Germaine Greer – The Fool – Waltzing With Matilda's

The Fool tarot card is a sign of unlimited and endless potential. It’s a cosmic invitation from the universe to start your next adventure.

New beginnings, innocence, naiveté, childlike trust, carefree enthusiasm, longing to find one’s heart desire, spontaneity, endless potential, inexperience, excitement, leap of faith, risk, reckless, the unknown

This is just the beginning! The Fool is Card Zero of the Major Arcana, representing the point where everything begins and ends and begins again. The Fool tarot card is a sign of unlimited and endless potential. It’s a cosmic invitation from the universe to start your next adventure. The world is your oyster, babe! Release your expectations or any preconceived notions because anything can happen right now, you just need to take a leap of faith and dive into the unknown.

Germaine Greer (born 29 January 1939, Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian-born writer, scholar and feminist whose fearless questioning of convention transformed public conversations about women, sexuality and freedom. Brilliant, provocative and endlessly controversial, she has spent her life refusing to remain safely within the boundaries others drew for her.

Her groundbreaking book The Female Eunuch became one of the defining works of twentieth-century feminism. It invited countless women to question the assumptions they had inherited about marriage, work, motherhood, desire and identity. For many, opening its pages became a Fool’s Leap — a first step into unfamiliar territory from which there could be no easy return.

Like the Fool in the tarot, Greer walked into the unknown carrying little more than conviction, intellect and an unwavering belief that accepted truths deserved to be challenged. She spoke when silence would have been easier, embraced controversy when conformity offered greater comfort, and accepted that every leap into new territory risks misunderstanding as well as discovery.

The Fool is not foolish because they lack wisdom. The Fool is wise because they refuse to let fear decide the journey. Greer’s life reminds us that genuine freedom rarely begins with certainty. It begins with a question, a willingness to challenge the familiar, and the courage to take the first step before the destination is visible.

Whether admired or criticised, Germaine Greer continues to embody the Fool’s invitation: to think independently, to trust one’s own experience, and to follow the path that calls, even when others cannot yet see where it leads.

Working with the General Energy of the Fool

Go through your decks and examine the variety of ways in which artists depict the Fool. Check guide books for any artist insights but do make sure to trust your intuitive responses.

The meanings or associations we make when we look at a card like the Fool change from moment to moment. At one moment the actions of someone like Germaine Greer might feel daring and at another she might show herself as the Queen of Swords. We are all made up of the same archetypes and Greer cannot be pigeon holed any more that you or I can be.

For now, at this moment in time, she is ‘talking to us’ about those qualities which we associate with the Fool. There is no time quite like the present to work with this energy.

Remind yourself about the qualities associated with the Fool. Read more about Germaine Greer and glean insights into what propelled her to walk the Feminist path in search of her grail and write the Female Eunuch at a time when it was not as common to express such forthright views, views which would automatically be deemed not only controversial, but heretical.

Draw on your knowledge of other women! Identify another woman who you believe bravely traversed new ground. Make notes!

Consider engaging in a Guided Visualization that takes you to the Fool and make notes in your journal.

Learning Through Play

It is well known that Play in the preschool years enables children to explore and make sense of the world around them, as well as to use and develop their imagination and creativity. But why should the little ones have ALL the fun. Get out the pencils or crayons and colour this image from Coloring Only mindfully.

More Colouring Resources

Playfully Filling the Blank Page

Write an affirmation about taking the leap on a post it note. Stick it on your forehead and look in a mirror. Leave the affirmation on your mirror or wherever you will regularly see it.
Write a note to leave on the fridge to explain why you are compelled to follow your heart and set out on an adventure.
Write a tarot haiku
Choose a card that has an opposing energy to the Fool and write a piece that captures some of the tension the Fool feels.
Write in the third person expressing doubts about taking the leap.
Google and refresh your understanding of the Canterbury Tales. Add the Fool to the list of Chaucer’s characters and write a ballad or a tale
Write a Don Quixote inspired piece
Draw a sketch of yourself as a Fool remembering you are not entering the Archibald Prize

Playing with spreads helps you to explore the pros and cons of whatever is calling you.

Take the time to complete a spread like this one by Labyrinthos.

Adventure – What new adventures await you? What new challenges are on your horizon? What aspects of your life are calling out for you to explore?
Position – Where are you? What is the state of your life’s journey right now? What is the environment and context in which you are operating?
A Risk – What risk are you taking? What are you putting on the line? What do you have to lose?
Foundations – What is something that you have always relied on in your life? What are you leaving behind on this adventure?
A Warning – Where are you vulnerable? Where do you need to be alert? What possible mistakes could you make as you set forth on your new journey?
A Helping Hand – Who or what should you trust? What resources or knowledge do you have at your disposal?

Spread by Labyrinthos