How Do You Envision Journey's End? Week 21 With Tarot's Fool

It is almost time for the Fool's journey to end, for he is about to achieve his quest. And what a journey it's been! You may be surprised to know that after all the transformations he's been through, he once again looks exactly like this----------------->

How can that be? He's been turned upside down and inside out; into an old old man and, at times, no more than a smear of protoplasm on the basement floor of self-discovery. And yet here he is. About to take that momentous last step.

Before he could do this, the Fool had to call up his past—everything he learned about himself during his journey that no longer serves him—and finally put it all to rest (Week 20: Judgement). That, as he found out, does not mean exorcising his past from his life, or even tucking it safely away under lock and key where it can't affect him—that's not possible. It means accepting all that he's been and done, without judgment, at which point it vanishes as an active force. He did that, and now he is who he is, no more and no less, and he is fully in the present. Ahhhh.

With an open heart, the Fool turns to the path to take the last step. He finds himself once again standing at the edge of that same cliff where we met him. But this time, instead of stepping carefully away from the precipice, he steps right off the cliff . . . and soars. Higher and higher, until the whole of the world is his to see.

He dances above the world and experiences it in all its fullness. He sees that the end to his long journey has come, and that, waiting for him in the world below is well-earned praise, celebration and success.

From this vantage point, he looks back to where he began—at his idealism and assumptions, his willingness to expose and pursue his desire, and he knows none of this would have happened without that.

He realizes there is no separation between his body and mind and his quest. In the end, it is all one.

What else will happen? He sees that in addition to all the celebrating, there will be new opportunity. Maybe he'll become a teacher, or a sought-after lecturer. Long, fantastic trips are in his future, too. He feels whole, and happy.

Tarot's Fool is no fool, though. Soon he'll think about possibilities, good and bad, and be open to the experiences they may bring. He'll think about how important it is to stay open, to be a good citizen, and to be a good fighter. Aware of his mind and his environment, he will not fail to respect any important opportunity and the realities around it.

But for now, the Fool wants to enjoy this moment, and to recoup his energies. He bows as he steps out of the dance, and retreats to his garden (the one he planted with all the parts of himself that survived Death. They thrust their new green shoots into the world, he nurtured them, and the garden is lovely and luxurious now). He just needs to soak up the pleasure he has earned, which he does as he accepts his rewards with great joy.

When he's rested, he has a decision to make. He hates to leave his garden, but he must move; a new quest beckons. Now he will begin from a new position of strength.

He feels a new spark of energy for a new idea. He is fearless, ready to move along the path that unfolds in front of him, and to do whatever he can to achieve his new quest. This time, he's wiser, smarter in the ways of the world, and far more aware of his own true strengths. He asks the question: "Should I do this? Is this the quest for me?" In the distance he sees something. Could it be? Yes, it's. . .The Wheel of Fortune. Sometimes, you just get lucky. Yes, indeed, this is a lucky new day for the Fool.

So while my story of The Fool's Journey has come to an end, the Fool will go on, as will we. It's an amazing journey. When we are aware and present, open to what is on offer to learn—the effects on us are tremendous. We are so lucky to be writers. Every focus in life has its journey, but the creative journey is like a star exploding. The star is no longer ours at journey's end, it belongs to all it touches. And the explosion creates new galaxies with the fiery pieces that fly off from it. Beautiful, mysterious galaxies. Who can resist exploring those?

I believe that if the Fool were to wish us farewell, he'd say, "Be wise, be well, and good journey." It doesn't get better than that.

~ Linda
Links to Fool's Journey posts:  0—The Fool; 1—The Magician; 2—The High Priestess; 3—The Empress; 4&5—The Emperor, and The Hierophant; 6—The Lovers; 7—The Chariot; 8—Strength; 9—The Hermit; 10—Wheel of Fortune; 11—Justice; 12—The Hanged Man; 13—Death; 14—Temperance; 15—The Devil; 16—The Tower; 17—The Star; 18—The Moon; 19—The Sun; 20—Judgement

My interpretation of The Fool's Journey as it applies to the writing life is my own, but the journey is long-established from a variety of sources. Those I've relied on most heavily are: TAROT BASICS by Burger & Fiebig, AECLECTIC TAROT by Thirteen, and EVERYDAY TAROT by Fairfield

Are You Growing as a Writer? Week 20 with Tarot's Fool

If you're not finding at least one of the following: new ideas, improved approaches to your craft, different ways of looking at character development or scene development or story itself, you're not experiencing growth as a writer. If you're not experiencing growth, you're in danger of getting trapped in stasis, which can be a comfortable and even a profitable place to be for a while, but inevitably leads to death of the imagination and of the career if you don't break out of it. Sounds extreme, doesn't it? And not very user friendly, either. But that's the reality of life in any creative, dynamic field, and that's what the Fool has been showing us all these weeks and months. This is the way to the golden fleece.

Remember when the Fool looked like this? Ah, youth! It's beautiful in its naiveté. And it's also exactly where we want to be when we start our quest, because we need the energy and belief and excitement that comes with beginnings. Since the beginning of his quest, the Fool has matured tremendously, and at times has dealt with blows and challenges so severe that he's looked more like a wizened old man when he's emerged than like the champion of truth, honor, love, and joy that he is. But he's persevered, and as we saw last week, it's finally beginning to pay off big time for him (The Sun: Week 19). Not only has he developed wisdom and strength of character, but he's been given his own authentic voice back, which he'd lost for a while along the way. It's the voice that propelled him on his journey in the first place, but he, himself, is so changed now that his current challenge is to figure out how best to use this precious gift to fulfill his new and fuller promise.

It's not easy, even now. All the old tapes are playing in loops in his head, because there's assurance in familiarity. Every time he puts out a foot to finalize his journey, his feet want to take him onto familiar ground, to the places he's been before. Fire-breathing dragon? Unsheathe your sword! (the crowd cheers) Maiden in distress? Rush to defend her! (the audience hangs on every move). But if he's learned anything in the first nineteen weeks of this journey, it's that life is almost never black and white. Sure, some dragons are evil and must be slain, but there are others that look just as scary but bring wisdom and glory with their fire. (Week 15: The Devil) That maiden in distress? When he got to her he saw that she was doing just fine. In fact she was taming a ferocious lion to her will (Week 8: Strength). Now the Fool has reached a point, he instinctively understands, where he needs to incorporate this evolved knowledge into his steps. His hero status is not in question any more, and he has a chance to experience the power beneath the surface.

He suddenly feels himself being swept aloft, like a feather picked up by an updraft and sent spiraling, to land who-knows-where? And then he sees her, a fiery angel, beautiful and terrible.

This is Judgement. "You are right," she says to the Fool, reading his thoughts. "You have only one last step on your journey. But you cannot take that step until you lay your past to rest."

What?? The Fool doesn't say it out loud, because the angel is pretty intimidating, but what the heck, this can't be right! "But," he says to her, "I've left it behind me—all of it."

"There's no way to do that," she says. "Remember, each step you've taken wore down your shoe, just a bit, which shaped the next step you took, and so on. Your past is always under your feet. You can never put it behind you."

"Then how can I put my past to rest?" the Fool asks, humbled.

"Call it up. Come to terms with it. Are you willing to do that?" She holds out a small trumpet for him to take.

The Fool looks with despair at the trumpet. He's already been through so much. But he gets hold of himself and thinks. He didn't brave that river of no return two weeks ago for nothing (Week 18: The Moon). That was a pivotal experience, one that taught him that when he's faced with a personal crisis of this magnitude he must let go and trust himself to the universe. This is a final decision, either to go forward, or stay where he is. He lets go of all expectations, reaches out, and takes the trumpet.

He blows the trumpet and the air and trees and sky around him, the very Earth, seem to crack open. Memories rise from beneath his feet. Images of his whole journey up to now pass before him—his innocent youth, challenges, loves, failures, losses, success, disillusionment and wisdom. For the first time, he doesn't try to forget them or put them in a tidy place behind him, he simply accepts them. They hold no fear for him any more, and he realizes they are gone to everyone but him. He alone carries them into the present. The moment he realizes this, they vanish. They remain in his mind, but he is free of them. He is fully in the present.

When you live in a world of ideas, as we writers do, what does this mean? It might be as simple as letting go of an idea that wasn't working for us. It might be as monumental as embracing change at such a basic level that our writing can't help but reflect a profound disruption to our previous style. In either case, or anywhere in between, our reward is that we can now harvest the newfound fruits of our mind. Are these newfound fruits—these realities of the present— actually "correct?" Will they lead us to our golden fleece? The only way to find out is to use them and allow them to help us. When they become second nature to us and we no longer identify with an ideal or a model, but with them, our insight will unfold. The result? Open sesame. The curtain is rising on your next Act.

The Fool will find out what that means for him next week. He'll have a hint or two for us, too.

~ Linda
Links to Fool's Journey posts:  0—The Fool; 1—The Magician; 2—The High Priestess; 3—The Empress; 4&5—The Emperor, and The Hierophant; 6—The Lovers; 7—The Chariot; 8—Strength; 9—The Hermit; 10—Wheel of Fortune; 11—Justice; 12—The Hanged Man; 13—Death; 14—Temperance; 15—The Devil; 16—The Tower; 17—The Star; 18—The Moon; 19—The Sun

My interpretation of The Fool's Journey as it applies to the writing life is my own, but the journey is long-established from a variety of sources. Those I've relied on most heavily are: TAROT BASICS by Burger & Fiebig, AECLECTIC TAROT by Thirteen, and EVERYDAY TAROT by Fairfield

Here Comes the Sun: Week 19 with Tarot's Fool

The Fool has turned a corner in his journey. A good one! It's about time, I'd say, wouldn't you? True, it has been an amazing journey so far, a fantastic journey. In spite of tremendous challenges (or because of them), he's grown in profound and unexpected ways. 

He's had glimpses of the world's overwhelming power in its secrets and forces and possibilities (exciting and scary); accepted that he's not only made a few mistakes in his quest, but been guilty of and blindsided by self deception (humbling); understood instinctively that although he has faced defeat after defeat, partly because he needed to learn these lessons before he could succeed, what he's doing is important, it's great, and he must never give up (exhausting!); learned how to grow from each experience, good or bad (wow); embraced true humility (no easy feat, double wow), and learned to trust himself to the universe (very difficult, in fact not possible until he learned true humility). He's definitely due for a good turn.

Last time we were with the Fool, he'd taken a leap of faith as the full moon shone down on him and he found himself in a world of genius and madness (Week 18: The Moon). His choice was to either go mad, or trust the powerful river he stood in to help him find himself. He chose the river. He managed to climb into a boat with no oars or rudder before the river's strong current swept him away. At least the boat would take him somewhere, and he wouldn't drown. Exhausted, the Fool passes out in the boat as it carries him toward his destiny.

He wakes up at dawn to find himself still in the boat, but the river has come to an end. He's floating in a tranquil pond, surrounded by a walled garden filled with roses and lilies and gorgeous giant sunflowers. As he gets out of the boat and takes a few steps into the garden on shaky legs, he hears a child laughing somewhere nearby. The sun is rising, huge and golden, and the source of the laughter, a small boy, rides into the garden on a white horse.

The little boy leaps off the horse and runs over to the Fool. "Come see!" he says, taking the Fool's hand. He proceeds to show the Fool all the amazing wonders of the garden: the dewdrops on the rich green blades of grass, the seeds at the center of the sunflowers, the light as it sparkles on the pond. And then he starts asking questions of the Fool, like why is the grass green, why is the air sparkling, why is it so fun to smile?

As if his lips have a will of their own, the Fool discovers himself smiling, and the smile keeps growing, brighter than it has been for a long time. He has been tested and tried, confused and scared, dismayed and amazed since he started this journey, and now he is amazed all over again in a new way. This is the first time, he realizes, that he has been simply happy. He looks at the child who has given him this gift, who has invited him to share in his generosity and open spirit, and he knows that he now sees himself and the world in a fresh, golden light. "Who are you?" he asks the child.

The child smiles at the question and, as the Fool watches, he begins to shine, then grows brighter and brighter until he turns into pure sunlight. "I'm you," the Fool hears him say in a voice that comes from everywhere in the garden. "The new you." The Fool has just met his own inner light.

Now the Fool will move forward renewed, ready to face the final hurdle in his quest. He is filled with strength that comes from all he's been through and from the gifts of the child. There is nothing he can't do.

Renewal. It doesn't come easy. There's a special kind of exhaustion that comes from putting everything we've got into our quest and then having to let it go, trust ourselves to the universe. The alternative is to hold on tightly to our process from fear of losing control, but most of us know from experience that never works out very well. So the best we can do, once we've given the quest all we've got, is climb into our rudderless boat and let the river sweep us to our destiny. Scary. Tarot tells us, though, that if we do that, we will find our inner child once again, the spirit of our voice, and that can lead straight to renewal. Scary morphs into joy. It's not quite the golden fleece, not yet, but it does hold that promise. This particular journey is coming close to completion.

~ Linda
Links to Fool's Journey posts:  0—The Fool; 1—The Magician; 2—The High Priestess; 3—The Empress; 4&5—The Emperor, and The Hierophant; 6—The Lovers; 7—The Chariot; 8—Strength; 9—The Hermit; 10—Wheel of Fortune; 11—Justice; 12—The Hanged Man; 13—Death; 14—Temperance; 15—The Devil; 16—The Tower; 17—The Star; 18—The Moon 

My interpretation of The Fool's Journey as it applies to the writing life is my own, but the journey is long-established from a variety of sources. Those I've relied on most heavily are: TAROT BASICS by Burger & Fiebig, AECLECTIC TAROT by Thirteen, and EVERYDAY TAROT by Fairfield

Crisis? Stay Open and Go With the Flow—Week 18 With Tarot's Fool

Did you notice the full moon on Saturday night? It was a beauty! And it wasn't just any old full moon. It was a lunar eclipse. They come around every once in a while and are said to pack a punch. Never underestimate the power of a lunar eclipse to shake things up in your life.

So the timing couldn't be better to talk about what's going on with Tarot's Fool right now, because, as if by coincidence, he has just reached the 18th major point of enlightenment on his journey, which just happens to be The Moon.

To back up for just a moment, last time we were with the Fool he was mightily pulling himself together after coming face-to-face with his self deceptions about his life and his life's path. He'd been shattered when he did the bravest of all things and not only recognized the tower of lies, large and small, that he'd built his professional identity on, but instinctively shouted it down to rubble. (Week 16: The Tower) Those deceptions were getting in the way of him grasping the true power of his authenticity, so this was a great thing. But oh, my, it's no easy task to rebuild oneself from rubble!

Fortunately, as he dragged himself forward he came upon a beautiful, mystical girl with water urns, who made him understand that surviving and thriving through drastic change is possible, and his task now is to follow his star. (Week 17: The Star)

So here he is, traveling through the night, holding on to the knowledge that he has a star to follow. He's blindly doing just that when the full moon rises and illuminates a watery path in front of him. Not only that, there are two pillars that he's passing through, and when he sees them a deep chord is struck within him. He's seen them before, long ago, when he came upon the High Priestess early in his journey. She sat in front of the pillars and told him secrets about the deepest mysteries of life. He'd seen hints of a dark land through the sheer veil behind her then. (Week 3: The High Priestess) Now he's passed through the veil and he's there, in the dark land.

Suddenly he feels disoriented and a little nauseated from fear. He's entered the land of dark mysteries where secret knowledge lies. Who lives here? Not just seers like the High Priestess. Poets, artists, musicians, madmen and madwomen live here. (Notice the dogs howling at the moon in the picture, and the crayfish emerging from the water like a creature from a childhood nightmare.) Is he going to howl at the moon like a mad dog, or is he going to somehow, some way, find his footing? He's deep in it now, no turning back. In fact he's hip-deep in a salty, moonlit river, and the water's powerful current is pulling insistently at him.

He looks around for something to grasp onto, and there's nothing. But there is a small boat on the nearby shore. It has no oar and no rudder, and the Fool has to decide whether he'll take a chance on that boat or lose himself in this wild, primal land of illusion and madness. Either way, the moon will be in control, but in the boat, his surrender to the powers of the unconscious and the natural world will at least take him somewhere. He gets in the boat and trusts himself to the river. As he's swept away, he feels the Mistress of this dark land gazing down at him with the High Priestess's approving eyes, for this is the path to inspiration, genius, and Moon magic.

It's no accident that Tarot singles out writers as being among the inhabitants of the dark land of life's mysteries. No further explanation is needed for you all to relate to this one, is there? But that doesn't mean it isn't scary as all get out, or that it's easy to get there, either. Not all of us do get there. Fact is, though, that if we want to find and harness the true power of our authentic selves, we have to shout down our tower of self deception, follow our star, and surrender to the river (remember to choose the boat so you don't drown! :-) ). Any number of great writers have pointed this out. Here are quotes from two of them, one past and one present, who've taken the journey and want us to know the paradoxical but oh, so desirable rewards:

                  "Life breaks everyone, but some are strong in the broken places."
                                                                                        Ernest Hemingway


                  "The deeper my crisis, the clearer my choices."
                                                                                       Andrew Boyd 
                                                                                      (sardonic philosopher)


You might recognize these sentiments from the character arc you developed for your novel's protagonist. Your protagonist has to get broken to be strong in the broken places, and his or her choices become clear when crisis is deepest, don't they? Back to this page, it looks like the same is true for the Fool (and us, if we're brave enough). He's in the boat now. No going back. The rewards are going to be awesome!

~ Linda


Links to Fool's Journey posts:  0—The Fool; 1—The Magician; 2—The High Priestess; 3—The Empress; 4&5—The Emperor, and The Hierophant; 6—The Lovers; 7—The Chariot; 8—Strength; 9—The Hermit; 10—Wheel of Fortune; 11—Justice; 12—The Hanged Man; 13—Death; 14—Temperance; 15—The Devil; 16—The Tower; 17—The Star 

My interpretation of The Fool's Journey as it applies to the writing life is my own, but the journey is long-established from a variety of sources. Those I've relied on most heavily are: TAROT BASICS by Burger & Fiebig, AECLECTIC TAROT by Thirteen, and EVERYDAY TAROT by Fairfield

Never Underestimate Hope: Week 17 with Tarot's Fool

If you've been following the Fool's journey, you know that when he found the Tower,  last time we were with him, he yelled it down. The Tower was his alter ego, and when it crumbled, that felt like the end of him. It was the end of the him that used to exist, that got in his way of seeing his own truth and making it shine, but also of the foundations he'd spent much of his lifetime perfecting. What's he supposed to do now that he doesn't exist any more, at least not in any form that he recognizes or knows what to do with?

This might be the biggest question any of us ever asks ourselves. If we get to the stage where we have earned the right to be this scared and ask this question, we have accomplished something truly significant. But we sure as heck don't want to stay in this stage!

Luckily for the Fool, as he sits in the dark of night in the bleak landscape where the Tower stood, he notices a beautiful girl nearby. She has two water urns, and she's kneeling by a pool illuminated with reflected starlight. She's emptying the urns—one into the pool and the other into the earth. This is Tarot's Star.

"What are you doing?" he asks her.

"Refilling the pool," she says, her eyes twinkling, "so that those who are thirsty can drink, and also watering the earth so that, come spring, the seeds can grow." Then she says "Come, drink." The Fool joins her and drinks from the pool.

"I can see you are sad," she says, "but remember, you have not lost all. You still have knowledge, possibilities, and hope. They will lead you to a new future."

As the Fool feels the water's enlightenment, the Star begins to fade away, and he hears her say, "follow your star," as she disappears.

So, all is not lost? Distant as it may be, there 's a future ahead of him? It sounds farfetched, but something about the Star makes him sure this is not just wishful thinking. He has a guiding light. As he embraces this knowledge it begins to heal his heart. His thirst is quenched from the water she poured, that is true. If he plants seeds now, will they come up in the spring? Yes, he realizes, they will. He sets out to follow his star.

So what do we do with our newfound selves after we realize that yes, our foundations have crumbled? When we realize that what we thought was so great about our writing didn't quite meet our expectations? It didn't hold up because, as we've painfully realized, it was built on false ideas of who we are in the world and how accomplished we are. Ouch. We feel empty.

First, put the knowledge and experience you have gained back into that empty space, without any expectations. You have created a bedrock of work, a touchstone of hope that will see you through.

Second, you are in the midst of creating a new idea. Whether you're doing NaNoWriMo or waiting for that glimmer that tells you there's new stuff coming through your creative mind, you are in the midst of an effort that will take you somewhere good. No matter how exhausted you are, know that.

You may be working so hard that you feel you've used up all your energy and are not feeling your creative, driving force any more. Well, you've come this far. You have complete control, which also means you bear all the burdens of your choices. It's time to delegate some of those burdens to another person, if appropriate (like an editor), or to another time, so you can revive your energy.

Difficult as it all is, if you have reached this point in your journey, you know that part of you has achieved happiness, because that part feels a permanence of belonging in the writer community. That feeling comes from the knowledge you've gained through your hard work, and the support you've offered others and accepted from others. You've got peeps. And when you go through your dark nights of despair (as we all seem to do), they'll help you claw your way back to the light.

This is what the Star is telling you.

What else do you get when you follow your star? You get a project. You get a job. Whether that's a publisher buying your book, or it's putting in the time to achieve a step on the way to publication, you get the chance to do solid work, to make, create, and touch. Wow.

~ Linda


Links to Fool's Journey posts:  0—The Fool; 1—The Magician; 2—The High Priestess; 3—The Empress; 4&5—The Emperor, and The Hierophant; 6—The Lovers; 7—The Chariot; 8—Strength; 9—The Hermit; 10—Wheel of Fortune; 11—Justice; 12—The Hanged Man; 13—Death; 14—Temperance; 15—The Devil; 16—The Tower 

My interpretation of The Fool's Journey as it applies to the writing life is my own, but the journey is long-established from a variety of sources. Those I've relied on most heavily are: TAROT BASICS by Burger & Fiebig, AECLECTIC TAROT by Thirteen, and EVERYDAY TAROT by Fairfield

What's Left When Your Belief Crumbles? Fool's Journey Week 16

I can't believe it's been almost two months since I've posted about Tarot's Fool and his journey to wholeness, which is such an excellent metaphor for our own journeys to publication. To be fair, though, it's a good thing to have taken the time off, because poor Tarot's Fool has been through a lot, and needed time to build up his strength to survive what's coming now. Warning: this post is about The Tower, which I, personally, find to be the scariest card in the deck. Why? Because no matter how dramatic Death and the Devil were, they were just preambles to the real climax of the Fool's journey: The Tower. (Reminder: Tarot is an ancient art. It was developed way back when a story's climax was only about 3/4 of the way to the end. There are five more Major Arcana cards in the Fool's Journey after The Tower. Thank goodness, because we get the how-to details on how the Fool recovers, finds his footing again, and triumphs. Whew.)

Why should someone like the Fool— a writer, for example—still be facing huge challenges after doing such incredible work as he has already done in this journey to become successful? The answer lies within. An author I heard speak at a conference long ago said, "you will never find anyone who is more humble, or more arrogant, than a writer." And that is exactly where the Fool is right now.

He has learned and grown. He's torn down his resistance to change and sacrifice (The Hanged Man), let go of preconceptions and fears (Death), done the very hard work of figuring out how to merge opposites to create wholeness (Temperance), and, when even that wasn't enough, he shattered the chains of his ambition and desire (The Devil). But he still doesn't realize that he has not let go of some core beliefs from his past, tarnished by outdated arrogance, that are holding him back.

Well, if shattering the chains of ambition and desire doesn't sound like overcoming arrogance, I don't know what does. What could be hiding this unseen arrogance from the Fool? A worm buried deep in the core, out of sight until now, that's what.

As the Fool leaves the Devil behind, he is jubilant that he's gotten past his obsessions and can now focus on his aspirations. He comes upon a magnificent, and familiar, structure on the path: a Tower. He himself helped build this tower back when the most important thing to him was making his mark on the world, and proving himself to be better than other men. He loved living in the top of the Tower back then. But now he's surprised to see it there at all; he thought he left it behind when he started this spiritual journey.

Suddenly, in a lightning flash of realization, he knows he's been seeing himself, like the Tower, as alone and singular and superior. Even with all he's done to release himself to growth, he's secretly held on to that core belief. But it's not true!

So powerful is this realization, that he opens his mouth and lets out a tremendous shout of recognition, and an actual bolt of lightning slashes down from the heavens and strikes the Tower. Its residents have to jump to the waters below for their lives, and the Tower itself is reduced a heap of rubble.

The Fool experiences grief so profound he can hardly breathe and feels sure he will perish. He did not know until this moment that he was so bound to this core belief. But instead of perishing with the Tower, when the dust begins to clear, so does his vision. He sees his personal truth with full clarity now. He has done the hardest thing of all: destroyed the last lies he held about himself.

What's left? The bare truth. And on that the Fool can rebuild. Without it, whatever he built would eventually end up in the rubble pile.

He knows he can't rest on his laurels. He steps forward, turns his back on the crumbledTower and focuses on what he must do now. He is filled with anticipation and the kind of anxiety that drives him to find answers. He accesses his deep mind and remembers the lessons he learned as The Hanged Man and from Death. He knows without a doubt that there is a beautiful horizon up ahead, waiting for him, but that he will meet more resistance on the way to it. It will still be a fight, and he will use the strengths he's claiming to win it.

As a writer, you might think that the fight you're facing is about your writing, but if you've reached the point in your journey of confronting your Tower, then it's not. It's about yourself. The Tower has crashed, and with it, so has your need to identify with an ideal or a model. The way has been cleared for you to open yourself up to life, unhindered, free of preconceived notions, aware. You are ready to step into the heart of the fire of your writing, using your basic instincts that were revealed when you shouted down the Tower. But wait, doesn't this sound a lot like going back to the primordial mud? Back to the time before you knew what you were doing?

Yes and no. Yes to mud; mud is good. You'll make clay from the mud, and you know what you can do with clay! No to leaving your hard-earned knowledge behind; it's what lets you mold the clay anew.

Scary? (I can't answer, I'm too busy hiding in a cave!) How do you get a handle on those instincts so you can ride them to success? Well, sorry to be cryptic, but Tarot insists that the answer is in the question. It may take a few more weeks of work and introspection, but you will find your way to transforming that writing fire into a river's natural flow; you will find the boat that lets you escape the dangers on the river's banks and you will flow with the current to success. Stick with the Fool, he'll show you the way.

~ Linda

Links to Fool's Journey posts:  0—The Fool; 1—The Magician; 2—The High Priestess; 3—The Empress; 4&5—The Emperor, and The Hierophant; 6—The Lovers; 7—The Chariot; 8—Strength; 9—The Hermit; 10—Wheel of Fortune; 11—Justice; 12—The Hanged Man; 13—Death; 14—Temperance; 15—The Devil 

My interpretation of The Fool's Journey as it applies to the writing life is my own, but the journey is long-established from a variety of sources. Those I've relied on most heavily are: TAROT BASICS by Burger & Fiebig, AECLECTIC TAROT by Thirteen, and EVERYDAY TAROT by Fairfield