I’m being stalked by a number. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to stop seeing 22’s. License plates, clocks, receipt numbers — basically anywhere a number could be, there it is. Staring me in the face. Unignorable. A lot of free spirited folks like myself might call this an angel number or Universal sign. Like the numbers on Lost. Perhaps they function as a Matrixian code for our brains to stay on our true paths? I don’t know. It’s not my place to question such matters. Zen.
One place this number appears to me is in the tarot deck. Your traditional set is comprised of 78 cards, the first 22 of which are called the major arcana. Each arcanum is an archetype we all live at certain points of our lives and it is at the very core of being able to excel at cartomancy — if you can’t understand the many hats we wear as humans, you can’t connect deeply with the energies in the spread before you and give a good reading.
So what’s the 22nd card?
THE FOOL
The version of The Fool above featuring Fry from Futurama was found on this Reddit page and is a marvelous play on the one from the traditional Rider-Waite deck. It features a court jester followed by his trusty canine companion walking joyfully towards and ignorant of the precipice before him. In one hand he holds a white flower — the symbol of purity and freedom from all material ties — and in the other a satchel of belongings, symbolizing the collective knowledge we share.
Mankind, no? Stuck between the freedom from the material and the insatiable thirst for more knowledge — what keeps us in our biblical tunics of skin. We can’t explore the Universe without our physical beings and senses — those are our means for taking in information and knowledge! Silly humans forget that — no matter what — the cliff remains ahead of us, regardless of the amount of knowledge we possess.
The 22’s start to make sense. I’ve been clinging to my true path with such ferocity that it often rages from my palms in balls of chi. But lately I keep getting caught up in the How. Is it right? Will I get to where I want to go?
The Fool reminds me of the cliff. And because I am living my life in the fullest, I gleefully stride towards it with a smile cracking my face wide open — I don’t know when it’s coming. It can happen thirty seconds after posting this. Since The Fool is only a failure when it misses it’s chance, it would seem the 22’s are reminding me to act while I still can.
And I hope we all find the courage to act when our 22’s come knocking, fellow Oddballs. See you next week!
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