Saying ‘Yes’ to The Fool On Leap Day: When the Impossible Becomes the Inevitable
Happy Leap Day!
Thanks to the Gregorian calendar, we get to enjoy one extra day in February this year.
You likely already know it was once known as “Lady’s Day” because it was a day women would reverse gender rolls and propose to men. Did you also know men could suffer fines for refusing those proposals?
Obviously bending on one knee is not a leap most of us will be taking, but Leap Day is a great excuse for anyone to consider what it means to say ‘yes’ to the unknown.
In Tarot, when it comes to taking a trust falls with Spirit, we turn to The Fool card, and so for this Leap Day, I want to explore what The Fool can do for you.
While you read, please enjoy my soundtrack/playlist for The Fool here.
When The Fool arrives in a reading, I’m always careful to point out that this card doesn’t represent a foolish person, quite the contrary.
The Fool is the Alpha and the Omega of the deck. Numbered 0, this card is both the chicken and the egg. The Fool is always with us, but when it arrives in a reading, we want to sit up and take notice.
The 22 Major Arcana cards tell a story. Joseph Campbell would call it the Hero’s Journey, we’ll call it The Fool’s journey.
Like three separate acts in a play, The Fool’s journey can be divided into the three lines of the Major Arcana, but The Fool stands alone.
To tell the story of The Fool, we get to go all the way back…
Once upon a time, we were all spirits without bodies. We saw something that we wanted to manifest. The Divine and the Collective said, “Great! You’re going to need a body for that. Have fun!”
Enter The Fool:
We see a youthful figure about to blithely step off a great cliff. Neither male nor female, they are an androgyny. They represent the “original self.”
The Fool’s animal familiar is an adorable little dog. Ready to alert its master to the potential danger of the precipice, and equally prepared to faithfully follow into the unknown. Our animal nature will be coming along for this ride.
The Fool carries in one hand a white rose symbolizing life, love, and passion. In the other, a waltzing Matilda satchel containing knowledge of the true self.
Emblazoned with the silhouette of an eagle’s head, The Fool’s bag is a reflection of the spirit, ready to soar. It has no space for past trauma, fear, or expectation. The Fool is unbound from the constraints of society and tradition.
The staff is actually a magic wand, but The Fool caries it so carelessly you’d hardly notice. Instead of gripping or deliberately wielding this magic instrument, The Fool allows the energy of the staff to flow with and for the journey.
In The Wild Unknown deck, we see a baby bird preparing to take flight for the first time. Can you imagine?
With no experience of flying, the instinct to soar is stronger than the fear of falling. Flight is essential to a bird, but oh that first step!
When we take the fist step on The Fool’s journey, it’s rarely is convenient or comfortable. It is imperative.
Whenever we work with The Fool, we’re being asked to demonstrate faith. Faith in ourselves, that we have a soul, and that we’re in the care of Spirit.
The Fool assures us that what we came here to manifest, is bigger than whatever we could possibly fear or hope for.
When we hear the call of The Fool, it starts quietly. It’s a subtle feeling that pulls us beyond what can be seen or measured. It is a knowing that something within us is ready to come into being.
The Fool can certainly show up when we’re about to make a major life change, like a new job, a trip, or starting a family. It can also show up moment-to-moment in each day.
If we attune ourselves to listening for daily whispers from The Fool, the less resistant we’ll be when it comes time to take the bigger leaps.
The call towards The Fool usually happens long before we answer it, but we get stuck in thoughts and worries. Most of us are constantly attempting to control our external realities. The ego’s core belief says, “If I plan and act the right way, if I maintain control, I’ll be safe and happy.”
Of course, the truth is that we can’t actually control or predict anything. Not how other people will behave, not COVID, not even what our own next thought or desire will be!
The voice of our highest selves is always sharing, we’re just not always ready to listen.
In my own journey, I took a Fool’s leap when I changed my career from being a software sales executive to Tarot reader.
For ages, I had hope that my desire to follow my creativity would be satisfied through hobbies. I feared that I’d have no future without a corporate employer. When I started to regularly practice the Tarot, it most certainly wasn’t a job training exercise, I was having an identity crisis.
Slowly, as I worked with the cards, I began practicing my listening skills with Spirit. The more I listened to my inner-truth, the less time I spent arguing with my feelings. I stopped saying to myself, “just shut up and be happy with what you’re supposed to be doing” and I started to follow the voice of imagination as peace that simply said, “oh neat! What could this be?”
And still, it wasn’t until COVID hit and made it impossible for me to pursue my plan B that I took the leap and said yes to Sea Tarot.
We can live in discomfort and denial for a long time, but not forever.
I took the leap. I never thought I would be doing this work, and yet here I am. The joy I experience daily is nothing short of a miracle. And it started with a few cards.
When we say ‘yes’ to The Fool it starts small. It begins with mindfulness and curiosity. When we keep listening, if we can resist the urge to silence our inner voice, more invitations to joy follow. Our fears take a back-seat to our hopes, and our hopes turn to faith.
This is the miracle of The Fool. When we listen to our soul’s truth, the impossible becomes the inevitable.
Saying Yes to The Fool
Remember back at the beginning? When Divine and the Collective said, “Great! You’re going to need a body for that. Have fun!”
As you enjoy this Leap Day, perhaps you can surprise yourself into taking some risks with The Fool.
You don’t need to propose marriage or give a resignation letter. The Fool is with us in every moment.
Your imagination and your fear are the only tools you’ll need for this listening game. If it your brain kicks up resistance or fear, you’re in the right place for exploration. Instead of following the ‘no’, use your imagination and feel what saying ‘yes’ to The Fool stirs within you.
Answer the following prompts:
- Make a list of 8 jobs that you would like to try if there were no consequences.
- Finish the sentence “It would be a miracle if I could ____” eight times.
- If I could wear anything it would be ___
- If everything I had to do was taken care of, I’d ___”
- If I wasn’t allowed to sacrifice anything, I’d have to stop ____”
- If I could live anywhere, what would I see every morning?
- If miracles were possible for me, how would I behave differently?
- The best day that I can possibly imagine would go like this…
If these prompts feel challenging, it’s because faith and hope feel scary to the ego. Living in joy and in purpose can be scary. The Fool is here to help.
It’s more comfortable to think that you’ll never be able to risk X, because doing Y would be crazy. The ego can actually get very activated when we simply begin to imagine, because the act of imagination is the first step towards The Fool.
The brain resists and says, “Why bother?” The answer is that when we cultivate our listening skills through imagination and mindfulness, we’re tuning into our soul’s truth, our purpose.
I hope that on this Leap Day you’ll ignore that voice of fear and say ‘yes’ with The Fool.
Your soul’s purpose is not to stay safe, you will always be safe. You are on The Fool’s journey. Have faith in your highest truth and the risk of falling can’t compete with your imperative — to fly.
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Reading the Tarot is my joy and my vocation. If you would like to receive a reading from me, I would be honored to serve you. You can book with me, either in person from my San Francisco location, or remotely from anywhere in the world here.
