GETTING READY FOR THE FOOL’S BIG ADVENTURE ON APRIL 1ST

This Sunday, April 1^st, I’ll be holding my first magical chat of the year at the Triple Goddess Bookstore in Okemos, Michigan.  This is a special day for honoring THE FOOL WITHIN—and we all have one—so for Sunday’s readings and exercises, we will play up our positive Fool qualities so that we can see and experience life as a journey, rather than a destination.  Themes for the day include “The Magical Fool,” “Magical Surprises," “The Magic of Opening," and “The Magic of Resurrection.”

If you can’t be with us, but would like to do something special for April Fool’s day, here is a tarot exercise we’ll be doing, with a card search based on The Fool:  As you shuffle and cut your deck, pose a request like, “Please show me the next episode in my Fool’s Big Adventure.”  Then, place the card deck face up, and go through your stack of cards until you find The Fool, as well as the cards flanking The Fool.  Take note of any significant images in your Fool card, as well as the flanking cards.

In considering the themes that tie April Fool’s Day to Spring Equinox and the month of April:  April is thought to take its name from “aperio,” “I open,” because it formerly “opened up” the new year.  However, April may also take its name from an epithet of Aphrodite, “Aphrilis,” associated with the potency of life in Spring.  Aphrodite also bestows “golden gifts” that help us open to love and pleasure.  Does the imagery in your reading connect The Fool with the magic of opening?

Another theme for Spring and April is Resurrection and Renewal, as new life bursts forth from the seemingly dead earth.  The Fool has many juven-ile qualities, so, does the imagery in your reading connect The Fool with re-juven-ation?

Sometimes it may feel like the Universe is playing a cosmic joke on you, yet, such situations can also bring you new psychic life, creative fertility, and access to knowledge.  Does the imagery in your reading connect The Fool with cosmic jokes and magical surprises?

Note that in addition to the above exercise, as well as various other spells and reading techniques that we’ll play around with, I think it would be a good idea to do the “Tarot Round Robin,” (which we experimented with last fall), as a regular thing, both to take advantage of group energies as well as the opportunity to work with a larger number of card decks.  To do this, we go around the circle, focusing on one person at a time, while everybody else draws a card for him or her from their chosen decks.   While doing this, we try to take note of whether there are any special themes or recurring images that emerge, or any special relationships between different cards.  We also try to share any thoughts or impressions that came to mind as we were drawing each person's card.

LOOKING FORWARD TO APRIL FOOL’S DAY

Signs of Spring are everywhere here in mid-Michigan, and I am ready to begin another round of “magical chats” at the Triple Goddess bookstore in Okemos.  These are free and casual workshop-like sessions where people are free to drop in and drop out, participate, kibbitz, or just look on as I demonstrate tarot techniques and we engage other magical media.  During these sessions, we discuss each participant’s tarot readings along different themes or topics. (If you are uncomfortable about having a group analyze your readings, it’s OK if you don’t participate in these segments.)  I usually bring out some alternative oracle decks and others that I’m just starting to familiarize myself with, to take advantage of the insights that come up in the group situation.  Also, in the belief that there is a World of Spirit, and spirits of loved ones and others who take an interest in our well-being, and who are likely to converge at a high-vibration place like the Triple Goddess, we have a chance to “crowd-source to Spirit,” benefitting from the stronger connections to a greater pool of knowledge.

For these reasons, I like to emphasize--and would like to do a better job of --encouraging spontaneity on the part of all participants in expressing any thoughts that pop into their minds.  Please don’t be embarrassed to speak up; feel free to interrupt.  Furthermore, when people come together in a group, even if only momentarily, it is often because they may be dealing with some parallel issues.  Therefore, many of the things that come up in individual readings will have messages of significance to the larger group.  Whatever we may be discussing, if a certain thought pops into your head, or you feel a sudden urge to make a comment—even if it seems silly or way off base—it may be spiritually inspired, and something that somebody in the group needs to hear.

Right at the moment, I’m thinking about themes around “The Fool” card, and I’ve also been thinking about the Romany (gypsies), and the central role that the open road (the “boro drom” or “lungo drom”) used to play in their culture.  Numerous tarot writers have commented on “the Fool’s Journey,” and the Fool can be seen as a character who has taken to the road.  In the book, “A Romany Life,” written by Gipsy Petulengro in 1936, the author relates, “The fascination of the road to my way of thinking is due to two things: (1) that your time is all your own, and (2) the people you meet on your way.  The people one meets on the road are nearly always original and unusual” (229).  I believe I recall having read in John Stilgoe’s book on changes in the American Landscape, that back in the olden days, people rarely went out of their village orbit.  So, going out on the road to travel was a somewhat scary and very awe-inspiring experience for many.  That’s why there are a lot of superstitions around this topic, and it’s also an archetypal experience often treated in literature.

That leads one to think about the Fool’s Journey out on the road.  Although many of the characters in the tarot are portrayed in static or settled positions, it seems that one could design a tarot deck based on characters met along the road.

P.S. -- To people who have responded to various posts--thanks for sharing your thoughts and information, and my apologies for being so bad about not regularly checking the blogsite to enable the comments.