There's something weirdly comforting about watching an idiot accidentally save the universe.
And that's exactly what Alejandro Jodorowsky gave us with John DiFool, the scruffy, cowardly, down-on-his-luck detective who somehow ends up being the chosen one in The Incal, one of the strangest, most cosmic graphic novels ever made.
If you've never heard of it, The Incal is basically what happens if Blade Runner took ayahuasca and tried to explain Gnosticism. It's a psychedelic odyssey drawn by the legendary Moebius, written by Jodorowsky, the same man who tried (and failed gloriously) to make the most ambitious film adaptation of Dune ever imagined. And somewhere in the middle of all this metaphysical chaos, there's our guy: John DiFool.
Yes, that's his actual name. "DiFool."
Subtle? Not even remotely. Intentional? Absolutely.
The Fool and the Holy Incal
To get this, you have to understand who Jodorowsky is. The man isn't just a filmmaker or a writer, he's a full-blown mystic performance artist who reads the Tarot like it's his morning newspaper. He's obsessed with symbols, transformation, and that fine line between the sacred and the absurd.
So when he created John DiFool, he wasn't just writing a loser detective. He was channeling The Fool, the very first card in the Tarot's Major Arcana.
In Tarot, The Fool is the zero card, no number, no baggage, just
pure potential.
He's the one stepping off the cliff, trusting that the universe
won't let him fall (or at least that the view will be worth it).
He's not wise. He's not trained. He's just… open.
And that's the whole point.
The Fool doesn't know what can't be done, so he does it.
A Fool in a World of Know-It-Alls
In The Incal, the world is a dystopian nightmare. Polluted skies, corrupt governments, humans and aliens coexisting in grotesque neon harmony. Everyone is trying to get somewhere, climb something, own something.
And then there's John DiFool: a sleazy, unlucky P.I. who'd rather chase cheap pleasures than grand purposes. He's constantly out of his depth, whining, messing things up, falling into trouble… and somehow, through all his mistakes, he ends up saving existence itself.
He's the cosmic joke that turns out to be the punchline of
creation.
He's The Fool, walking blind through a world obsessed with control,
logic, and hierarchy.
Jodorowsky's Vision
Jodorowsky built The Incal like a spiritual initiation disguised as a sci-fi epic. DiFool's name isn't a joke; it's a map. He's the archetype of the innocent wanderer. He's the tarot card that says, "Yeah, I have no idea what I'm doing, and that's why it works."
The Fool in You
The Fool's power is stupid courage.
It's the ability to step forward before the ego has time to talk you
out of it.
Every great leap in human history, and in personal growth, has come from someone who didn't quite grasp how impossible it was supposed to be.
The Fool card represents new beginnings, trust, faith, risk, and
reckless belief in possibility.
It's not about being ignorant; it's about being
unarmored.
Think of it as the advantage of naivety.
That rare kind of openness that comes before cynicism calcifies the
soul.
The Colombian Kid Who Solved the "Impossible" Problem
Here's where reality catches up with mysticism.
In 2024, a story went viral about a young boy from Colombia who supposedly solved one of the world's most difficult math problems, a problem that had stumped seasoned mathematicians for decades. When reporters asked how he did it, the boy shrugged and said something along the lines of, "I didn't know it was impossible."
That's The Fool energy, right there.
That's John DiFool with a chalkboard instead of a blaster.
It's not that the boy had superhuman intelligence. It's that he hadn't been trained to be afraid of failure. He didn't know the rules yet, so he wasn't trapped by them.
And that's the quiet superpower of innocence: it doesn't play by the limits of the game, because it doesn't know there's a game at all.
We Unlearn the Fool
Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, most of us stop being Fools.
We trade our curiosity for caution. We learn to calculate risk, to
avoid embarrassment, to "know better."
And in doing so, we build an invisible prison made of "what's
realistic."
We start every new dream with a pre-loaded list of reasons why it
won't work.
We call it being "practical."
But really, it's fear, dressed up in a sensible outfit.
The Fool doesn't have that fear.
He's not stupid; he's free.
The Fool and The Moon
Now, let's add another layer, because Jodorowsky would.
In the Tarot, The Moon card often appears as a test
of intuition and illusion.
It's the moment in the Fool's journey where logic starts to
dissolve, and everything gets dreamlike, confusing, shadowy.
It's where the Fool must trust not what he sees, but what he feels.
The Moon's Message
The Moon is the land of intuition, mystery, and transformation. It's about walking through the fog without needing the flashlight.
And when The Fool meets The Moon, like during this week's full moon, if you're feeling cosmic about it, the message is clear:
"Stop trying to know everything.
Start learning to listen."
Jodorowsky's Gospel of the Absurd
What's genius about Jodorowsky is that he uses absurdity as a form of enlightenment.
In his films (El Topo, The Holy Mountain) and his comics (The Incal, Metabarons), the characters who are the most broken, foolish, or grotesque often become the carriers of divine wisdom.
John DiFool isn't a hero because he's competent. He's a hero because
he's receptive.
Because he keeps going, even when he doesn't understand what's
happening.
That's The Fool's secret: progress without comprehension.
It's like life itself.
None of us really know what's going on.
We're all improvising. Some of us just hide it better.
The Fool's Journey = The Human Journey
In Tarot, The Fool travels through all 21 Major Arcana cards, each one representing a stage of consciousness, experience, or spiritual growth.
He begins at 0, The Fool, stepping into the unknown, and ends at XXI, The World, complete, integrated, whole.
It's the same journey we all make, again and again:
From innocence → experience → awakening → another leap of faith.
The beauty of it is that every ending becomes a new beginning.
You never graduate from The Fool. You just learn to be a more
graceful version of one.
The Science of Not Knowing
Even outside of mysticism, science quietly agrees with The Fool.
Psychologists talk about the "beginner's mind", a Zen concept that means approaching everything as if for the first time. It keeps the mind flexible, creative, and curious.
When you don't know, your brain stays open to possibility.
When you think you know, it filters reality to fit your existing
beliefs.
It's why children learn faster than adults.
It's why innovation often comes from outsiders.
It's why a random 12-year-old can solve a problem no professor
could.
The Fool isn't behind the curve, he's ahead of it.
The Moonlight Test
Let's be real: being The Fool isn't always fun.
It's confusing. Humbling. Sometimes humiliating.
The Moon (symbolically) throws shadows everywhere.
You'll question your path, your choices, your sanity.
You'll crave clarity, and it won't come.
That's the price of the Fool's freedom.
You don't get certainty. You get discovery.
But if you can walk through that fog without giving up, if you can keep your sense of humor while everything unravels, that's when the universe starts revealing its patterns.
Foolproof Advice (Pun Fully Intended)
If Jodorowsky's The Incal has a moral, it's this:
You don't need to be ready to start.
You just need to start.
John DiFool never "earns" his destiny. He just blunders into it, survives, and somehow grows through the chaos. He doesn't conquer The Incal, he awakens to it.
And maybe that's the trick in real life too.
Stop trying to master the cosmic syllabus.
Just show up. Trip over your own feet.
Learn from the absurdity.
Because honestly, everyone you admire, artists, scientists, lovers, weirdos, they all began as Fools.
Ask Yourself
So here's the real question:
Where in your life are you still pretending to "know"?
Where could you let yourself be a Fool again?
Maybe it's:
- Starting a project you feel underqualified for
- Saying yes to a love you don't understand
- Moving somewhere that terrifies you
- Letting go of the "five-year plan" for a five-minute feeling that lights you up
What would happen if you trusted curiosity more than control?
What if you stopped needing a map, and let wonder be the compass?
Because the world's most brilliant discoveries were never made by
people who "knew what they were doing."
They were made by people who didn't, but walked forward anyway.
The Moon Is Calling
If this week's full moon feels strange, electric, emotional, lean
in.
That's The Moon card doing her thing: dissolving logic, stirring
your subconscious, shining on the parts of you you've been ignoring.
And if you feel a little lost under her light, perfect.
That's where The Fool begins.
Your Moonlight Ritual
Step outside tonight.
Look up at the moon.
Ask yourself:
Where could I take one stupid, beautiful, fearless step into
the unknown?
Then do it.
Trip, fall, laugh, get back up.
That's the real enlightenment Jodorowsky was talking about.
The Divine Joke
Maybe the biggest cosmic joke is that the universe doesn't want you
to be "ready."
It wants you to dance with not knowing.
Jodorowsky once said,
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness."
The Fool doesn't see the cage. He just climbs out the window.
So go ahead, be the Fool.
Wear your uncertainty like glitter.
Get lost under The Moon.
Let the story unfold before you think you've earned it.
Because somewhere between chaos and clarity,
between failure and flight,
between WTF and holy shit,
that's where magic happens.
Ready to explore your Fool's journey?
Book a personalized tarot reading with Mimi and discover where The Fool is calling you to take your next leap. Every reading is tailored to your unique path and questions.
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