This week the darker side of clowns re-entered my consciousness when a work colleague who had been reading Stephen King’s “It” ( featuring the evil clown ”Pennywise” who uses balloons to tempt his child victims) was freaked out by the coincidental appearance of balloons in his back garden. This was followed up by a number of balloon and clown syncs in quick succession. Like one does when bamboozled by synchronicity he shared the experience and of course the meme was passed on. I went home to see an article on T.V about an undercover UK policewoman who infiltrated a non violent direct action environmentalist group called the Clandestine Rebel Clown Army. There’s a lot of stuff on Spy Cops (undercover police work) about in the media at the moment.
The dark side of clowns first entered my consciousness as a kid when my parents used to enter my brothers and I in an annual carnival in my mothers hometown of Hayle (Cornwall) H For the first few years we dressed in cool costumes as; Grenadier guards ,Knights of the round table Snow White and the Seven dwarves and Pirates. The first year I didn't really like the costumes was when we dress as black and white French Peirot clowns. I had always associated the clown with the red nose circus big top variety, typified in the commercial arena by Ronald Mcdonald. I had never thought of a dark side.
In my teens I read “It” watched the film and became aware of the “psycho clown” typified by Penny wise and the Joker of Batman. I even imagined being a pro skateboarder with my own model of skateboard with a killer clown design.
It wasn’t until much later I made the connection with the Court Jester / Joker in the modern deck of playing cardswho is represent by the Fool in the Tarot. My knowledge of the symbolism of "The Fool" is limited but I understand he can represents the querant at the beginning of their journey to enlightenment but also the querant at the end of the journey having achieved enlightenment and a new found playful freedom bringing the querant full circle.
Click the links for more on the trickster / sacred clown or the Insane Clown Posse
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