Thumos is the inner fire to drive us to do what is right and it frees us from massa confusa which is the tangled inner chaos that keeps us paralyzed and oblivous to our inner conflicts. The darkness must be burned in order for new life to emerge, for out of the darkets depths arise the brightest light.

Who in this mortal life would see
The light that is beyond all light
Beholds it best by faring forth
Into the darkness of the Night
— Angelus Silesius, The Cherubinic Wanderer

A phoenix is reborn through fire. From the harshest reality, from senseless situations, from the deepest pain, resurrection is born. We know that life always find a way though every situation. The alchemical maxim "in filth it will be found" for it is in the most neglected places the philosphers stone lies hidden. What you need most is found where you least want to look. The fool pushes the psyche away from one-sidedness and towards a pshyic wholeness, an organic response to a communities pshychological needs. To poke at ones-self and social structures due to the pursuit of intellect, power, status while neglecting the humble, daily, earthly side of life.

To be too conscious is an illness
a real thorough-going illness
— Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

Ignorance is bliss. One becomes lost within the mind, ruminating on topics through excessive introspection which paralyses action and breeds self-loathing. However, to be grounded in reality is to be human. The word human comes from the Latin "humus", which means earth. To be human is to be humble and down-to-earth, it is a rich source of nourshiment which heals you. To be stuck within your massa confusa, a world of imagination that can be mistaken for reality and to be grounded within reality are two sides of the same coin that feed off of one another.

Harsh truths, mortality and folly.