The wisdom of the Fool

or why it is worth remaining pragmatic about Trump's win.

Given the horror some appear to feel at Trump's win it is worth thinking around the situation and remembering, we all see through our own filters and the worst of people can do the best of things and vice versa.

That is not to say Trump is the worst of people but some appear to believe that is the case. Many see him as a Fool but in mythology it is the Fool who is prepared to leap into the unknown, in ways others will not, and, in the doing, bring transformation. The archetype of the Fool is at work in all of us and in centuries past was honoured in the courts of Kings and leaders. There was respect for the potential which often lay within the acts and words of the Fool.

Common sense would say that Trump, to be fair, like all Presidential candidates, even those purchased by vested agendas has a huge ego. But behind every ego is invariably a small man, or woman for that matter.

Here he is, pulling off a historic victory with one chance left to make his mark in history. Since most humans wish to be remembered positively and since Trump at times reveals an almost childlike desire to be loved, appreciated, admired, respected, we can assume, perhaps not safely, but assume all the same, that Trump wants to be remembered positively. Genocide would make that impossible, as would waging war which brought destruction to American homes and lives.

Now, he may well be remembered for the genocide in Palestine and he may well oversee a war with Iran which brings bombs to American shores in ways never seen before, but, we are some way from all of that and can only hope that other forces at work within him, and perhaps even in the cosmos, prevent the worst from happening. But first to try to understand the man as objectively as possible given the many lies spewed constantly about everyone and everything by mainstream media.

Yes, he is odd, ridiculously outspoken, unsophisticated, almost adolescent in his responses at times, but he also carries the mantle of President and of course he is more than that.

Ergo, who he chooses for his team is less relevant than who Trump is as an individual and despite his scatter-gun if not at times scatter-brained approach, he is a street fighter with a rat cunning which ensures, above all else, he achieves his own goals more often than not. He dumps members of the team as quickly as he appoints them so nothing is written in stone. And Trump is cunning enough to follow the maxim: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”

I doubt he has any illusions about Zionist, Israeli, Jewish loyalty to himself. I doubt he has any illusions about loyalty fullstop. He would want people around him that he knows, that he can read and that he believes he can control.

He is also a staunch American and more likely than anyone else to stand his ground in the interests of the American people instead of rolling over to vested agendas and foreign States like Israel. If anyone can tell the Israelis to get screwed it is Trump. I doubt he has forgotten how quickly the Israelis dumped him when he lost the previous election and turned their attention to Biden. The Fool is nothing if not wise about human nature and its realities.

Trump is rich and cannot be bribed with money. He now has fame and power, but only for four years and never again, so that option is also gone. He has been accused of so many calumnies that anything Mossad had on him is worthless. And he has cheated death by assassination, so another Mossad threat is meaningless. It is said he believes God saved him which is a very American approach and who knows, perhaps the Fates did play a part. Regardless, Trump is his own man, cannot be bought, bullied or bribed and neither can he be fooled for long so perhaps, just perhaps, he will do what he says and stop wars and not start wars. Bearing in mind of course he has said many things which he later did not do. But, we live in hope and can only trust that the nature and the ego of the man will produce more that is positive than negative.

It is interesting that in mythology and archetypally, it is often the Fool who leads the way to wisdom and transformation through actions which appear to others as chaotic, stupid and dangerous. Indeed, they are all those things but they break through to new ways of being.

The Fool is an adventurer and it is because he does not think things through, but acts intuitively, that he has the courage to take huge leaps into the unknown. It is also why others often fail to understand why he does and says what he does. In the Tarot The Fool represents new beginnings, having faith in the future, being inexperienced, not knowing what to expect, having beginner's luck, improvisation and believing in the universe. It symbolizes the embrace of new beginnings, the expansion of one's horizons, and the willingness to take risks guided by intuition.

But, like all things, The Fool archetype has negative qualities. Potential for passivity & lack of commitment, poor boundaries, rash & impulsive, unwilling to acknowledge harsh truths, inexperience, impracticality… foolishness! And all of that sounds very much like Donald Trump.

The trick is to remember that there is far more to The Fool, and often brilliantly and positively so, than we may see. The power of the archetypes, the Gods of old, is something few understand in our modern world but it remains a force all the same. Trump won and that is the reality for Americans and others in the world, directly affected by US policies, for the next four years. Balancing the negatives with the positives and the potential for positive outcomes, is the path to sanity and a calm heart. Everything and everyone has a capacity to be the source of good and evil and no-one, not even Donald Trump, ever gets everything wrong.