Often alone, every first light of dawn,
I have had to speak my sorrows. There is no one living
to whom I would dare to reveal clearly
my deepest thoughts.
- Anonymous, The Wanderer (Exeter Book)
The archetype of the Wanderer appears as a figure of profound loneliness, who drifts through life without a fixed home or direction, restless in the search for purpose and belonging. He has far-sickness, a deep longing for distant places and the hope of eventually finding a place on earth where he truly feels at home. The Wanderer longs for home, yet feels at home nowhere, dwelling in a liminal space between past and present, the familiar and the unknown, echoing what Lovecraft wrote: “I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men.”
If there is one key characteristic of the Wanderer, it is restlessness, which appears as a constant need to chase the next thing, whether it be in the outer world. Once something is achieved, the Wanderer is no longer satisfied, and seeks something else, ad infinitum. This insatiable desire is the cause of much of our suffering. One could say that the Wanderer cannot commit to anything, but he is certainly committed to wandering.
After a long period of aimless wandering, one may finally commit to the inner journey, and the archetype of the Seeker becomes constellated, beginning the search for one’s soul. The focus of life shifts from external achievements and aimless wandering to the pursuit of self-realisation and theosis (union with God).
Early access to my latest video: The Psychology of The Restless Wanderer is now available to Patrons and YouTube Members (NOTE: Tier 2 and above)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Support this work and access exclusive benefits:
www.patreon.com/eternalised
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Chapters:
Introduction
Lack of Belonging
The Meaning of Wanderer
Ronin
Far-Sickness
Restlessness and Insatiable Desire
Boredom: Our Worst Enemy
Digital Wanderer
The Realm of Hungry Ghosts
Lukewarm Souls and Limbo
Inner Yearning, Existential Crisis, Lifelessness
The Grey Life: Inner Death
The Archetype of the Zombie
The Path of Exile and Loneliness
Buddha: The Awakened One
The Seeker Archetype: In Search of the Soul
Acedia: Spiritual Restlessness
Shadow Seeker
In Filth It Will Be Found
The Monster You Fear Becomes the Saviour You Need
Individualism and Individuation (The Self)
Balancing Inner and Outer World
The Ultimate Union of Opposites: Physical and Spiritual
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Artwork by William Blake
1.9K - 94
While Death may appear at times terrifying and at other times playful, those he summons almost always tremble with fear. All except one: the Fool. He joins the dance with a smile, laughing at the absurdity of it all. To him, the world is a theatre, and all men and women merely actors, each wearing different social masks to play their roles in society.
There is something in the fool that Death appears to admire, something he seeks to imitate. Death, too, likes to play tricks. He does not always come as grim and serious, but often laughing, and dancing, mimicking the fool.
Both Death and the fool laugh at human pretensions and the illusion of control over life, bringing down the proud and powerful whenever possible. Death’s unsettling grin mirrors the fool’s vacant smile or raucous laughter. Together, they embody two universal conditions that many prefer to ignore: mortality and folly. As “truth-tellers”, they show the hard truths hiding beneath everyday life.
The fool’s joy in life dares to challenge Death’s dominion. Though Death always triumphs, it is never without a fierce struggle to overcome one of his most stubborn victims. For the fool embodies life, not death. He laughs at Death, and Death laughs back, but the fool still dances along the track.
The fool dancing with death represents the union of opposites, life and death, wisdom and folly—a characteristic of the Self. When we stop seeing contradiction and start recognising paradox, something within us begins to heal. When the opposites are united, bliss arises. This is the true transcendent experience.
“There is a mystical fool in me that proved to be stronger than all my science.” - Carl Jung
Early access to my latest video: The Fool Dances with Death is now available to Patrons and YouTube Members (NOTE: Tier 2 and above)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
At the end of a recent active imagination I saw the following vision:
"There is great joy resounding in the marketplace and people sing and dance and celebrate. I dance around with the people, and try to remember what the Joker told me to embody my joyful folly. There are people playing the bagpipe, and I am reminded of the image of death and the fool dancing and playing together."
Immediately after finishing this session, I open the browser on YouTube to put some ambience music and to reformat what I wrote and correct spelling errors. The first video I see recommended is my own video: The Psychology of The Fool (I happen to be on another account). Early on in the 1-minute time frame, the painting of Death and the Fool dancing appears.
I took this as a wink from the universe. This video is a result of that.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Support this work and access exclusive benefits:
www.patreon.com/eternalised
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Chapters:
Introduction
Memento Mori
The World is a Theatre
Laughter and Tragedy
Regrets of the Dying, Unlived Life, Persona
Archetypal Images of the Fool
Buffoon
Court Jester
Trickster
Clown
Joker
Wise Fool
Madness, Folly, Wisdom
Physical Deformity as Divine Gift
Natural Fool
Self-Transforming Machine Elves
The Purpose of the Fool
The Fool Dances with Death
Union of Opposites and Eternal Now
Dance of Bliss and Maya
Lila (Divine Play)
The Great Cosmic Joke
The Fool’s Journey
The Fool as Paradox
The Transcendent Experience
The Fool Meets Death
Conclusion
2.5K - 105
In Pursuit of Meaning.
This channel is human-made, not AI-generated.
Support the channel to help keep it alive (thank you!)
www.patreon.com/eternalised
ko-fi.com/eternalised
Joined 10 November 2019