2022: Year of The Fool

2022 dawned gently and warmly, the way a mild Southern winter tends to. I woke up, threw open the windows, ate a delicious breakfast, and scrubbed off the remnants of 2021 in a steamy shower. It’s common practice that I draw one tarot card at the start of my day and it becomes the subject of my study for the rest of the day. I wondered with a sort of breathless anticipation what tone this first card of the year would set for me.

Last year, the Prince of Disks was my first card of the year, and my hand-selected word of the year was “ease.” The Prince of Disks is all about germination—planting seeds, and the Earth element. Indeed, last year was all about planting the seeds for my businesses and future as an osteopathic physician.

This year, The Fool decided to visit me, and my word of the year is “thrive.” The new moon in Capricorn set the perfect stage for setting such powerful intentions for this year. My husband and I wrote a list of what we were letting go of from 2021 and burned the list to ashes, and then wrote a list of our intentions for 2022. We giggled when we realized we put the same intention for each other.

The Fool is a very special character in the major arcana. All other 77 cards of the entire deck live within The Fool. They are the raw, uncontrolled solar power that forces the entire unfolding of the story… The Great Work. Though they are associated with the primal seed at the very beginning of this story, the number associated with the Fool is not I but 0. They represent the consciousness one experiences in between lives, the primordial fertile nothingness that inevitably gives way to life and creation.

I smile at the perfectness — 2022: The Year of The Fool

The past decade of my life has been about all the prep work. I was tempered by the fires of my own medical issues and intergenerational trauma, meticulously vetted academically, and violently cleansed by embracing an unconventional path. Now it’s time for the Air element… the breath that animates my journey, the sharpened intellect that cuts to the core.

I’ve learned quite a lot and already accomplished so much, and as I walk into this New Year with my seat already reserved at one of my top picks in osteopathic medicine, I am humbled by the realization that I still know absolutely nothing— I am still but an ignorant fool.

The wisdom of The Fool is their openness; their natural curiosity. When we are aware of our own ignorance, this is when we can realize how empty our mind is and open it to new information—the Fool is a necessary character to play in life if you ever hope to learn anything.

The Fool is the cosmic adventurer connecting you to your inner child. A little levity can go a long way in dire situations and this is another piece of wisdom The Fool brings. There is a playfulness aspect that is required for one to truly be thriving. The path before me will be long and difficult and I refuse to be someone that only survives to get by as I make my way through medical school.

I look ahead at this next year and feel grateful and excited to embrace the energy of The Fool. It really does feel like it is the beginning of my Great Work. Here’s to the next step on my path to becoming a physician, and to remembering my perpetual Foolhood no matter how “educated” I become 🙏🏻