Stepping into the Unknown: a Beautiful Lesson by the Fool

A.B. Dodge
4 min readMay 5, 2020

I would give anything to bring back that sense of wonder and joy I once had as a child. When I was learning to ride a bike, for example, I wasn’t concerned about falling. I was excited about the experience. I couldn’t wait to see me racing through the street without my training wheels!

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could rescue that feeling of joy from when we were little? Enjoying day by day and just observing things as they unfolded?

I know it’s not realistic sometimes. Especially now, as we are facing a pandemic that seems to have no end. In general, we can’t take a lot of risks.

But we can still bring ourselves to the present moment. We can enjoy our presence with our family, our loved ones, and still count our blessings.

On times like these, the Fool, a Major Arcana tarot card, teach us a bit about our human condition, and about how to be a child from time to time. For starters, I’m not a Tarot Expert. I just love to see the archetypes and the stories behind them. I think the Tarot can teach us lessons, regardless if we believe in divination or not. These archetypes all tell us their stories, and we can be them at some point in our lives.

And what a beautiful card “The Fool” can be!

If we look at the picture of the Fool from the Rider-Waite deck, you can’t help but think of a child, or a young person. Carefree. Maybe a bit careless, too, but with a sense of wonder and no fear of the dangers of the world.

We can see the Fool walking toward the cliff, but still looking positive. The dog beside him may be warning him of the dangers, for some believe they could be represented by the mountains and the eminent abyss.

The Fool could be all of us during this pandemic. During this crazy 2020 year.

How could we bring our mindfulness to the Fool’s journey during those difficult times? Well, what is the Fool’s journey anyway?

We actually don’t know what his journey is, and that’s the beauty of it. This card represents us when we have no destination in sight. It could mean we have been given a clean slate for new beginnings, new adventures. One step at a time, things will reveal themselves to us. The Fool urges…

A.B. Dodge

English Teacher, Meditation Enthusiast, Writer, Lover of Inspiring Stories and Flashfiction. Visit her blog at https://energyhealingandfriends.wordpress.com/