The Fool’s Journey!
“Everything can seem perfectly fine — and yet, something doesn’t feel quite right.”
Life is complex as we all know, and for many of us we feel that everything is going swimmingly – most of the time. Everything is great we say, some parts could be better, but that’s ‘just life.’
And often we can’t formulate in our minds exactly what is concerning us, because on the surface it all seems fine. As we navigate through our day, we are exposed to so many situations; appointments, meetings, mealtimes, phone calls, visits – a bewildering amount of information, thoughts and complex feelings between breakfast and bed.
How often do we stop, withdraw, and analyse all of this? When do we sit in a room, alone, or go walking (without a phone) and try to pick apart these intricate threads? No doubt we used to, in a previous, less cluttered age, but I’d argue that it’s a lot less common nowadays. The advent of electronic devices such as TV’s, smart speakers and phones, has added another layer of distraction, most of which diverts us from life’s rich tapestry rather than analysing it.
At its heart, Tarot is a life story experienced through the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana – representing the eternal themes of life’s experiences seen through the eyes of that great optimist: The Fool. Tarot has the Fool embarking on his path and encountering the mentors of Magician and the High Priestess. He then experiences, through the cards, mother, father, religion and belief, romantic union, ego, detachment, transition, temptation, self -destruction and slavish obsession to material possessions and sex – and these are only half the story!
So, as can be seen, Tarot covers ALL of life’s experiences, and it’s very efficient at exposing our hidden issues, and therefore allowing us to work out how we deal with them. Because Tarot encompasses life, it really helps us know why something might not ‘feel quite right’ because everything is covered!
Tarot is pivotal to understanding ourselves and maximising self-knowledge. When we don’t spend time to explore our inner selves, we often feel over-burdened or vaguely confused, even though we mostly feel ok!
The Tarot Torch shines a light inside us revealing what we know already but has been buried. Mindful Tarot has at its heart our ‘Seven Pillars’ of which the first is showing the importance ‘to illuminate what is already within you today’ and this is key. Our offerings are aimed at everybody, but the theme of this article resonates particularly with the ‘Life crossroads-navigator’ – those people who are ‘can’t hear their voice through the noise’ and the clutter of life really is loud and intrusive!
In my experience, first-time seekers will often tell me that something seems ‘buried’ and it’s all a bit wistful, like a half-remembered song, and they want to explore it. This often comes with an apology, or embarrassment, but this is why we created Mindful Tarot!
We are all, like The Fool, on our own journey of self-discovery, and the cards have a wonderful way of not only interpreting our known situation, but also that which is obscured or even locked away deep in our souls.
— Nicky Osborne
(If something in this feels quietly familiar, you may wish to stay with it a little longer — or explore the approach behind this work more deeply.)
