Many people find the trickster intriguing.
The trickster character appears in the narratives of many Native people throughout North America as well as in much of the rest of the world. Even in our own culture people catch glimmers of the trickster in characters like Br'er Rabbit, Wily Coyote, and Bugs Bunny.
It's difficult to pin down the trickster to any fixed set of characteristics or given forms.
Part of his/her attraction is defiance of classification and analysis. Sometimes the trickster appears as human, sometimes as animal.
The most popular animal forms trickster takes are coyote, raven, and hare.
The "trickster" plays tricks and is the victim of tricks. The trickery of such stories extends as well to symbolic play regarding cultural forms, rules, and worldview.
The "trickster" plays tricks and is the victim of tricks. The trickery of such stories extends as well to symbolic play regarding cultural forms, rules, and worldview.
The Soul Trickster exists “betwixt and between.” life and death; angels, ghosts, inter-dimensional beings and UFOs all are between the heavens and the earth, so to speak. This is why we have shamans, mediums, and priests; they are considered to be the mediators between this world and the next.
In ancient Greek stories Hermes is also the Trickster (Tarot) or a thief, inventor, con-artist, magician but more importantly...an escort of the spirits to the underworld. Hermes is often symbolized as a pile of stones placed at a crossroads.
Hermes crossed our worlds...between the underworld, and our earthly world. His representation is – a guardian of ALL boundaries. I believe Hermes is placed as a "marker" of an enclosed space....like as with a Director of a Play.
Now, here is the question....
"Why would you take direction from a "con-artist" standing at a crossroads"?
"Why would you take direction from a "con-artist" standing at a crossroads"?
Tarot represents Hermes by the number 2 of the major arcana. The number 2 stands for division or boundary making which would indicate to me "creativity". Therefore I believe that Hermes, as the Magician, is "Director" of the "flow of energy"...by making "some thing" from "no thing"....thus bringing Order out of Chaos, and Choas out of Order....this "con artist" is always upsetting the established order of things. So Hermes is a "creator" of confusion as he crosses from the world of "Order" to the world of "Chaos", and visa versa and he crosses back.
Tarot views the Trickster as the clever fool or magician and as the principal of creation. We as a People at one time or another engage the Trickster in one form or another, and it makes sense that we do this during a crisis, or during creation/creativity.
The Trickster plays a role in all our lives, as a Nation(s) and as a People. We fail to look at the truth and instead we hold on even tighter to a belief that no longer serves humanity.
The Emperor's New Clothes
The Soul Trickster –understandably so, appears whenever there is self-deception, whenever we deliberately hide the truth from ourselves, and when pride or arrogance sucks the energy or life force......of a family, a nation –a planet. The sTrickster is with you every step you take, and will manifest with every false word....and trying to delude yourself, only makes it worst.
It's like giving an invitation.
Take the perspective of science, and look at Physics, which constantly deals with order coming from chaos.
It's like giving an invitation.
Take the perspective of science, and look at Physics, which constantly deals with order coming from chaos.
"As far as the laws of mathematics refre to reality, they are not certain; and so far as they are certain; they do not refer to reality." – Albert Einstein
"The fool who knows he is a fool is that much wiser, The fool who thinks he is wise, is a fool indeed." - Dhammapada – The Sayings of the Buddha
"If we only knew what Illusion is, we would then know the opposite: what Truth is. This Truth would liberate us from slavery."– Boris Mouravieff - Gnosis, Book One
The power to hold a people in illusion through FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real) can be overthrown by a child who expressed his view that the Emperor wasn't wearing any clothes.
A Breath of Coyote
Here is a Modern Version of a Trickster Tale which I think represents how the trickster lives on in today's world:
Ogimakwe tells a story involving the traditional coyote character as a trickster (coyote often shows up as a trickster in Native American stories).
Trickster tales have different functions in various societies. Certainly the stories are told because they are funny and entertaining; but they are also in some sense sacred. Radin reports that the reaction to trickster stories "is prevailingly one of laughter tempered by awe".
The Tricksters function is usually in some sort of "sacred context". Tricksters need the more serious gods to bounce off from and create their mischief.
However, the so called "serious chief gods" can share some of the trickster's traits: for example, Zeus is both an philanderer and a shape-shifter–he changed into a swan in order to make love to Leda and into a shower of gold in order to impregnate Danae. Zeus is also known for his ability to trick and outwit his rivals as in the story of Kronos and Metis.
Although trickster's actions and personality may seem ridiculous or extreme, some scholars have noted that he/she serves an important purpose in traditional and contemporary narratives. Trickster may work as a kind of outlet for strong emotions or actions in which humans cannot indulge. These actions are at the margins of social morality and normal behavior, so humans can express and feel things through the trickster that would be unsafe to express or experience outside of stories.
In this sense the trickster is a kind of "escape valve" for a society.
No figure in literature, oral or written, baffles us quite as much as trickster.
He is positively identified with creative powers, often bringing such defining features of culture as fire or basic food, and yet he constantly behaves in the most antisocial manner we can imagine. Although we laugh at him for his troubles and his foolishness and are embarrassed by his promiscuity, his creative cleverness amazes us and keeps alive the possibility of transcending the social restrictions we regularly encounter.
In the majority of his encounters with men, he violates rules or boundaries, thereby necessitating escapeand forcing himself to again wander aimlessly.
The sum total of these nineteen episodes of rejection, reversal, and transformation, of ahistorical, abiological, and asocial acts is a developmental process. This process of increasing biological, psychic, and social awareness to the point where he returns to society and appears as an almost thoroughly socialized individual and, further, to a realization of his role and identity as culture-hero; an individual at odds with society, the seeming antistructure; a "creative negation" who introduces death and with it all possibilities to the world.
Tricksters thus are a cut-above the common thief and liar; while they might appear to be foolish or clownish they certainly are not bereft of intelligence. This is because the Soul Trickster is of two minds, at home in a neutral state of things, in contrast to criminals who merely violate previously decided rules.
Here is a Modern Version of a Trickster Tale which I think represents how the trickster lives on in today's world:
Ogimakwe tells a story involving the traditional coyote character as a trickster (coyote often shows up as a trickster in Native American stories).
This little boy was out wandering around.
And he was
he heard the sound of the whippoorwill
the song of the whippoorwill
which was really beautiful.
So, he was out wandering around looking for the whippoorwill.
And he walked on this particular path,
And he came along coyote [pronounced kye oh= tay]
who also had a very nice song
And coyote said to the little boy
Why are you following me? [in a whispered voice]
And the little boys says,
Well, I've been listening to,
all day, you know, evening,
to the sound of the whippoorwill
And I want to find out where he's at.
And coyote says,
A Don't you like my songs?
I sing too.
And he reared his head back and howled out of tune
The little boy covered his ears and he said
AWell that nice, but [laughing]
I would really like to go find and listen to the sound of the whippoorwill
So, Did you hear this before?
Mary: No.The Trickster is at one and the same time creator and destroyer, giver and negator, he who dupes others, and who is always duped himself. He wills nothing consciously. At all times he is constrained to behave as he does from impulses over which he has no control. He knows neither good nor evil yet he is responsible for both. He possesses no values, moral or social, is at the mercy of his passions and appetites, yet through his actions all values come into being.
Ogimakwe: Oh.
Trickster tales have different functions in various societies. Certainly the stories are told because they are funny and entertaining; but they are also in some sense sacred. Radin reports that the reaction to trickster stories "is prevailingly one of laughter tempered by awe".
The Tricksters function is usually in some sort of "sacred context". Tricksters need the more serious gods to bounce off from and create their mischief.
Although trickster's actions and personality may seem ridiculous or extreme, some scholars have noted that he/she serves an important purpose in traditional and contemporary narratives. Trickster may work as a kind of outlet for strong emotions or actions in which humans cannot indulge. These actions are at the margins of social morality and normal behavior, so humans can express and feel things through the trickster that would be unsafe to express or experience outside of stories.
In this sense the trickster is a kind of "escape valve" for a society.
No figure in literature, oral or written, baffles us quite as much as trickster.
He is positively identified with creative powers, often bringing such defining features of culture as fire or basic food, and yet he constantly behaves in the most antisocial manner we can imagine. Although we laugh at him for his troubles and his foolishness and are embarrassed by his promiscuity, his creative cleverness amazes us and keeps alive the possibility of transcending the social restrictions we regularly encounter.
In the majority of his encounters with men, he violates rules or boundaries, thereby necessitating escapeand forcing himself to again wander aimlessly.
The sum total of these nineteen episodes of rejection, reversal, and transformation, of ahistorical, abiological, and asocial acts is a developmental process. This process of increasing biological, psychic, and social awareness to the point where he returns to society and appears as an almost thoroughly socialized individual and, further, to a realization of his role and identity as culture-hero; an individual at odds with society, the seeming antistructure; a "creative negation" who introduces death and with it all possibilities to the world.
In spite of his/her flaws, the trickster often represents the introduction of good things to society. He/she might bring to the culture (wittingly or unwittingly) important knowledge, food, medicine, customs (like marriage), clothing, and other good things, often in spite of his/her intentions.
Trickster is also very humorous, and much of this humor stems from the fact that he/she so often does things that are apparently wrong or acts in obviously stupid or foolish ways; people laugh at and with his/her stupid or silly antics.
Tricksters are known for telling great lies that contain a good deal of truth, but to understand their craft we must get past easy opposites that would differentiate falsity from veracity in the simple sense of contradicting truth. For what the trickster accomplishes in a “lie” is the subtle disruption of boundary markers erected to mark off the line between what passes as reason and fantasy. Rather than simply transgressing truth boundaries trickster artists call into question “assumptions about how the world is divided up” and skillfully remake “truth” on their own flexible terms.
Take the confidence man for instance, the covert American “reborn trickster” hero who gains the trust of others only to con them.
Tricksters are known for telling great lies that contain a good deal of truth, but to understand their craft we must get past easy opposites that would differentiate falsity from veracity in the simple sense of contradicting truth. For what the trickster accomplishes in a “lie” is the subtle disruption of boundary markers erected to mark off the line between what passes as reason and fantasy. Rather than simply transgressing truth boundaries trickster artists call into question “assumptions about how the world is divided up” and skillfully remake “truth” on their own flexible terms.
Take the confidence man for instance, the covert American “reborn trickster” hero who gains the trust of others only to con them.
This embodies things that are actually true about America but are not openly declared; to the degree to which capitalism lets us steal from our neighbors, or the degree to which institutions like the stock market require the same kind of confidence that criminal con men need.
Tricksters thus are a cut-above the common thief and liar; while they might appear to be foolish or clownish they certainly are not bereft of intelligence. This is because the Soul Trickster is of two minds, at home in a neutral state of things, in contrast to criminals who merely violate previously decided rules.
As a result of challenging culturally biased assumptions surrounding modern binaries and patriarchal mechanisms of sacrifice, for example, tricksters extricate themselves and others from some cultural traps, shed a crack of light on the ambivalent limbo of reality and create a few alternatives.
Why does reality, during these times, want a "con-artist" to be your guide?
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