Fool in School
The Fool in School is an Old Energy Archetype that answers the Big Question "Who am I." The answer that is provided by this archetype is that you are a fool in a school incarnated on this Earth to learn (sometimes quite challenging) lessons.
List of Old Energy Archetypes
Old Energy Archetypes > Chariot, Death (archetype), Duality, Hermit, Hierophant, High Priestess, Judgement, Justice, Star, Strength, Sun (archetype), Temperance, The Devil, The Emperor, The Empress, The Fool, The Hanged Man, The Lovers, The Magician, The Moon, The Tower, The Wheel of Fortune, The World (old energy)
Notes
By suggesting you are a fool in school here to learn a cosmic/evolutionary lesson, the Fool in school constellation encourages servitude, passivity and the acceptance of the violence and toxicity that diminishes you and makes you into an appropriate vessel.
Servitude and passivity is reinforced by the Judgment Archetype and Punishment Archetype
"All suffering prepares the soul for vision." Martin Buber [1]
Wirth provides an arrogant description of the fool as a "toy of occult powers," someone who is "easily influenced and it "incapable of resisting outside influences." "Subject to domination", with no free will. A slave[2]. This person "does not count because of his lack of intellectual and moral existence."[3]
Examples
The notion that we are here to learn life lessons is a prevalent archetype in Western esotericism. "...perfection is indeed the goal of every human life but that it may take many lifetimes to achieve...Failing to reach full realization in this life doesn't damn you to perdition; it simply means you'll have to come back again and again until you get it right."[4]
In the Orphic Mysteries, the "soul is therefore a fallen angel doing penance for her sins. Her ultimate aim is to be released from her chains, and recover the inheritance she has lost. How are the prison-bars to be removed? As we lost our freedom through sin, so we cannot hope to regain it until the stain is purged away. In Orphic language, the soul must be made pure."[5]. See also Purification
M. Night Shyamalan's 2016 movie "Split" is a subtle and sophisticated representation of the Fool in School archetype. In Shyamalan's movie, to gain your full evolutionary potential, you need to suffer and be "broken." The "broken" (i.e. those damaged by Toxic Socialization to the point of beastly violence) are the ones who are pure of heart. They have special powers that allow them to "be whatever they think themselves to be." The rest will "never realize their full potential" and are consequently "sacred food" for the more evolved ones. In this movie, Shylaman encourages acceptance of the notion that violence and hardship are the "lessons" that create better humans.
"Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." — St. Paul, Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)
"Misery Builds Character,' a common tv trope (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MiseryBuildsCharacter)
Israel Regardie notes that his "middle way" is all about the development of the self. "It is the pursuit of this middle path which leads to self-conquest and the steady growth of the Golden Flower, the wakening of the imprisoned soul within." [6]
Footnotes
- ↑ In Dossey. Recovering the Soul: A Scientific and Spiritual Search. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1989. p. 17
- ↑ Wirth, Oswald. Tarot of the Magicians: The Occult Symbols of the Major Arcana That Inspired Modern Tarot. San Francisco. CA: Weiser Books, 1990. p. 155
- ↑ Wirth, Oswald. Tarot of the Magicians: The Occult Symbols of the Major Arcana That Inspired Modern Tarot. San Francisco. CA: Weiser Books, 1990. p. 153.
- ↑ Smoley, Richard, and Jay Kinney. Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to Western Inner Traditions. Illinois: Quest Books, 2006.
- ↑ Adam, James. The Religious Teachers of Greece. Gifford Lectures. New Jersey: Reference Book Publishers, 1965. https://www.giffordlectures.org/books/religious-teachers-greece.
- ↑ Regardie, Israel. The Middle Pillar: The Balance Between Mind and Magic. St Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn, 2004. p. 9.
