blurry nights and stupid decisions pull the Fool deep into your subconscious. And you might forget how much you need him.
He screams at you from your depths to “go for it” when, in midlife, you wonder if you should quit your boring–and very stable–job to explore a new passion project. He begs you to hear him out, to remember the thrill of not knowing what might happen, of ditching your ten-year-soul-crushing plan to actually feel something. But sometimes the alcohol and nightly tv marathons win.
It’s safer to ignore the Fool.
Yet, if the stars align, you embrace him because you’re tired of playing it safe. You grasp the Fool’s hand with all your might and leap into the unemployed void because you’ll die of boredom if things don’t change. It is not a secure road. It is playful chaos, a fresh breath in a stale routine.
At this point you’re wise enough to know the risks, but also aware of the many rewards that the Fool’s energy offers. He is rife with gifts, if only you’re willing to see them.
Much farther down the road, as your body begins to deteriorate and friends pass away, you catch whiffs of the Fool in your daydreams. He still calls to you. He is there when you laugh at the mess the grandchildren have made in the kitchen, hands and smiles sticky with sugar…a mess that you’ll keep as your own little secret.
At the very end you’ll realize that accepting the Fool was the best kind of life you could have lived. A balance between stability and adventure. You needed the Fool to really live, to push yourself beyond what became comfortable and “grown up,” as you need him now in your final days.
Finally, when your world begins to quiet and your last breaths sift in and out, you eagerly take the Fool’s hand and leap.
That is the Fool’s energy.