RE:RELEASE | The Wisdom of the Fool
Alive Again - part 1/5 | may we learn to dance life
“Know this, when you start dancing you’ll be better equipped for what comes next.”
-Jessica Dore
Hey there Sacred Hearts.
Over the last couple months I’ve embraced a season of wintering & fallowness which has me producing less & reflecting more. In this time of quiet integration I’ve come back into contact with one of the great archetype guides of my life: The Fool. The Fool has and continues to guide me into unknown territory; asking me to leap into the unknown as I choose unconventional paths for myself, trust the wisdom of my heart & be willing to get it wrong for the sake of experiencing what the moment is asking of me.
It’s no small feat to live guided by the Fool.
Given the political unrest, continual uptick in chaos and the needing-to-perpetually-choose-alignemnt-to-stay-sane of it all, I was reminded of this 5-part essay I wrote in 2023. It remains one of my favorite pieces of writing, not only because writing it supported me out of hopelessness and into my Truth, but because the Fool, when listened to for her unconventional wisdom, offers such hope.
I’ll be re-releasing this essay over the next 5 weeks with an aim to help us remember the wisdom in choosing our hearts— how learning to dance with life, even & especially amidst hardship is resistance— and that unconventional truth, absurdity & foolishness might be what these times are asking of us.
Here’s to our great, collective leap into the unknown.
May we trust. May we laugh. May we dance. May a new way be shown.
XO
-Madison
Alive Again: The Wisdom of the Fool | Part 1
When, exactly did you lose the vibrancy and innocence of your heart? The magic of being alive? The hope of a better tomorrow?
When did the earnest fool inside of you stop trusting in and dancing with life?
Perhaps for you, the callousness of your heart began long ago– over a lifetime of disappointments, losses and heartbreaks never fully felt.
Maybe for you, it was the deflation and utter disorientation after a great loss– be it the loss of a beloved, your marriage, your health, your faith, your career or a version of yourself you were never meant to be.
Maybe it was a slow drip, watching political upheaval through the fire screen of your phone, creating the glazed-over, apathetic eyes and cement feet that can’t seem to want to begin again.
Or maybe it wasn’t something you lost so much as you tucked it away in fear of being seen as foolish or childish or insensitive to the “harsh realities” of life.
After all, the most obvious choice for a tender heart in a world of heartbreak is to harden– callousness is nothing more than self-protection.
The walls around your heart aren’t wrong. They make sense. And– I invite you to consider the possibility that you may not need them anymore.
Okay- before I get ahead of myself, can I tell you a story and introduce you to someone?
It was spring of 2020 when I met today’s guide, the Fool, in the most unsuspecting way.
As I embarked on my first medicinal ceremony with mushrooms I set up a little altar with devotion. (I take this shit seriously). I put my hand over the magic shrooms, centered myself and reverently prayed: “help me see myself clearly.”
I was ready to receive sacred, serious wisdom. I wanted to touch my pain, shed some tears and to face my dark night of the soul.
Much to my surprise I dissolved into bellowing laughter.
The breath of life violently, effervescently, joyfully pulsating through me. Tears streaming down my face, gasping for air between laughs. Then… the answer to my prayer arrived with what I can only describe as God’s gossip.
There he was: a gleaming, a tiny dancing devil. Standing only 12 inches tall with the biggest smirk on his face. Behind his grin, the secret to life– the answer to my prayer.
Arms spread wide and body gyrating, he said to me,
“Madison, life is a joke.”
I burst even deeper into tear-saturated laughter.
“I ASKED TO SEE MYSELF CLEARLY AND ALL I SEE IS A DANCING DEVIL!!!
HE IS TELLING ME LIFE IS A JOKE!”
While I’m not someone who believes we can just do mushrooms and all our problems will be solved, nor is it the proper medicine for everyone, this insight offered me the start of a new beginning.
“Life is a joke.”
I contemplated those words for months thereafter and slowly came to realize that it was not “the devil” appearing to me, it was the Wisdom of the Fool, ushering me into a new, less serious, spacious way of being.
Despite all my saccharine desire, it was not angels of light nor the beauty of my Essence I received. Instead I got the silly, sacred medicine I needed:
A Holy Joke. A liturgy of levity. God’s Grace-filled Gossip.
Of course.
It is the Fool who understands backwards wisdom.
Where the onlookers with hard hearts may mock and misunderstand, the Fool knows innocence of heart is the greatest strength, openness the greatest protection and merrymaking the greatest medicine.
As an archetype, the Fool is known for paradoxical wisdom that provokes new beginnings, full of contrary, liberating insight.
The Fool is full of contrary, liberating insight.
As Kim Krans says, the Fool “carries a remedy for all that ails this world.”
It’s the Fool who will whisper “you’re being a petty little victim and keeping yourself from happiness, you sassy bitch,” wink at you, and inspire you to take sacred responsibility only like the Fool could.
It’s the Fool who will say “who cares what happened before! Who cares what they think!! Imagine the possibilities!!! Imagine the fun!! Imagine the lessons we will learn!!!!”
It is the Fool who opens trap doors to freedom and teaches us to begin again.
And in a time where everyone is teaching and preaching liberation through endless digging, copious amounts of “doing the work,” healing ourselves and digging into our each and every trauma…
It’s the Fool who knows the path of levity and grace is the most subversive way of all.
Did you know the etymology of the word Fool comes from the Latin word that means “bellows”; in Sanskrit it literally means “inflated with wind.”
It may not be far off then to say that to embody the freshness and springtime energy of the Fool archetype we must clear some brush, thaw our ground, open our hearts and create space for something new.
The Fool is here to give us a breath of fresh air - to help us remember what it was like at the beginning - to open up to a childlikeness (without losing all the wisdom we have gained) so that life can begin to live us.
Throughout historical mythology and tarot, the Fool archetype has been known to help us:
Break rules and take risks
Embody beginner's mind
Be willing to be misunderstood
Bring a spirit of play
Tell the truth
Embrace uncertainty
Laugh at mistakes
Step outside their comfort zone
Leap into the unknown
Flow with the winds of change
Stays curious and in the realm of possibilities
Not to take ourselves too seriously
Loosen our grip of control
To trust
Walk the backward way of wisdom
Doesn’t that sound like potent medicine, with a spoonful of sugar!?
If you want to keep the same old thing going, that’s up to you. I won’t judge. But answer this for me first:
How fucking crusty has life become, trying to “achieve your goals” and heal from endless amounts of wrongdoings?
How serious and stagnant do you feel when you try to get it “right”?
How hard has it become to access the joy of when you first began since you’ve filled your mind with all this “self help”?
When was the last time you laughed?
The Laughing Buddah gets it^
If you’re feeling the pang of this email and wanting to take the invitation to backwards wisdom, willingness and wonder, I invite you to take the Fool’s trap-door.
Take the Fool’s trap-door to freedom with me– an invitation to do it different.
Do it different.
Do the foolish thing. Do the irrational thing. Do the simple thing. The spontaneous thing. The thing that doesn't make sense. Do the thing you’re not good at. Do the messy thing. Do the thing without strategizing. Do it because you love it. Do the thing without force. Do the thing and stay open. Do the thing from flow. Do the thing while telling the truth. Do the thing, dancing. Do the thing laughing. Do the thing, unexpected. Do the thing from an innocent, earnest heart. Do the thing “women like you” would never do. Do the thing like you’re held. Do the thing like you can’t get it wrong. Do the forbidden thing. Do the thing like there is nothing to “fix” and nothing to “do.” Do the thing trusting life. Do the thing with arms wide open. Do the thing and let people stare. Do the thing no one expects. Do the thing they hate. Do the thing they judge. Do the thing you thought you’d never do. Do it big. Do it bold. Do it afraid. Do it surrendered. Do it willing.
What if we can actually dance our way to freedom and laugh our way to liberation?
Sure, maybe it is the “foolish” choice to trust this moment, and resign our fixing. And maybe that’s exactly what this moment is asking for.
What to do now?
It’s simple, really. So simple. Too simple.
Would you try it with me?
Put your to-do list aside, just for a little while.
Dance through the frozen places inside you!
Feel it all and move it through – Shake your ass!! Scream!!! Hug a pillow!!!! Lay and do nothing!!!!! Cry!!!!!
In the wise words of Jessica Dore, “Change at any level the personal, relational, cultural, systemic-requires two things: that we be courageous enough to dance weirdly in the frozen spaces and that we be willing to feel whatever angst or uncertainty that brings.
Know this, when you start dancing you’ll be better equipped for what comes next.”
I’ll leave you with this for now and be back in a next week with part 2 of 5. :)
Let it be easy,
Madison
❤️🔥🕊️🌈
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