Meditation for April 23rd
Four Sons
I just finished a Seder dinner for Passover (2016). In the readings, the story of the enslaved people leaving Egypt serves to explain the four kinds of questions. The Wicked Son, The Simple Son, The Wise Son & The One Who Does Not Know How To Ask. They all represent the different kinds of foolishness of being human; it almost seems like the Fool in the Tarot card should be four figures. What lessons can we learn from these four symbols?
The Wise Son is the person who sucks up all the air in the room with everything they have learned in their life. The Wise Son wants nothing more than for people to know he knows. If the Wise Son asks questions, it is just to flex the intelligent fortitude. The question is unanswerable or answered within the question itself. Wisdom is had, but at the cost of being disconnected from the human experience. They think their feeling, they don’t feel their feelings. The Son may have a high intellect, but they have no wisdom at all.
The Simple Son is simply dumb. It isn’t ignorance that is bliss; it is ignorance that is fact. The Simple Son will try to copy The Wise One with questions, but it all comes out simple and sophomoric. “What is this?” is not a complicated question to learn about the mysteries of life. The Simple Son will never think of themselves as Simple Sons; they will believe themselves to be the Wise Son. While the wise one will make an effort to cram knowledge into their brains, the Simple One does not wish to do anything at all.
The Wicked Son is the one full of cynicism and mistrust. They like to compare past struggles with their own, as if no one has ever struggled before. The Wicked Son will distance himself from others because he believes that he alone can figure out life. Other people will weigh him down. If the wicked one asks questions, it is to ask why anything exists, for if there is no answer, there is no responsibility. Chaos is comfort and can’t stand the comfort others find in structure.
The One Who Does Know How To Ask is the most common one. If it isn’t asked, it cannot be known; therefore, it is innocent. He does not know how to ask the Wise One questions to learn from others’ mistakes; he does not know how to ask the Simple Son to elaborate on what he is trying to ask, or whether to ask the Wicked Son if he is lying or being sarcastic. The world is being torn at the seams, and he can’t ask why or what can be done, hoping to walk away as an innocent person. Sometimes things don’t just fix themselves.
The Fool wanders into a dreamscape and finds that their very character will keep them from ever truly loving another, appreciating the world, knowing one’s limitations, or being responsible for one’s part.
Prayer
Prayer of the Wise One
Hear me,
I teach.
And lecture.
I need to teach.
I need to be heard.
Only I know the whole story.
Only I can change the whole world.
Amen.
The prayer of the Simple Son
Please?
Amen.
The prayer of the Wicked Son
You do not exist.
It is more important than you think.
Then borrow from the imagery and symbolism of your existence.
It is more important to be gentle with others’ pain.
Then to treat mine with a prayer.
It is more important to me that I am right and you are wrong.
I am an extremist anti-extremist.
The world is black & white,
Yet I am gray.
You are classified,
I am not.
Fuck Amens.
The One Who Does Not Know How To Ask’s prayer
…
Craft
Take a tarot deck and shuffle four times.
Cut
Shuffle again
Cut again
Lay out five cards.
One in the middle and the four from the corners in a clockwise direction, starting at “one o’clock”.
This will let you know what kind of person you are.
Cups are the Wise Son’s domain
Pentacles is The One Who Doesn’t Know How To Ask’s domain
Swords is the Simple Son’s domain
&
Wands are the Wicked Son’s domain.
The major arcana will take some reading and interpretation; it should be straightforward.
Goal
It is always fun to match symbolism with us. This is why horoscopes are so fun, or what Chinese New Year we were born in, or what our names mean. Religion is a terrible institution, but the spiritual world is just beautiful. It has just been used by the rich and powerful to keep the idiots who are poor from thinking for themselves. That doesn’t mean it isn’t interesting.
Build a haven with things that mean something to you.
Burn down a church.
Quite nice.