Trickster Training

Greetings all,

Last day of of the first month of the year.  I don't know about you but it has been a challenging one here.  Between the weather, family emergencies and trying to manage my own energies I have not been the most mellow about 2014 so far.  As I move into my own power more I am firmly convinced I had no idea what it meant to be what I am.

Perhaps I should explain.  I'm a trickster.  It's part of my energy.  Now when I say this people will immediately start thinking of the shady archetype of the con man or the one who pulls the wool over everyone's eyes to get his way.  I confess I thought this was what the trickster was all about myself.  I grew up watching Bugs Bunny (a kind of trickster).  I expect tricksters to be charming, plucky, witty, and unafraid of messing with the social order.  Someone who is ready to balk at authority and doesn't care whose feathers they ruffle.

If you know me personally you could see how the above description creates a very sharp divide in my psyche.  I'm not comfortable with dishonesty.  Not that I am above a little colorful interpretation of the truth in specific circumstances, but outright lies are a burden.  I am not consistently witty.  (Those comebacks don't occur to me until hours later).  I would never want to con anyone (well okay there is a burning desire to pull a caper on a few of the truly cruel out in the world), and I am certainly no brave clown tilting against the authorities of the world.  I'm not even all that clever, in fact a guide once told me to give up trying to be clever or witty at all.  So you might ask well what kind of trickster are you?

I honestly don't know.  I just know I am one.  (Ask around some people have seen me do it I swear).  What I am beginning to realize after a series of painful reminders about "being" tricksy.  Which is not the same as being a trickster is that my idea of what a trickster is seems to have been an ego based idea of one.  What I have been trying to find is the way to be the trickster within me and keep the energy of integrity and compassion at the same time.  I can hear spirits saying, "He doesn't ask for much does he?"

Traditionally the trickster in stories was a figure (man, woman, faery, deity, or animal spirit) who played tricks or disobeyed the normal rules and conventional behavior.  Usually this was to shake people up a bit, to help those that were disenfranchised, to punish the wicked, or to help people to see the world or their situation in a new way.  The trickster formed a vital part of any society making sure that those with power didn't take themselves too seriously.  Also they just didn't behave the same as everyone else.  They couldn't for whatever reason it wasn't in their nature, and because of this they saw the world differently.  They were in a way outside observers.  In many traditional societies they became spirit workers, medicine carriers, magicians, holy men(and women), alchemists, and hermits.  Some were just outright off their rockers and yet on occasion they would dispense a very lucid and brilliant analysis of a situation.

So I come from a long proud line of crazy folk.  I am odd there is no hiding that.  I am finding the more I delve into this archetype the less it is about me doing anything.  It is more just about me being me and loving what I love, and being different.  Every trickster shares the trait of seeing the world differently from those around us.  Some are kind some are not.  We are catalysts for change.  I once solved a problem by screwing it up so bad that professional help had to be summoned.  (I might add that the girl finally got her internet router to work properly  only after I royally messed it up…your welcome).    I do wish I had the confidence and pluck of Coyote or Crow.  I have to resign myself to knowing that sometimes I'll know the exact right thing to say or do to snap someone out of their foul mood.  Sometimes the universe will use me as its meat puppet in a reading to snatch the blinders off a client's eyes.  If I really look at it my work with shifting and clearing is really a trickster's game, altering reality with magic.  Magic is the province of our kind, the rest of the world sees reality as simply being what it is, we see it as a work in progress.

So what about you?  Are you a trickster?  What does it mean to you if you are?  If you are not what archetype do you identify with?  Are you trying to embody an ego narrative rather than the spirit of that archetype?  Are you trying to fit yourself into a role rather than letting that role fit itself to you?  Do you even think about what you are and what you contribute to your community?  Can you even trust anything I've said after all I am a trickster?

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle

p.s.  The answer to the last question on whether you can trust me is a quote from River Song (one of my favorite tricksters)  "If you like, but where's the fun in that."