Fool in School
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Fool in School
The Fool in School is an Old Energy Archetype Theme/Old Energy Archetype Constellation in the Old Energy Creation Template. It answers the Big Questions "Who am I" and "What is my purpose here?" 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 Archetype Themes
Chosen One, Excuse and Justification, Fool in School, Good versus Evil, Isolated Individuality, Only the Chosen, Secrets
Related Terms
List of Old Energy Archetype Constellations
Binary Gender, Chosen One, Compliance and Submission, Excuse and Justification, Fool in School, Good versus Evil, Isolated Individuality, Judge and Punish/Reward, Only the Chosen, Secrets
The Masonic Tarot implements the Fool in School archetype in several of its archetype cards. An impartial list is provided below.
Fool in School > Chariot, Judgement, Star, Sun (archetype), Temperance, The Fool, The Magician, The Tower, The Wheel of Fortune, The World (old energy)
Notes
The fool in school archetype is often expressed in a way that suggests that the suffering and struggle we face is part of the "lesson plan," that struggle and strife makes us "stronger," and that pain and suffering makes us who are are.
By suggesting you are a fool in school and that suffering and struggle are part of what here to learn a cosmic/evolutionary lesson, and by suggesting that these "lessons" often involve pain and suffering, the Fool in school constellation encourages servitude, passivity and the acceptance of the violence and toxicity that damages, diminishes, and disconnects you.
The Fool in School archetypal constellation is implemented most precisely in the Masonic Tarot, which has a literal fool in school card.
The western Tarot is often presented as a tool that can help the "fool" successfully navigate life's lessons. For example, Rachel Pollack says "Today, we see the Tarot as a kind of path, a way to personal growth through understanding of ourselves and life. To some the Tarot's origin remains a vital question; for others it only matters that meanings have accrued to the cards over the years."[1]
Examples
"All suffering prepares the soul for vision." Martin Buber [2]
A "journey" through life. A journey to enlightenment. The key figure in a "deep spiritual journey" [3] A "journey in consciousness." (p. x). Through "experience" ... "we and the universe become one." (p. 110).
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
In the cartoon series, The Last Airbender, season one episode 20 (5:35), the fire bender Zuko expresses the Hero's archetype/fool in school mythology when he says, "I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong. It's made me who I am." With this turn of phrase, he justifies conflict and struggle, pain and suffering, as beneficial.
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 to mention the subtle justification for predatory behaviour.
You find statements supportive of this theme in places in the Christian Bible. "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]
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Footnotes
- ↑ Pollack, Rachel. Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom. Harper Collins, 1980. p. 6.
- ↑ In Dossey. Recovering the Soul: A Scientific and Spiritual Search. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1989. p. 17
- ↑ Pollack, Rachel. Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom. Harper Collins, 1980. p. 155.
- ↑ 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.