A Road Less Traveled
Sometimes the road to happiness, riches, peace of mind is different to the one most people take. Often it is more authentic for you to take the road less traveled.
Here we have the card of The Fool – the first and last card in the Major Arcana. She is also known as the Spirit of Aether and is ruled by the Element of Air. She represents change, adventure and anarchy.
The Fool is number 0 in the Tarot, the rest of the deck's numbers are shown as Roman numerals, while the Fool's zero is from the Arabic system of counting. You could say she is outside of the rules that the rest of us must follow.
?I must learn to love the fool in me the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries? – Theodore Isaac Rubin
The Fool is the beginning of the cycle of life, initiated into the journey from innocence to experience. When she sets out on her journey, with her knapsack and her white cat to guide her (in more traditional decks it is a white dog that is the psychopomp, the Soul's guide), we do not know what she will face and if she will thrive or perish.
She must journey on an upward spiral, and so it is when we live an examined life. If we go through life blindly, taking events and people, fortunes and misfortunes and everything in between as if we were disconnected from them, as if they were happening to us without our consent or without feeling that we have any say in the matter, then we will always be miserable since we then believe we are at the mercy of a fickle fate. We will live in fear and clutch every little bit of certainty about tomorrow that we can find.
If you look at the countenance of The Fool, you can see that she is not afraid, she is not concerned. Her gaze is averted from the precipice behind her and she is free.
This scene is an excellent metaphor for life and its adventures. When we set out on a new enterprise with no knowledge or skills to help us succeed, but with a desire and a need for change and discovery of new possibilities, it is as if the Universe and all its gods are looking out for us.
Worry and fear have no place here, indeed they will attract failure to you. The Fool is a true innocent, and having no concept of failure as she has not learnt it from anyone, her attitude of hope and willingness to discover new worlds seems to be enough protection for her as she sets out into the world.!
But the journey of The Fool is really about taking each experience she encounters and adding it to her knapsack, her tools, her experiences and everything that she learns along the way – it all enriches her and makes her more than she was when she started off.
And so it is in life – if you go through life without taking on the lessons and making yourself better by each experience, and being kind to yourself in the process, then you are missing out on the wonder and magic of what life is really about.
When The Fool turns up for you in a reading, as she has today, she is telling you that it is yet another opportunity to have a wonderful adventure, but you must be willing to take the good with the bad and make a meaning out of everything you encounter that will build you up, and not as a reason to give up or not try anymore. It's time to put your fears and troublesome thoughts of failure aside. Stop playing it safe. Find the road that is pointed towards your desires and put your foot upon that road with determination, trust and faith.
It's also time for you to discover what adventures await you as this road will lead you to a new life, of learning, of growth and of maturity.
When you step out of the confines of your old life, you have the opportunity to create whatever you choose for your life, for your family and for your future.
About the author
Estelle is the Editor & Founder of Smart Healthy Women Mag. She is an expert Coach, Author and Speaker. She is passionate about providing her readers with successful strategies for realising a life of purpose, meaning and fulfilment using the best in change tools and believes that by reaching their potential, everyone can make the world a better place.
