Op-Ed : Glenn Beck: The Fears of a Clown

http://www.trendsresearch.com/    (another clown for you to check out)  Of course there

are the Dr. Doom's who were correct too

If a man would persist in his folly, he would become wise.

                                                                                   William Blake

I think this  is a great place to post some information about the Tarot Card  The Fool since the purpose of this piece is to call Glenn Beck and Fox news  clowns.

The following are just a few sentences from the book Jung and The Tarot by Sallie Nichols.

"The Food is a wanderer, energetic, ubiquitous, and immortal.  He is the most powerful of all the Tarot Trumps.  Since he has no fixed number he is free to travel at will , often upsetting the established order with his pranks.  He still enjoys confounding the Establishment."

"He knows that to admit ignorance is the highest knowledge--the necessary condition of all learning."

"Our inner Fool urges us on to life, where the thinking mind might be overcautious.  What seems like a precipice from afar may prove to be only a small gulley when approached with the Fool's gusto.  Without the Fool's energy all of us would be mere pasteboard."

"According to St. Bonaventure, "God is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere"  To pin the Fool down, even within the wide world of the circle, is impossible.  Perhaps we might say he represents a redemptive factor within ourselves that urges us toward individuation.  He is that part of us which, innocently yet somehow quite knowingly, finds itself embarked upon the quest for self knowledge."

"Through him , we fall into seemingly foolish experiences which we later recognize as crucial to the pattern of our lives.  Humor is a necessary ingredient  and a necessary commodity."

In paintings depicting the birth of Jesus, a fool is, in fact, often pictured in various guises pausing in adoration at the manger.  In the painting by Ferrari below the Fool stands in

wonderment at the Nativity.  Significantly , this moment of spiritual illumination does not take place on some barren mountaintop, but comes to birth in a manger.  In this connection it is important to observe that the Fool's dog also participates in this experience.  At one level of understanding this seems appropriate because, without the protection and guidance of his animal counterpart, the Jester could never have found his way to the manger.

"Ferrari"s painting also offers an insight:  had the Fool rejected his "beastly self" at this supreme moment, he himself would have remained incomplete and found wanting  The artist may be telling us that only those who are pure of spirit and whole of heart can enter the Heavenly Kingdom with the Wise Men."

( Gaudenzio Ferrari, c. 1545-6)

" Adoration  at the Manger"