The Fool found that the road got very narrow with the wildwood closing in. Branches were scraping against him, and the roots kept tripping him up. He started to think he should turn around. Maybe he was going the wrong way. But then again, the Hierophant had pointed down this road, and it was in the opposite direction from where he already had been.
He heard the babbling of water through a thick stand of trees, a grove of cedar. He walked under the trees and found a clearing covered by cedar pines. It smelled thick with the wood and branches. The babbling got louder on the other side of the grove, but he wanted to just stand there and listen to the wind gently blow through the cedars.
The Fool parted the branches, then quickly jumped back, for he spied a man and a woman on a pile of plants, making love. He stood there with his back to the wall of cedars that was hiding him from the lovers, but a sing-song female voice called him out and over to them.
The Fool came out and found the couple sitting up. The man was actually a satyr – a half man, half goat – but the woman was fully human. The Fool looked down, ashamed to look at their nudity, for the couple seemed very comfortable with themselves. The woman was sitting on a pile of different flowers. The satyr was sitting on a bed of tree branches. Bees were buzzing everywhere.
I see you are still all alone, the woman said. The Fool felt sad about that. He didn’t seem that interested in finding love, but still longed for it sometimes. He would see couples walking down a riverbank hand in hand, and the Fool would feel alien.
The satyr said, Love isn’t just a sexual relationship.
The Fool had spent his wandering days alone. He remembered sometimes that there were people with him, now and again. He remembered a boy when he was younger, a shepherd that sang to his sheep. They would sit on a bluff and watch the sheep while talking the night through. He couldn’t remember why he and that shepherd weren’t together anymore, but he felt a tinge of pain and tried to forget it.
We are lovers, the woman said, but we don’t teach that.
The Fool seemed confused by that.
We are the difficult decision, the satyr went on, we are the hard choice.
The Fool remained confused, but this wasn’t new.
He decided to stay with the couple, but he made his bed under the cedar trees. During the day, the three of them walked around the meadow where the couple lived. Throughout the meadow were statues and fountains. The ground was covered in wildflowers. They were always surrounded by tall trees.
It is easy to choose pleasure, the woman said one day, but sometimes it leads down a ruinous path.
At the same time, continued the satyr, you only are alive for a short while, so why waste your time doing anything but seek pleasure.
Sometimes a source of pleasure is also hurting you, said the woman, and you are better off letting it go.
The satyr snickered and then said, but if you let it go, you may never feel pleasure again – or it won’t be like that kind of pleasure, he added.
The Lovers disagreed on everything, but seemed madly in love anyway. They kept taking turns debating the philosophy of love and pleasure. Sometimes they were on opposite sides from the day before, but most of the time, the woman was on the side of taking decisions seriously and the satyr was on the side of seeking pleasure.
The Fool felt like the satyr was right. He seemed to already live that way – not in the overabundance of pleasure, but in living alone, in keeping his head empty to avoid pain. He couldn’t quite remember getting vulnerable, or deciding to do anything but stay on the move, with no attachments. Watching the Lovers interact, the Fool wanted something more. While the satyr spoke of being a purveyor of pleasures, he seemed to care greatly for the woman. She loved him back fiercely. They also took pleasure with each other often, leaving the Fool to put mud in his ears when he tried to sleep at night.
The meadow’s many statues were of old Gods who all had stories about love and pleasure. The woman was delighted to share each statue’s story, which would typically involve a sacrifice on one of the lovers’ behalf to either keep the love alive, or to save the other. It seemed like none of the stories was without a great loss or great pain. It confused the Fool to understand why anyone would put themselves in that position.
The woman just smiled and said, It is worth it.
The satyr showed the Fool all the fountains that were strewn around the flowery meadow. Each fountain was carved into a scene of different mythological creatures enjoying life: there were satyrs chasing nymphs, dryads drinking wine, fauns playing music and dancing. Some of the fountains gushed water, while others spewed wine. One was hot tea.
We are the joining of man and nature, the satyr said. She is human and I am a child of the Empress. She follows the Hierophant’s laws, and I follow the Empress’s.
The Fool wondered out loud how the two of them got along.
The satyr laughed, We have better things to do than to make each other the other.
This took a few decades – or maybe it was a few hours – but the Fool started feeling the urge to wander. It took a little longer than before because of how beautiful the meadow was. And the Lovers were so nice to him, and made him feel at home (when they weren’t making love). They loved arguing about their opinions and philosophies, and then asking the Fool what he thought, but the Fool would just shrug. He was an observer, not a participant.
The Lovers thought a lot about the Fool, and how he had been here before, many times. Each time he was alone and unwilling to make hard decisions. They were there when the Fool was made. They gave him his social desires and love ideals. But the Fool didn’t seem able to access those parts of himself. They saw a sad emptiness behind his eyes. The Lovers weren’t troubled, for it takes what it takes.
The Fool left The Lovers and wandered through the meadow, weaving around the statues and fountains. The Lovers watched from their bed of flowers and branches piled high. They never stopped smiling and waving. The Fool had a lump in his throat thinking about companionship, and wondered why he never sought it, like so many do.
The Fool made it to the other side of the trees and started down a wide cobbled road with poplar trees lining each side. He brushed some leaves out of his beard, in case he ran into someone.