The Fool & The "Humorous Path" to Enlightenment: The Lightning Bolt of Laughter

Recently, considering some of my ways of thinking, perceiving, reflecting over, and having a certain perspective of, the world, as well as of Self, I'm led to an idea, which I can attest to in certain ways as to its efficacy, realized and actualized, or rather understood on the basis of its experience, namely what the topic title suggests, as titled, 'The Fool & "The Humorous" Path to Enlightenment: Lightning Bolt of Laughter', which might sound like an absurd idea and statement, in a way. I shall explain and delve deeper into its understanding which shouldn't be misunderstood as that can cost a high and severe price I believe, as the - actually philosophical, in a way - Trickster Path, of the Joker, must not be misused and misapplied as its highly volatile and explosive nature will surely attest if tried and mistakenly followed through in such a risky and deplorable way, actually, since those serious misinterpretations and grave errors are many times the essence of grave disrespect to more, indeed, serious matters that it shouldn't inflict upon in such a way.

Well, first of all, let me start off with The Fool, then, which is a very well-known Tarot card and numbered 0 in the Major Arcana, of course, and which, to me, seems to be very deeply and intimately related to the topic which I will here try to describe. Here, in "The Fool" Tarot card, in my interpretation, I see "cosmic laughter" (I shall elaborate on that further below), new beginnings and uncertainty, but also pathways that can be trodden or easily accessed but on a precarious road of that uncertainty, which, to why, I say it can cost a high and severe price, if a wrongly turned route is mistakenly taken upon being, so to speak - although it's one's own error and not the implicit fault of the actual Tarot card, which has been wrongly taken and misunderstood on a basis of immaturity, but then, as such - "cosmically fooled" by The Fool rather than, indeed, actually Becoming, or at least Becoming as and in direct line of harmony with and implicit realization of the innate principle of, The Fool, or utilizing its principle correctly and well understood, without deviating into these other haphazard and risky undertakings of indeed being "fooled by The Fool", which is dangerous because of how it can mislead you into a lightness of mind and heart that can soar off the earth, so to speak, in terms of reversed grounding, and how it here directly relates to the mental sphere and intellectual faculty, and also offer a danger of these precarious uncertainties of the pathways which are easily accessible there but riskily and potentially, maybe, fallen off from, or into if it's a dangerous and harmful path, from that general instability which needs to be balanced and mastered through proper maturity and firmness of knowledge of Self to be taken seriously in spite of its laughing and very conspicuously, or apparently in great part (but also in reality, but in a different way to how one might preconceive it in all seriousness), humorous undertones. [...]

[...] The Fool will, in one way, entail a self-humor, being humorous, in certain ways (although never too imbalanced and disrespectful to oneself, though it does entail not taking oneself too seriously), and to that I wish to elucidate a certain actually quite overlooked but I believe critical point, tying directly into the nature of the subject which I shall here present, namely that this aforementioned lightness of mind and heart is, like the title suggests, a "lightning bolt of laughter", and in that way even a pathway in certain ways to enlightenment itself, and that it can truly make us free, in a certain sense, devoid of egoic self-seriousness taking that can become sometimes seriously too heavy, seriously too - at least, sometimes - even grave and lead to issues, if not with oneself and how one thinks too rigidly and stiffly about things, to issues with others by rigidifying and stifling issues with them; but it can work in reverse too, so to be careful is important, since one shouldn't try to make a joke out of those who are very serious but, then, of course, for a very good reason, and one shouldn't take oneself, really, unseriously, in the strict definition of the term, because oneself and one's life is important, as the path of self-humor to enlightenment isn't about that, as one should respect oneself; this remedy is only for taking oneself too seriously, in an unbalanced way, generally.

So, come thus far to this point, we can safely, by this inference I hope, conclude that a certain, delicate, necessary and tender balance is important, for to laugh at one's truth is sin but to laugh at one's untruth is virtue. And, to realize truth is to laugh at untruth; and to laugh at one's truth is to side falsely, and gravely, actually I'd suggest in a quite dishonorable - or at least disrespectful - way towards Self, with the side of ignorance and those untruths themselves, or the untruth itself, making a mockery of all that is holy and sacred within Self. That I feel confident in saying, despite the religious terminology, but its meaning will stand self-evident to those who understand what I mean here, I believe.

But I'm not finished yet, as I have a few definitions to make concerning earlier terms - two of them, which I've not yet touched to that extent - namely, "cosmic laughter" and the "Lightning Bolt of Laughter", which requires and deserves some more and well enough proper attention:

1 - "Cosmic Laughter": This denotes a form of universally perceived "funniness" and humor as perceived in the creation (within oneself and in the world at large in multifarious of ways) but it's not at all opposed to seriousness, sacredness and honor, though it stands in diametric opposition to taking oneself, again, too seriously and failing to even encounter The Fool at all, to a mere end or beginning whatsoever, but rather seeing as The Fool himself shall hide his face from one and not make his luminous face, hidden in the directly plain and perfectly obvious, not visible, because oneself did not comprehend a single ounce of his principles and took the world all too seriously, without any lightness of heart or fun or humor or such intrinsic, as I'm essentially arguing for in this entire post, actual wisdom - in the direct and specialized vein of The Fool and his/her/its wisdom, however - so one did not know it, though it stared oneself in the face all along and ever smiled, gracefully laughing, and cosmically so indeed, humorously, at the false reality, or unreality, that we took to be real and enmeshed ourselves in, as the veil of ignorance to the ever-present, ever-available reality of Enlightenment here and perfectly NOW.

2 - "Lightning Bolt of Laughter": This denotes, unlike "cosmic laughter", not the act done or road trodden but its immediate effect, its immanent realization - it's the presence, illumination and realization of the Real, of what truly IS, here and NOW, so it is the very strike of the bolt of lightning, the presence of the electrifying energy of the experience that ever and only IS, that descends and moves up and goes down and moves about and is in oneself and everywhere else at the exact same time, in an instantaneous flash of lightning that very much so, indeed, IS.

With this I leave you food for thought and some consideration and hope it can add some fruitful idea to the understanding of any others, or fuel for discussion and debate, upon sharing this with you all - so please feel free to share whatever you have for thoughts, insights or anything to add.

Em Hotep, my friends.

Good to see you in good “humors” my Mystic friend!

People do need more laughter and to embrace their inner Fool. Far too many take themselves way too seriously, then you get all the crazy narcissists thinking they are something of relevance when no one really cares. What great magic a simple insignificant mirror would do! Your personal path can only be walked by you alone, jumping off into the void without a safety net. Fool them away.

haha Thanks, Jonathan!

im glad you found the path mystic. im sorry i had to use your avatar for it. may you enjoy your travels in freedom and joy. its good to know kin is out there. thank you the smiles are traveling the world.

I thought this was really deep. I liked it.

How do you feel about twin flames? I've read that when a soul recognizes its true counterpart and love, it feels like cosmic laughter.

8lou1, I don't know what you mean by using my avatar. Though, don't be too hopeful because Mystic's always got something more up his sleeve and you can never know what it is, or else I'd not be a follower of the Trickster Path of Cosmic Laughter that delights in Ragnarök and the End of All Worlds.

pacificsun619, I'm not knowledgeable enough on Twin Flames to comment. Do you believe it's a real thing?

from one mystic to an other it makes me happy you dont now how to do that
that viking trail keeps getting more popular, while to be honest i dont find that new god so funny at all and im also starting to attract refugees. i was hoping jonathan has gotten his head out of that other mishap of a cult and lend a hand setting some things strait. balg is getting annoying on several trails and i lack the right info and words to express it, but my alarmbells are ringing again.

Hottest vampire astral battle:
"Oh my god this is so f'n hot, no safe word."
"It's a psychic attack you fool...I am psychically attacking you. That's why there is no safe word."
....when I think of being astrally attacked, I just want it all night long. Just like that.

I really enjoyed reading your interpretation of the Tarot card and the accompanied humor. I find 0 such a beautiful number, it's design so open and clean. The pathway it represents fully beyond the Abyss in Ethereal Fire, I suspect that while an infant can represent aspects of this archetype, to embody it perfectly takes a far more serious approach to achieve than the immaturity you mention the Fool being misunderstood to be. I find it humorous that while the Fool is the pathway between Wisdom and Crown, many make this mistake. Many philosophers have had something to say along the lines of “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”, which is attributed to Socrates. We are left a clue that the Fool correlates to Aleph and elemental Air. It seems to me that one must be willing to see and embrace the transformative power of dancing joyfully in the flames, unafraid, to truly embody the Fool. My take on it after deep contemplation is that the Fool does have to do with immaturity, but rather than as a stage of life or soul, it is as a stage of understanding a specific idea. That is to say, when we have the wisdom to accept that we do not know something, then instead of looking to the world to find our answers, we look inward in silence along the pathway of the Fool, and finally we have a chance to arrive at Crown.

The colloquialism "light hearted" comes to mind, which I tie, in many ways, to occult symbolism, certainly related to Asetianism and the Underworld. How I understand, a "heavy heart" leads to layers of ego that project distortions into our perceptions of reality. It would seem that finding ways to release that heaviness through humor is a step towards unearthing and liberating Self from the Sarcophagus of Flesh. It doesn't appear to me that the Fool connects directly to the Heart Shen and it's correlation in the Tree of Life, but perhaps this Fool pathway contains some important lessons that allow us deeper interaction with the correlated Sephiroth on later passes in our journey. I am far from having it all figured out but just wanted to share my thoughts and hopefully inspire some further discussion.

The Book of Orion has been really helpful to ignite my curiosity in the subject and provide most of the things that I present as facts here. I definitely recommend it to anybody that is interested in Tarot, Kabbalah, or Asetianism in general. There is much, much more provided in the book that ties in, and I'm certain many things that I don't have the wisdom to connect yet. Even for those who have already read it, it's worth revisiting on occasion after new experiences and further reflection. Each read through it inspires new questions and ideas, as many of us have noticed about any of the books published by the Order of Aset Ka.

I'm very curious how your thoughts have changed or grown since first creating this thread if you have the time at some point. Em Hotep, friend.

That was a wonderful reply. I must say this is my favorite subject and it hits close to home for some reason.

eternal24 wrote:I really enjoyed reading your interpretation of the Tarot card and the accompanied humor. I find 0 such a beautiful number, it's design so open and clean. The pathway it represents fully beyond the Abyss in Ethereal Fire, I suspect that while an infant can represent aspects of this archetype, to embody it perfectly takes a far more serious approach to achieve than the immaturity you mention the Fool being misunderstood to be. I find it humorous that while the Fool is the pathway between Wisdom and Crown, many make this mistake. Many philosophers have had something to say along the lines of “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”, which is attributed to Socrates. We are left a clue that the Fool correlates to Aleph and elemental Air. It seems to me that one must be willing to see and embrace the transformative power of dancing joyfully in the flames, unafraid, to truly embody the Fool. My take on it after deep contemplation is that the Fool does have to do with immaturity, but rather than as a stage of life or soul, it is as a stage of understanding a specific idea. That is to say, when we have the wisdom to accept that we do not know something, then instead of looking to the world to find our answers, we look inward in silence along the pathway of the Fool, and finally we have a chance to arrive at Crown.

The colloquialism "light hearted" comes to mind, which I tie, in many ways, to occult symbolism, certainly related to Asetianism and the Underworld. How I understand, a "heavy heart" leads to layers of ego that project distortions into our perceptions of reality. It would seem that finding ways to release that heaviness through humor is a step towards unearthing and liberating Self from the Sarcophagus of Flesh. It doesn't appear to me that the Fool connects directly to the Heart Shen and it's correlation in the Tree of Life, but perhaps this Fool pathway contains some important lessons that allow us deeper interaction with the correlated Sephiroth on later passes in our journey. I am far from having it all figured out but just wanted to share my thoughts and hopefully inspire some further discussion.

The Book of Orion has been really helpful to ignite my curiosity in the subject and provide most of the things that I present as facts here. I definitely recommend it to anybody that is interested in Tarot, Kabbalah, or Asetianism in general. There is much, much more provided in the book that ties in, and I'm certain many things that I don't have the wisdom to connect yet. Even for those who have already read it, it's worth revisiting on occasion after new experiences and further reflection. Each read through it inspires new questions and ideas, as many of us have noticed about any of the books published by the Order of Aset Ka.

I'm very curious how your thoughts have changed or grown since first creating this thread if you have the time at some point. Em Hotep, friend.

Indeed. Can't help but think it an opportune time to visit the BoO, particularly these Nights.