If you are coming to CUUPS on July 12th, don't read any farther!
Some of the following are my own words/thoughts and some are from other sources. Please see the bottom for references!
Hi everyone. Most nights, I am Priestess of the Sisterhood of Ahel Adom, but tonight, I am Trickster-friend, Mortal Crow. There are many different opinions on this topic and what I am presenting tonight is just my personal opinion and I hope you all, at the very least, enjoy my stories.
It's been 10 years that I have been coming to CUUPS. It has also been 15 years since I became a pagan. Or rather it was 15 years ago that I discovered the name for what I had always been.
But the fact is that I may never have given religion (any religion) a second thought if it were not for a spirit friend that I've had from the age of 13. I do not usually talk about him, because, as you may have guessed, he is a trickster.
I do not talk about him often because Tricksters have a bad rep, and may people judge those of us who have a soft spot for them rather negatively. It is of course amusing to me and I take no offense.
I mentioned how long many of you have known me, is that most of you will know me at least well enough to see that I am not a person who plays tricks on others, nor am I malicious nor a troublemaker. I'm a pretty calm, responsible, loyal and honorable person. But Trickster has helped me see the humor in all things and tempers my need for seriousness and order.
Have you ever met a Trickster?
If you ever pulled a practical joke, or
The fact is that some of us just don't think in straight lines or easy to find paths. Our brain hemispheres are reversed, we lay outside the norms, we do not fit, we buck boundaries, and we argue with rules. Some of us are just cantankerous, some of us are just driven by other times and other voices. We all have been touched by Trickster.
So what exactly IS a Trickster?
Tricksters are hard to define into a box because their very nature is defies classification and analysis.
A trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. Animals associated with Trickster are hares, coyotes and ravens and crows. Symbols associated with him include keys, clocks, masks, and infinity. Frequently the Trickster figure exhibits gender and form variability, and changing gender roles.
Many people view things from the duality of Good and Evil. I do not. I see the duality instead as Order and Chaos. An extreme of either one of these is not a good thing. Too much Order and we lose our freedom and will. Too much Chaos and we lose our security and necessary structures. One function of the Trickster is maintaining this balance.
Have you ever met a Trickster?
If you ever pulled a practical joke, or
if you have ever been fooled,
if you are addicted to puns, or
if you delight in confusion,
if you feel constrained by boundaries, or
if sometimes you just want to do your way
if you are atuned to illusions and games, or
or think about cheating,
if you have gotten yourself in trouble, or
if ever wanted to burst somebody's bubble,
if you're too clever for your own good, or
if you're too stupid to live,
Then there is a good chance that you already have met Trickster.
The fact is that some of us just don't think in straight lines or easy to find paths. Our brain hemispheres are reversed, we lay outside the norms, we do not fit, we buck boundaries, and we argue with rules. Some of us are just cantankerous, some of us are just driven by other times and other voices. We all have been touched by Trickster.
So what exactly IS a Trickster?
Tricksters are hard to define into a box because their very nature is defies classification and analysis.
A trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. Animals associated with Trickster are hares, coyotes and ravens and crows. Symbols associated with him include keys, clocks, masks, and infinity. Frequently the Trickster figure exhibits gender and form variability, and changing gender roles.
Many people view things from the duality of Good and Evil. I do not. I see the duality instead as Order and Chaos. An extreme of either one of these is not a good thing. Too much Order and we lose our freedom and will. Too much Chaos and we lose our security and necessary structures. One function of the Trickster is maintaining this balance.
Another function is as a rebel who refuses to confirm to societal expectations. There are times when we should challenge authority, or question rules or point out flaws in our own carefully constructed realities. It is this spirit that gave us America out from under British rule, Women's Liberation and LGBT rights and the right for us to worship the old gods.
He exists to question, and to cause us to question and not accept things blindly. He appears when a way of thinking that has become outmoded needs to be torn down and built anew. He is the Destroyer of Worlds and at the same time, the savior of us all.
Yet another function that can be given to Trickster is as Provocateur.
The Nigerian trickster God was Edshu, who liked to provoke people in order to spark debate between the people. He was recognizable by the hat he wore that was red on one side and blue on the other. The purpose of this hat was to instantly provoke arguments between those on either side of him on the issue of what color his hat actually was. This may sound like Edshu was simply an agitator without a cause, but the point of the hat argument was to get people to understand that even the most simple and apparently undebatable topics can have two perfectly valid perspectives.
That description of Edshu might make you think of the term amoral. It is true that most of the trickster gods were amoral as well as non-conformist. It is important to remember that in its strictest definition, amoral means there is absence of all moral sensibilities; things are neither moral nor immoral. In other words, when the trickster deities engaged in their own particular acts of anarchy it was not to teach a morality, but merely to get mortals to engage in discourse over what constitutes morality and immorality. With this in mind, it should come as little surprise to discover that many trickster gods have a duality that often gets expressed in the trickster god being viewed both as hero and as villain.
In some stories, he is the creator of humanity or gift-giver to humanity. Gifts given usual include such things as fire, useful tools, harvesting and invention.
Trickster stories still have power: the power to bring us to laughter, the power to baffle us, the power to make us wonder and think and, like Trickster, to just keep going on.
I have a few stories that I would like to share. Three from this side of the ocean, and three from the other side.
Resources:
I have a deep affinity for crows. A few years ago, when we lived at our old apartment, I made a comment to my hubs that I wish we'd see more crows, and the next day our bird feeder was crowded with them (a few too many, but I felt like I'd called them somehow). Since we've moved to our new place, I've begun to see lots of them in our yard; they call when they fly over me and I've read that they actually do have the capacity to recognize us if they see us often. I whisper hello and smile.
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