The Pilgrim, the Fool and the Unknown

April Fool's Day is the first day of the pilgrim's year. Pilgrims are driven by a 'foolish' urge to step into the unknown, guided by a trusting heart.

April Fool’s Day echoes older festivals where the world was turned upside down, to begin again with the sound of the returning cuckoo, which itself was once linked to the April 'fool'. Indeed, Chaucer starts his Canterbury Tales with April:

"Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licóur
Of which vertú engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye,
So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages,
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,"

Last year, I had a chance to spend a few days with a group of pilgrims, many of whom I hadn't met before, and also who didn't know each other. But what we had in common was pilgrimage. Together we discussed words and themes that related to pilgrimage, and the words "darkness", "fear" and "the unknown" came up. Darkness is anything that hasn't had light yet shone on it, fear is something imagined that hasn't happened yet, and the unknown is simply anything which is not yet known.

At the heart of every pilgrimage lies an irresistible pull towards the unknown. The archetype of the pilgrim, unlike the tourist who tends to treade a more well-known path, steps into uncertainty and darkness, guided by their intuition and a trusting heart.

In a piece I wrote for the Idler a few years ago I suggested that the Pilgrim resonates with the archetype of the Fool in the Tarot, a joyous figure depicted stepping blissfully off the edge of a cliff. The Fool symbolises innocence, courage, and openness – qualities essential for any pilgrim. This is sacred foolery, an upgrade to the traditional shenanigans expressed on April 1st. In older traditions, the ‘holy fool’ was often the one closest to truth. Both the Fool and the Pilgrim share trust in life’s ability to support them in uncertainty. While the cliff edge represents danger, the Fool’s happy demeanour captures the pilgrim’s inherent optimism and trust in the transformative power of the unknown.

The pilgrim's relationship with darkness and fear, therefore, is to engage with it. The pilgrim is also drawn towards scepticism and spiritual doubt, not out of nihilism, but because these represent uncharted territories within the human spirit. The unknown becomes a sacred space where pilgrims confront their fears and uncertainties, enabling their souls and bodies to evolve and transform.

Body awareness may also be a factor here because true embodiment requires engaging directly with feelings that we instinctively avoid. Feelings are the interface between mind and body. Fear, darkness, and uncertainty often reside in our unconscious selves – experienced in our body rather than intellectually. Body awareness is essentially an invitation to listen deeply, to feel fully, and to inhabit our physical and emotional selves completely. In other words, it's not about feeling better, per se, but getting better at feeling. The dark and unknown represent parts of us not yet integrated or illuminated. When we engage these aspects with heightened body awareness, we enable authentic confrontation with our suppressed fears, doubts, and uncertainties. It is only when we confront them that they lose they power.

Tourists, however curious, usually engage with destinations through a lens of safety, familiarity, and external observation, rather than the less chartered inner journey. At a most reductive level, they may have read about a place (or heard about it from others), gone there, taken a photo, posted it, and moved on. One definition of a pilgrim is someone who journeys towards an unknown destination with a true heart. The true heart embodies authenticity, sincerity and our deepest intuition – essential for navigating the unknown. Pilgrims do not only traverse physical landscapes with their body, but also the mysterious landscape of the soul.

In our own journeys, embracing the pilgrim archetype can inspire us to move courageously towards our personal unknowns, recognising that it is precisely in darkness and uncertainty that our greatest potential for evolution lies. As we carry forward the Fool’s rose of hope and companionship (as he is pictured with in the Tarot), may we all find the bravery to walk boldly into the unknown. May we also trust in the transformative power of the people, places and nature we will meet along the way to shine light on any of our unknowns.

by Guy Hayward