The symbolism of the Clown
Clowns are ‘archetypes’ [puffins being called the ‘clowns’ of the sea]
An archetype is a pattern of behaviour or event
that occurs again and again, in different people over time
Some of the Tarot cards describe archetypes like the King, Queen, and Hermit
The Enneagram describes archetypes
A clown is on the spiritual path, but has been through purgatory and is undergoing purification
We can see that both Purgatory and Purification occur in the later stages of the Path
and are both equally gruelling
He [or she] wears white as a symbol of purification,
has buttons corresponding to the chakras, ...
and a conical hat, where the bobble shows an already enlightened person
Clowns also wear a ‘ruff’,
a collar that shows the person has managed to master their bodily sensations,
not let their body dictate their actions
‘Purification’ was a major alchemical stage,
where the ‘dross’ was burnt away in the furnace.
symbolically of course
There is also a constellation representing this stage, called Fornax Chemica
But the processes they have had to go through to get where they are on the path,
involves tremendous suffering and sacrifice
There may have been loss of loved ones engendering appalling grief
It may have involved rejection, humiliation or unrequited love
Like that of Pierrot made more terrible because in the story he is outwitted by Harlequin
It may simply be caused by pain, appalling pain from disease or illness
And so we also see on the white face of the clown that he or she has tears
James Joyce suffered horrendously from the pain in his eyes.
But nearly blind, he still wrote Ulysses and Finnigan’s wake
“Have we cold feet about the cosmos? No. Be on the side of the angels. Be a prism.”
James Thurber, the American author, humourist and cartoonist
who wrote "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," also eventually went blind.
The composer Delius's life was plagued by angst and illness.
But he still managed to compose On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 1900) , the German philosopher,
poet, composer and cultural critic. became seriously mentally ill.
But he is probably the only philosopher
to recognise the value of questioning everything you are told
" if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe;
if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire..."
Alfred Lord Tennyson was consumed with grief over the death
of his friend Arthur Hallam for almost his entire life.
But he became the Poet Laureate of the UK from 1850 until his death in 1892
Adversity, can be the cruel goad for those on the spiritual path, to transcend the pain
and produce something extraordinary-- to create heaven from hell.
Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers
It may be that the night will close over us in the end,
but I believe that morning will come again.
Morning always grows out of the darkness,
though maybe not for the people who saw the sun go down.
We are the Lantern Bearers, my friend; for us to keep something burning,
to carry what Light we can forward into the darkness and the wind.”