The Joker

The Gangster of Love

Steve Miller Band’s The Joker opens with an invitation to recognize the absurdity of identity. 'Some people call me the space cowboy...' the lyrics taunt, hinting at layers of performance and deflection, but the title itself—The Joker—carries deeper associations. It conjures not only the trickster figure of the playing card but also the annoying Batman villain, whose cultural status today hovers between genius and madness, brilliance and tragedy.

As for the Joker in the deck of cards, he is more closely tied to another figure—Tarot’s “the Fool”. Unlike his modern offshoot, the Fool isn’t defined by chaos or destruction. Instead, he embodies freedom, trust, and something far more profound—the Void itself. As Key 0, the Fool represents infinite potential, the state before beginnings: omnipresent, omnipotent, and undefined. He exists beyond form, embodying both nothingness and the possibility of everything.

From Tarot to Playing Cards: Losing the Wisdom of the Fool

Historically, the Fool was never part of the 'deck of 52.' Instead, he lived in the Tarot as the unnumbered card, symbolizing infinite potential. Over time, as Tarot morphed into the modern deck of playing cards, the Fool was transformed into the Joker, a wild card detached from the structure and symbolism of the rest.

The Joker became, quite literally, a joke—an extra card thrown into the game without a defined role, representing disruption rather than possibility. Yet the Fool’s journey—his trust in the unseen—persists as an archetype, even if it’s now obscured by the Joker’s smirk. And that deck of cards sitting in your drawer, stripped of its symbolic origins, still carries traces of this transformation.

The Joker as a Modern Myth

So why does the Joker, especially in his recent cinematic portrayals, resonate so powerfully with modern audiences? He represents the unchecked chaos and alienation lurking beneath the surface of society. With his painted grin and refusal to conform, he exposes hypocrisy and fear, yet he also embodies a deeper yearning—not just for recognition, but for authenticity. Ironically, he seeks this from the very society he claims to reject.

The Joker believes he rejects humanity—so much so that he’s willing to justify murder and destruction. This rejection reflects his inability to see past the flaws of individuals and into the interconnectedness of humanity itself. He mirrors a collective dissatisfaction with superficiality, yet his response is to destroy rather than transform. Where he breaks down meaning, he fails to build it back up—remaining trapped in self-loathing rather than stepping into creation.

This is where he differs most from the Fool. The Joker avoids meaning altogether—finding refuge in nihilism—while the Fool embraces life’s absurdity without turning away from meaning. The Fool’s leap into the unknown stems from trust, while the Joker’s actions stem from fear—fear of what it means to be human, vulnerable, and interconnected. Where the Fool says, 'I trust,' the Joker says, 'I mock.'

Heath Ledger’s Joker famously asks, 'Why so serious?'—but the tragedy is that he can’t answer his own question. Why be serious? The answer isn’t just love—it’s everything. The Fool steps into the void because he trusts in the fullness of life itself, while the Joker steps back because he fears it. The Joker’s mask conceals emptiness, but the Fool’s openness reveals infinite possibility.

Finding the Fool Again

In The Joker, Steve Miller’s lyrics riff on identity and perception, adopting masks while also poking fun at them. But the song’s playful declaration isn’t just caricature—it reclaims identity as fluid, grounded in love rather than destruction. The 'gangster of love' mask worn in the song directly rejects the Joker’s nihilism, replacing it with levity, charm, and an openness to life’s possibilities.

And there’s also the smoker—one who interacts with the liminal space of the void, bridging worlds rather than fearing them. This is the Fool’s domain, navigating unseen currents with curiosity and trust.

And crucially, he plays his music in the Sun. In Astrology, the Sun symbolizes vitality, authenticity, and self-expression—the radiant center of identity. This is the Fool’s territory, trusting in the light of creation rather than hiding in the shadows of despair.

The Fool is literally pictured under the White Sun of כתר (Keter, meaning 'Crown' in Hebrew), the Admirable Intelligence, the Primal Will, and the highest point on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, or, in other words, that which "radiates good will." He embodies not just trust but the active expression of benevolence, a radiant source of possibility that reflects the fullness of creation.

Both the Joker and the Fool live outside the rules. But one breaks the rules to destroy, while the other transcends them to create. The Fool’s leap into the void isn’t reckless—it’s radical trust. In this way, the Fool reminds us that embracing life’s absurdity doesn’t mean abandoning meaning. It means carrying faith even when the path ahead isn’t clear.

The Fool doesn’t reject the world or retreat from it. He walks forward, unguarded, carrying the light of the Sun and the weightlessness of infinite possibility.