The Jester and the Soul: Finding Light in Grief’s Shadow

I press my thumb down to hold the green button in place as I carefully weave my sewing needle through the cotton fabric—up through one buttonhole, down through another—adding another eye to my handmade doll. With both buttons now in place, a sigh of relief escapes my lips.

Working with textiles and found objects has become a deeply satisfying labour of love in my art therapy training and continuing art practice. Doll-making, in particular, has been especially rewarding. Jungian archetypes seem to come dancing forward through the process, validating and illuminating my life experiences.

The Language of Archetypes

Jungian archetypes—coined by Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung—are universal symbols and patterns that shape human behavior and personality. Understanding these archetypes offers insight into our personal development and helps us navigate the adventures and transitions of life (Copley, 2024).

Although not every doll I create reveals an archetype at work, my most recent creation has become an intriguing companion. I think of this doll as a supportive helper—an ally of sorts—as I journey into the second half of my life. I was fifty when I graduated from my master’s program in art therapy, yet art has been a healer for as long as I can remember. It has always been my companion—an ongoing act of self-love that carries me through the highs, the lows, and the quiet in-between spaces of living. This new doll synchronistically arrived at a time of great transition and possibility: as I begin new beginnings with Four Rivers Art Therapy, and as my children step closer into adulthood, ushering in the beginnings of the “empty nest.” This doll seems to hold these shifts tenderly—symbolizing both the letting go and the becoming that define this season of my life.

This new doll appears as a half-animal, half-jester figure. The animal reminds me that I am part of a greater whole, a human among many beings. The jester, meanwhile, brings forward the wisdom of my art therapy identity—the creative spirit that finds silver linings and holds space for joy even in sorrow.

The Jester: Trickster, Beginner, Wise One

Jesters are complex entities who have often been misunderstood—labeled as tricksters or dismissed as fools. Yet beneath their playful surface lies profound wisdom. In many ways, the Jester carries what Buddhism calls Beginner’s Mind—a state of openness, curiosity, and presence. The Jester embodies resilience and the ability to hold both the tender and the joyful. They move through life with a zest for experience, unafraid to laugh, to risk, to try again. They care little for how others might judge them, willing to look foolish in the name of discovery. In this way, they remind us that every new adventure begins with a willingness to trust the unfolding process of life.

Jesters remind us that we are rarely just one thing. They invite us to embrace paradox—to hold laughter and sorrow in the same breath. After all, we experience the energy of “beginner” many times over in life: each birth, each ending, each transformation.

Grief as Soul Work

For every birth and new beginning, there is also an ending. Each passing autumn reminds us that winter and spring will follow. When I consider the work of grief, I approach it from the vantage point of the soul.

Art therapy, to me, is as much a soulful celebration of life as it is an honouring of grief. Moving through life often means holding hands with both.

“Grief offers a wild alchemy that transmutes suffering into fertile ground. We are made real and tangible by the experience of sorrow, adding substance and weight to our world. We are stripped of excess and revealed as human in our times of grief.”— Weller, 2025

Recently, I completed professional training to become a certified grief-informed practitioner. As a professional art therapist, I see the sacred work of grief as inseparable from the work of healing. I do think of healing as "work", because it requires a commitment, and energy to keep showing up.

The Need for Communal Grieving

I am tenderly aware that our world needs more community spaces where grief can be held, witnessed, and honoured. As human beings, we are relational creatures, deeply interconnected with the greater web of life.

Many today feel untethered—disconnected from ancestral wisdoms and communal rituals of mourning. As Francis Weller (psychotherapist, writer, soul activist) reminds us, there is no separation between love and loss; they are forever entwined (Weller, 2025).

Grief work encompasses far more than experiences of death—it also includes the many non-death losses that shape our lives in profound ways. These may include; separation/divorce, infidelity, adoption, relocation, loss of culture/language or identity, military deployment or retirement, changes in friendship/peer group, employment/unemployment, or education, family or personal illness, intergenerational trauma, substance use, natural disasters, mental illness, experiences of trauma, abuse, or neglect, newcomer experiences, financial strain, housing instability, or the loss of hopes and dreams, and so much more. Each of these experiences can touch us deeply, altering how we see ourselves and the world around us. Throughout my fifty-one years, I have known both death and non-death losses—most significantly, the loss of a marriage and the loss of health. These experiences became markers of before and after, shaping and redefining me through the gravity of grief.

We all experience loss, yet rarely do we slow down to process, share, or acknowledge the multitude of ways we grieve.

Grief is not a linear journey, and we all experience it differently.

To move through grief—to allow it to reshape us—is to celebrate the wholeness of life in all its complexity. If we have the capacity to love, we also have the capacity to grieve. And when grief is supported in community, healing becomes possible.

An Invitation

If you are seeking a space to be witnessed in your journey of living, learning, unlearning, and loving, it would be an honour to walk beside you—to share in the sacred work of grief and the art of being.

Copley, L. (2024). 12 Jungian archetypes: The foundation of personality. https://positivepsychology.com/jungian-archetypes/

Weller, F. (2025). The wild edge of sorrow: The sacred work of grief. https://www.francisweller.net/the-wild-edge-of-sorrow-the-sacred-work-of-grief.html