Hero: A Fool at Heart

Archetypes of Avalon: The Journey begins! On Courage, Soul's Longing and Perseverance

A hero is ultimately, inherently first a fool. No knight was born a hero. You have to earn your stripes and endure hardship to mature and build strength, resilience and knowledge. But it all starts with a naive dream, a wish or a calling which enables one to take a leap of faith.

The most perfect depiction of a hero in style of the Fool’s card in Tarot with him stepping into the Unknown. From the Indiana Jones Movie The Last Crusade, Source: https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/indiana-jones-grail-knight-painting-3-mega-high-res-pics.104256/

The hero who, like the fool in the tarot, leaps into adventure with trust and childlike naivety. Initiation into life happens through our willingness to live; with everything that goes with it.

The individual person, the everyday ego takes a back seat to a greater whole and the wider context of all life demands willpower and perseverance. A confidence and a certainty that will see us through even the harshest winter and the longest nights. But it is precisely these dark times that we need to find our way back to our unconditional trust. Without the impetus of life's challenges, we would ultimately not face up to our doubts and reserved thoughts.

Winter dormancy can also reflect an inner numbness, a fear of confronting the depths of our own psyche for fear of the uninvited, repressed and unwanted. However, when we face our shadows, we begin to build an authentic relationship and trust in ourselves and remember our very own power and magic.

We free ourselves from external dependencies and can thus enter into a true interdependence in which we are able to fulfil our self-empowerment.

Zodiac sign of the month: Capricorn, ruled by Saturn

Astrological underlying Archetypal qualities: strategy, restriction, discipline, responsibility

All too often we look for reasons for our inner dissatisfaction on the outside or try to cover up our own insecurity with external confirmation. The Capricorn in its strength, however, neither needs confirmation nor blames problems on others. It is driven from within and recognises its responsibility.

Archetype in Tarot and Avalonian Tradition: The Fool

It is the first card of the major arcana in traditional tarot and holds the number 0. This means it stands out of the journey. As

Jenna Newell Hiott

so wonderfully states here, the Fool is not (only) the beginning of the journey but the actual player in the adventure. Which automatically also makes them the hero. The Fool is in between the worlds, which you will discover in the story of Perceval further down, he regularly moves between mundane and otherworldly realms.

In the Arthurian legends it is Perceval who embodies this archetype perfectly as he is a proper fool but also rises to become the first Grail Knight; making him he hero. One that is even more important than King Arthur himself as Arthur in the end relies on the Grail to be found and further more - something no one talks about: The Grail is needed to bring the whole world aka NATURE into harmony and mend the broken Faery Accord to continue the Well Maiden’s heritage. Listen to my retelling of this Avalonian Creation Story here:

The Elucidation of The Faery Accord

Who wants to unpack the monthly archetypal mythopoetic weavings for inner alchemy and personal path to sovereignty can become a monthly or yearly paid member and receive my audio teaching and written lesson for this month alongside Perceval’s story and practical application of the archetype for your life: