The Importance of Curiosity: Skepticism, The X-Files, + The Fool

Outside of tarot reading, my background is in visual arts. When I’m not mulling over tarot I’m likely working my gallery job in Hudson. My partner is a camera nerd; photographer, video producer, and a second shooter for weddings—if he has a camera in his hand (or on his shoulders) he’s usually pretty happy. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise when I say that creating, exploring, and watching stories are important to us and our relationship. 

One of my favorite stories is The X-Files (well, if we’re going to split hairs, for all you other X-philes out there, I’m more of a monster of the week girlie than a mythology one, but I digress). Recently, at my partner’s suggestion and my enthusiastic insistence, we have embarked on a mission to watch the show together in its entirety (9 episodes down, 209–and 2 movies to go). It’s funny timing, actually, as I had found myself thinking a lot about skepticism leading up to this. As someone with “spooky” interests, as Fox Mulder might tell you, you sometimes find yourself subject to a certain amount of skepticism. I have occasionally encountered it in conversation when I mention my joy in tarot or at events I’ve worked as a reader.

Perhaps oddly, my thoughts have led to me celebrating a certain type of skepticism, the kind embodied by Dana Scully throughout the X-Files series. If you’re familiar with The X-Files, you know that Mulder has his head in the clouds and Scully has her feet on the ground. In the pilot episode, we are introduced to Scully as she sits down with Division Chief Scott Blevins, who informs her that she is to monitor the X-Files project that Agent Mulder has taken upon himself. She is assigned to this because of her scientific and medical background with the expectation that she will debunk the legitimacy of the project.

Despite being given a dismissive brief, and “Spooky” Mulder’s thorny introduction, Scully remains open to her assignment. At heart, and contrary to Mulder’s initial expectations, Scully is a true, objective scientist. Throughout every case Scully observes, questions (a lot, sometimes featuring a sporadic eye roll), researches, and analyses through labs, case files, and the occasional self-preformed autopsy, and always reports her subjective truths, regardless of the Bureau’s expectations.

In Squeeze (S1 E3) Scully meets with an old friend from the Academy, agent Tom Colton, who wants her help with a strange serial murder case. Throughout the episode, both Scully and Mulder assist Colton with his case, all the while Colton makes a point of being derogatory of Mulder and his reputation when afforded, at one point telling Scully that Mulder is “insane,” in Mulder’s presence no less. Directly after, we get this gem of an interaction between our 2 protagonists:

Scully: You knew they wouldn’t believe you. Why did you push it?

Mulder: Maybe I thought you caught the right guy. And maybe I run into so many people who are hostile, just because they can't open their minds to the possibilities, that sometimes the need to mess with their heads outweighs the millstone of humiliation.

Scully: It seems like you were acting very territorial. I don’t know, forget it.

Mulder: Of course I was. In our investigations, you may not always agree with me, but at least you respect the journey. And if you want to continue working with them, I won’t hold it against you.

This particular interaction really defines their relationship throughout the series. Yes, Scully is a skeptic, but she does not allow her skepticism to impede her experiences. Scully’s skepticism springs from the fact that before the X-Files, her world did not obviously intermingle with the fantastic, but now that she must confront it in her work she continues to explore and remain receptive to what is happening around her. (As an aside, I happened to be concurrently reading Braiding Sweetgrass, in the process of writing this. Nearing the end of the chapter on the gift of strawberries, I turned the page to see “as a scientist I am well aware of how little we do know.” This echoed loudly, and in complete synchronicity as I was certain Dr. Dana Scully would have similar sentiments).

And so, of course, their journey brings me back to Tarot, or as it is also named, the Fool’s Journey. This other name for Tarot feels deeply fitting of the experience of engaging with this system, as to do so, no doubt, can surely feel foolish to the uninitiated. Surely, many things that put us in a vulnerable position can feel foolish, but how exactly does this relate to the archetype of The Fool?

It is often the case that The Fool is distilled down to naivety, or not having enough worldliness to know better. In the West the notion of a fool often takes a pejorative meaning as it maintains connotations of immaturity, vulnerability, and to some, outright weakness (or it brings to mind visions of a clown or court jester, à la the joker in a set of playing cards). To not know better is surely to be taken advantage of. In the East however, among Buddhist traditions, there is the concept of The Beginner’s Mind (also known as Shoshin), which essentially is considered a higher form of wisdom, as the beginner’s mind is not bogged down by expectations, false certainties, or general close-mindedness. 

In considering these very different perspectives of what it is to be a fool, there seems to be a strong thread of expectation. What you are expected to understand of the world we live in through the delicate and intricate interweaving of our own experiences and, simultaneously the experiences (or lack thereof) of those who we come into orbit with. So often these interactions can move in two directions: curiosity or judgment.

“you may not always agree with me, but at least you respect the journey.” — Fox Mulder

If you’re a living, breathing person it is likely that someone at some point in your life has told you that you couldn’t do something. You’ve likely been told plenty of things you shouldn’t do. Some of these pieces of advice were likely fair and practical, it is also quite likely that some of the things you’ve been told have been uttered with fear or judgment. For example, if you’re a fellow millennial you are probably quite familiar with: “Don’t have sex because you will get pregnant and die!” (Coach Carr, Mean Girls), which of course is not solid wisdom, but instead is playfully poking at abstinence-only fear-mongering for teens in lieu of a concise education.

At what point do we become a fool when we insist on continually learning the hard way?

At what point do we become a fool when we con ourselves out of lived experiences due to fear, judgment, or especially fear of judgment?

I think the desire to understand and be understood is natural, if not universal. To see the world through the lens of a child is to ask “why,” genuinely and incessantly. If you’ve ever met a 3 year old you know the truth of this. Judgment is a learned behavior. The Fool at its best leads with a genuine “why,” at its worst it leads with discrimination. This said, feeling skeptical in the face of new information or a new experience isn’t a bad thing. That resistance is a test of the boundaries of our understanding of our own individual world. How we approach the experience further impacts, and programs that experience and those going forward. Moving forward with curiosity expands, while moving forward with judgment constricts. Understanding is the prescription for fear. This is ultimately why The Fool is card 0, because it is an archetype of perspective; to view any situation through the compassion of curiosity is always an option.

It is Scully’s receptiveness that ultimately endears her to Mulder and vice versa. I like to think that those of us who show up attentively and compassionately more easily endear ourselves to others, because there is a greater possibility to genuinely connect. I hope the next time you feel the nag of doubt or skepticism that you’re able to intercept it with a Beginner’s Mind. I hope that you are able to find ways to keep yourself open when others want you to shrink. I hope the next time you sit with a reader, or pull The Fool, that it makes you want to believe.