DIY: the Fool emerges--again

00 the Fool, Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, Wikipedia

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The image of the Fool stepping off a cliff got stuck in my mind again today. In an effort to find out what was brewing there under the surface, I first looked at the fool archetype, then archetypes in general, then Jung's archetypes, specifically. There's a lot of substance in Jung's ideas about archetypes, but little about what they mean to an individual. Putting one's self into a labelled box is somewhat self-defeating.

After accumulating all these lovely references, I began looking for something more associated with life meaning. And found Mark Manson's 7 Strange questions that help you find your life purpose. His strange and oddly beautiful questions are quoted below.

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Jan Matejko, Stańczyk(Jester), Wikipedia

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First, there's the Fool. Wikipedia has an article about the wise fool. Fallen Angel at StOttilien has an article titled Crazy Wisdom – the Archetype of the Fool, the Clown, the Jester and the Trickster. Myths-Dreams-Symbols describes Jung's Trickster Archetype thus

The trickster is a very important archetype in the history of man. He is a god, yet he is not. He is the wise-fool. It is he, through his creations that destroy, points out the flaws in carefully constructed societies of man. He rebels against authority, pokes fun at the overly serious, creates convaluted [sic] schemes - that may or may not work - plays with the Laws of the Universe and is sometimes his own worst enemy. He exists to question, to cause us to question & not accept things blindly. He appears when a way of thinking becomes outmoded needs to be torn down built anew. He is the Destroyer of Worlds at the same time the savior of us all.

Carl Jung "understood archetypes as universal, archaic patterns and images that derive from the collective unconscious and are the psychic counterpart of instinct (Wikipedia)." One interpreter of Jung's ideas on archetypes is Carl Golden at SoulCraft. An interesting view of archetypes is presented in 12 Best Character Archetypes For Film: Part 1.

You can find a varied list of articles on the Finding Meaning page at Huffington Post.

But for real self-help take a look at these 7 strange questions posed by Mark Manson.

1. What’s your favorite flavor of shit sandwich and does it come with an olive?
2. What is true about you today that would make your 8-year-old self cry?
3. What makes you forget to eat and poop?
4. How can you better embarrass yourself?
5. How are you going to save the world?
6. Gun to your head, if you had to leave the house all day, every day, where would you go and what would you do?
7. If you knew you were going to die one year from today, what would you do and how would you want to be remembered?

-- Marge