The Trickster

[Fred Steeves]

I think I rather like the idea of the mythological Trickster, as things need a little shaking up (especially with humor) every now and then. Here are some examples, what do you think? Is the Trickster a villain, a hero, or both?


The Trickster is the annoying precocious kid who always asks questions. The Trickster is also the annoying kid who grows up to be a scientist, because the Trickster never stops asking those pesky questions.


The mythological Trickster is the greatest of heroes. Why? Because while the Trickster is often a ****-stirrer, the Trickster serves a purpose.


The Trickster will ask you to reconsider everything you believe in and the world you live in and the values you live by.


The Trickster will make you uncomfortable.


The Trickster shoots your ego full of holes.



The Trickster starts revolutions.



The Trickster high-fives with the Buddha because he's grokked this illusion
thing.
http://lagopus.livejournal.com/80466.html

[Calz]

http://fulcrumpublishing.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/trickster-21.jpg

[Freed Fox]

In my opinion the Trickster is a teacher, often acting as a mirror upon which the tricked can reflect.

[spiritguide]

As the ancesters would say " sly as a fox". Allows one to re-evaluate their thoughts through puzzles. Confront the illusions piece by piece they prompt.

[william r sanford72]

i often feel it is ones duty to get others to crack a smile.thumbs up for the trickster!!

[heyokah]

****

Many tribal traditions have Trickster Teachers who dress in costume for Ceremony and wear regular clothing in their daily life.


http://i43.tinypic.com/2s0xug6.jpg

The Plains Indians called their Divine Trickster, Heyokah. The Hopi and Pueblo called him or her Koshari.

****

The Heyokah is a contrary clown who holds total wisdom and teaches the People through laughter and opposites.
This Sacred Trickster is one who makes you wonder if what they are saying, or doing is actually correct, thereby making you think and figure it out for yourself.
When people are made to think on their own, the wobbly beliefs that have been a rubber crutch for them in the past are tested.
If the rubber crutch gives way and they end up on the ground on their rump, a lesson was learned.
If they stop and think, test out a teaching for themselves and it stands in good stead, the wobbly belief becomes a Knowing System for their lives.

Read further:
http://www.planetdeb.net/spirit/heyokah.htm

[heyokah]

http://fulcrumpublishing.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/trickster-21.jpg

Thanks Calz for that beautiful totem picture.

Indeed in Native American tradition, coyote, like raven and crow are tricksters as well.
Coyote is the Divine Fool, the practical joker and the chaos aspect of all creation.

Coyote medicine is Heyoka, the shamans and teachers who act in sometimes truly bizarre though often humorous ways in order to get a message or point across.

For those who carry this medicine, sometimes it feels as though something "takes over" and they suddenly find that they are saying and doing things that cause more than a few raised eyebrows. Believe me.... I know, LOL
Yet, this is not meant to imply that a Heyoka can say or do what ever they feel and use this medicine as an excuse for bad behaviour.

There are strict, spiritual rules and guidelines that a Heyoka must follow if what they have to offer is going to bring peace and healing instead of hurt feelings and problems for others.


Hence, the explanation of my handle :)

[Fred Steeves]

Coyote medicine is Heyoka, the shamans and teachers who act in sometimes truly bizarre though often humorous ways in order to get a message or point across.


Very cool! That explains perfectly your introduction of Mr. Trololo to Avalon many moons ago, at the height of a very rancorous thread when someone had just left in a huff. Bravo on that one!

oavMtUWDBTM

[Mike]

cool thread Fred.

Bill Maher, trickster extraordinaire:

OOUdeJqpt8s

[CD7]

an interesting thread in tht positive associations are not usually used to describe the "trickstar" None tht Ive heard anyway... kind of reminds me of a "yoda" type master, lol

[johnf]

Loki

George Carlin.

Darn, couldn't find a clip for Hey Fadda If God is all powerfull, can he make a rock so big he can't move it?
Huh Fadda can he?

Perhaps the trickster is anyone who creates a slightly less powerfull version of themselves that can't do stuff, but is still behind that temporary self chuckling.

jf

[onawah]

Two of my favorite Heyokas:
cvi4R9ntk6I
U7FTF4Oz4dI
I have a lot of Coyote in me too.
It can be a slippery slope, but I like the fact that in the Tarot, the number for the Fool is zero, and that gives the divine Fool a certain unique freedom to venture where no one else dares to go, take crazy risks and still land on his feet.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

the trickster ensures that those he encounters must exercise their full awareness.
you cannot remain asleep and contend with the trickster.

he forces the sleeping to wake and the awakened to sleep.

he is the light that exposes falseness and the force that entices true nature to appear short of violence.
he is the tester of intellectual reality and the enforcer of physical subjectivity.

he restores us to our natural form and reminds us that we are both fragile and responsible as human beings.
his tricks may cause hurt but they only work if we allow them to.

laughter is the best medicine :)



p.s. I have this book, "Trickster, Magician, and Grieving Man" that has some really good stories about this.

[johnf]

Loki

George Carlin.

Darn, couldn't find a clip for Hey Fadda If God is all powerfull, can he make a rock so big he can't move it?
Huh Fadda can he?

Perhaps the trickster is anyone who creates a slightly less powerfull version of themselves that can't do stuff, but is still behind that temporary self chuckling.

jf

I can't help but feel that this JF fellow left something out here.
It is that this still all powerfull god is also pointing out that we are all still behind ourselves laughing, and thus makes the universe less dense till someone takes them selves seriously agin.

Take that JF!


jf

[WhiteFeather]

Fred I wish to Enter That Trickster himself Richard Simmons to the inquiry. After all you.... added Trololo. Whats right is right. And its total mile high madness...., if you will. :o


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iaTEgoezNQ

[nomadguy]

One of my favorite points of view on the subject of the role of the trickster... or 'joker'
xtHPUThgdyI

[johnf]

Alas where is the court jester today?

Not in the courts of the USA.

jf

[heyokah]

Alas where is the court jester today?

Not in the courts of the USA.

jf

That's because .........


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuJ3bN20dBE

[music]

Haha, this was the subject of my very first post (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?32741-Are-you-a-Trickster)on Avalon: Are you a Trickster?


I have found the energy of the Trickster archetype to be very relevant and active within me lately.

The Trickster appears in all traditions, and is often associated with manipulation, deceit, and, well, trickery.

But what of the positive aspects of the Trickster?

The Trickster defies convention, is a lateral and creative thinker, challenges morally depauperate authority, confounds to enlighten, mediates between heaven and earth. Tricks that may seem cruel when veiwed in isolation become kindness when veiwed from the higher perspective. The positive Trickster never lies nor deceives, but rather, sows seeds of alternate possibility.

The difference between the negative Trickster and the positive Trickster lies in the intent. The negative is self-serving, the positive serves all.

We all know of the Trickster archetypes in Native or other traditions, but the large monotheistic religions also contain the Trickster.

Al Khadr (Khadir) appears in the Qu'ran as the intermediary between Allah and humanity. He is known as "the Green Man", or "the Verdant One.", and in Islam is considered either a prophet, or a "wadi" (one who is close to the Divine). The Sufis see him as immortal, or the “hidden” man, which enhances his connection to the divine because the Qu’ran is quite emphatic that every soul (man/woman) will taste of death. He is often to be found bringing hardship and confusion to people, but the end result is to bring these souls closer to God – to facilitate the transition from the corporeal to the spirit. Al Khadr is the lush green of Love.

The colour of the heart chakra is green, and like the Trickster, the heart mediates between humanity and divinity. We can see the lower three charkas (root, sacral, solar plexus) as being analogous to the three dimensions of physical reality, while the throat, third eye and crown relate to the higher dimensions. In the Hindu and Sikh traditions, the throat chakra is the gateway to time and space, and is our starting point for accessing the higher dimensions. Thus our heart mediates within our bodies between 3D and the higher dimensions.

What of the heart? We all know the difference between the heart that is closed and lost, and the heart that is open and in touch with the divine. Are these not analogous to the negative and positive Trickster respectively? The closed heart serves itself only, the open heart serves all. There are, however, times when the open heart must confound to enlighten, appear cruel to be kind, for example, when providing boundaries and instruction to children. The more advanced the heart, the more obtuse its actions may seem, but when we view the actions of the spiritually advanced heart from the higher perspective, we find that all is well.

The positive Trickster is rooted in the heart, and its driver in all things is Love. It comes as no surprise then, that the greatest bearer of Love in Western society – Jesus – is also an expression of the Trickster archetype. Less clear to see is that Judas is also an expression of the positive Trickster. The betrayal of Jesus by Judas was pre-ordained, and was essential for the enactment of the Passion. Confound to enlighten, cruel to be kind, if there was true awareness within Christianity, Judas would have been beatified long ago. St Judas played his role in the game, and sometimes our roles cast us as villains while we work for the cause of Love.

[sirdipswitch]

the trickster ensures that those he encounters must exercise their full awareness.
you cannot remain asleep and contend with the trickster.

he forces the sleeping to wake and the awakened to sleep.

he is the light that exposes falseness and the force that entices true nature to appear short of violence.
he is the tester of intellectual reality and the enforcer of physical subjectivity.

he restores us to our natural form and reminds us that we are both fragile and responsible as human beings.
his tricks may cause hurt but they only work if we allow them to.

laughter is the best medicine :)



p.s. I have this book, "Trickster, Magician, and Grieving Man" that has some really good stories about this.





yep!!! cccccccccccccccccccccccccc. :wizard:

[music]

an interesting thread in tht positive associations are not usually used to describe the "trickstar" None tht Ive heard anyway... kind of reminds me of a "yoda" type master, lol

See my reply above (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?60250-The-Trickster&p=690590&viewfull=1#post690590):) Jesus and Al Khadr are two well known positive Tricksters. The Trickster can be positive and negative, it all depends on the individual state of spiritual evolution, and our agenda. When we work from love to confound expectations, we exemplify the positive Trickster.

[music]

I would say from experience, that the problem with exemplifying the Trickster archetype is that, more often than not, people have no sense of humour when their assumptions are put to the lens. If we can't laugh at ourselves, then we are in a very sorry state, and when the ego is confronted by the Trickster, often crucifixion is the seemingly logical outcome of mentation.

[Wind]

I find this to be interesting...



The 12 Common Archetypes

The term "archetype" has its origins in ancient Greek. The root words are archein, which means "original or old"; and typos, which means "pattern, model or type". The combined meaning is an "original pattern" of which all other similar persons, objects, or concepts are derived, copied, modeled, or emulated.

The psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung, used the concept of archetype in his theory of the human psyche. He believed that universal, mythic characters—archetypes—reside within the collective unconscious of people the world over. Archetypes represent fundamental human motifs of our experience as we evolved; consequentially, they evoke deep emotions.

Although there are many different archetypes, Jung defined twelve primary types that symbolize basic human motivations. Each type has its own set of values, meanings and personality traits. Also, the twelve types are divided into three sets of four, namely Ego, Soul and Self. The types in each set share a common driving source, for example types within the Ego set are driven to fulfill ego-defined agendas.

Most, if not all, people have several archetypes at play in their personality construct; however, one archetype tends to dominate the personality in general. It can be helpful to know which archetypes are at play in oneself and others, especially loved ones, friends and co-workers, in order to gain personal insight into behaviors and motivations.

The Self Types

9. The Jester

Motto: You only live once
Core desire: to live in the moment with full enjoyment
Goal: to have a great time and lighten up the world
Greatest fear: being bored or boring others
Strategy: play, make jokes, be funny
Weakness: frivolity, wasting time
Talent: joy
The Jester is also known as: The fool, trickster, joker, practical joker or comedian.

http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html

[Chester]

I find the archetypes of the Fool and the Trickster as two distinctly different manifestations.

I guess I need to explain -

the Fool is the empty cup.

the Trickster is the overflowing cup.

Great thread, Fred

Great responses, The Greatest Online Community in the Multi-Verse!

[music]

I find the archetypes of the Fool and the Trickster as two distinctly different manifestations.

I guess I need to explain -

the Fool is the empty cup.

the Trickster is the overflowing cup.

Great thread, Fred

Great responses, The Greatest Online Community in the Multi-Verse!

I get you completely, and to the cup motif I will add the paradox of the winner's cup.

The winner's cup is an empty vessel which is only filled by our actions within the game. If we have won the day by deception, or by cruelty, or by circumventing common decency, then the winner's cup is not filled with glory, it is filled with our shame.

So, when we play outside of love, though it may appear that we have won, in fact we have lost more than we know.

This is one message of the Trickster.

I will add, that in my opinion, the "Jester" is merely a part of the negative subset of the Trickster. The Jester is generally self-serving - a physically weak individual who uses their wiles within a violent society to gain ends that cannot be met by them by force of arms. The pure, positive Trickster, on the other hand, is beyond human power play, and yes, will on occasion lay themselves down for the slaughter if that is what is required for the greater common good.

[CdnSirian]

Wonderful thread Fred and thanks all above. I cannot add anything to wisdom and info above but I will share the personal reflection it brought to me. Many years ago in a very dark moment I looked at my entire life as a goddamn dirty trick. Right after that moment I sensed the "it's all a flick of the wrist" perception. Of how the soul completely understands the trick involved when entering physicality. The Trickster can certainly seem to be evil, at best capricious.

Yet if the intent is to wake up in the physical, it is always there to yank our chain until we get it. I will read this all again later...great stuff.

[Fred Steeves]

Does the Trickster have to be an animal or a person? Upon further contemplation of some examples from the OP listed below, plus some others in this thread, it occurs to me that phenomenon can and do play the role of Trickster as well. Take death for example, whether our own or someone very close to us. What other event in our lives is more crushing, sacred, and life altering? Yet because of all that and more, it has a way of stopping us dead in our tracks, demanding another re-assessment of things.

It can truly create the best of times and the worst of times, just like the Trickster.



The mythological Trickster is the greatest of heroes. Why? Because while the Trickster is often a ****-stirrer, the Trickster serves a purpose.


The Trickster will ask you to reconsider everything you believe in and the world you live in and the values you live by.


The Trickster will make you uncomfortable.


The Trickster shoots your ego full of holes.



The Trickster starts revolutions.



The Trickster high-fives with the Buddha because he's grokked this illusion
thing.

[onawah]

Crow, like Coyote, can be a Trickster.

Among many Native American tribes, especially among the plains and southwestern groups, the crow is a trickster figure, similar in many ways to the coyote.If you have selected the crow as your totem animal--or if the crow has selected you--you may consider yourself to be something of a shape-shifter, gifted at wearing many faces. Be cautious of becoming too manipulative of others and impinging upon the free will of those who may be a bit gullible and easily led.
(You can read more about Crow Medicine here:
http://spiritlodge.yuku.com/topic/973/t/Crow-Medicine.html#.UcM4ulvrzTo )

For your entertainment and (hopefully) edification:
The following is a recent post I made into the Avalon Group I started, Through the Looking Glass, which is based on Coyote wisdom, using laughter as the best medicine. (It rambles a bit--we don't have a lot of rules in Looking Glass Land-- but if it makes you laugh, the primary goal has been met.It starts with some sad Cat Medicine...)

PKffm2uI4dk


Dear Diary,
I have moved out of my bedroom, relinquishing it to my cat Samara, and am sleeping on the living room floor now.
It's the only way I will ever get any uninterrupted sleep, as Samara's nocturnal activities were constantly waking me in the middle of the night.
I don't really mind. It's easier for me to move than it is to find another spot in my place that will meet all her requirements.
It took some concerted effort to get everything all arranged to her liking in the first place!

However, a prediction by my friend Sunshine, a fifth generation Apache medicine woman, has since come true.
When I told her about all the crows who nest in the woods where I go frequently to meditate, she said, "You know where they live now, so they will have followed you to discover where you live too, to even the score."
And she explained that Crow (one of her totem animals) has a less than friendly, and very competitive disposition, as well as a sardonic sense of humor.
As usual, I didn't fully understand what she was telling me, but last week, I finally "got it".

It was my first night sleeping in the living room.
I had positioned my futon in the wrong corner of the room however, next to the windows with the blinds partly up to let in fresh air which was good, but against the adjoining wall where the electric outlets are, and being sensitive to EMFs, I was unable to get to sleep until the wee hours.

At dawn's early light, I heard two very loud "CAWs" from a crow just outside the window.
I groaned and weakly pulled the pillow over my head, but two more "CAWs" even closer and louder persuaded me that I ought to take a look.
No sooner had I struggled blearily up to a sitting position however, than I heard the flap and rustle of wings and a long peal of resounding, raucous laughter "CAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAW!!!!!!!!!!!" , as the crow flew merrily away, it's Trickster mission accomplished of waking me from the few Zs I had managed to catch, abandoning me to my humiliated, forlorn and muddled state...
Bested not only by Cat, but by Crow as well.

Possibly, this was a pre-arranged, inside job.

8xoenlVVBZw

Ah well. It's not so bad. I've got the futon in the right place now, and am actually sleeping quite well.
Samara is happy having the bedroom to herself, and doesn't seem to mind me coming in for visits, as long as I follow the established patterns, of course, of FIRST feeding, replenishing the water bowl, scooping, grooming with the brush and comb, offering catnip and THEN having a little cuddle...

I will continue to aspire to be a good student of Animal Medicine.
I think it's a rigorous, but good way of learning how to become a better human being.
And hopefully, it will help to avoid the prediction in Will Smith's latest scifi movie, After Earth, about a future Earth decimated by mankind, in which apparently all the animals are distinctly anti-human.

But what's this? Will being linked to Scientology?

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...TKLTv2I8ZL0iVg
Apart from the pages of Project Avalon, Scientology these days is not very popular among the populace, apparently.
Will's new movie isn't getting the best reviews.

UIdBBROlUeM

[Daughter of Time]

Trickster!

Villain? Hero? Either/or!! Both!!!

Trickster and magic are synonymous. Magic is neither good nor evil but can be used either way. The Trickster is the same.

Thanks for your great threads, Fred!

[Soulboy]

cool thread Fred.

Bill Maher, trickster extraordinaire:

OOUdeJqpt8s


Off topic, SORRY, but has anyone ever noticed how Maher does the hand sign depicted in the youtube image above in EVERY SINGLE show? He often does it when mentioning any religious institutions as well, which often made me wonder. It's a bit weird for someone who claims to be atheist and made a career out of it.

Oh well, he's probably just another fan of the Longhorns football team like the Shrub family and so many international politicians...

[william r sanford72]

Death maybe being the greatest of all Tricksters??..or not.

[CD7]

Onawah u trickstered my kiddies with tht cat talking to crow vid! LMAO...I couldn't finish watching it..there looking for the crow, and apparently understood kitty language as they perked right up when the cat was talking! Couple my cats do tht..its hilarious, talk to me too. Hahaha thanks for tht :)

[Chester]

I will add, that in my opinion, the "Jester" is merely a part of the negative subset of the Trickster. The Jester is generally self-serving - a physically weak individual who uses their wiles within a violent society to gain ends that cannot be met by them by force of arms. The pure, positive Trickster, on the other hand, is beyond human power play, and yes, will on occasion lay themselves down for the slaughter if that is what is required for the greater common good.

WoW! Now I understand why they called me Chester the Jester. Hope I graduated to Trickster.

[johnf]

I will add, that in my opinion, the "Jester" is merely a part of the negative subset of the Trickster. The Jester is generally self-serving - a physically weak individual who uses their wiles within a violent society to gain ends that cannot be met by them by force of arms. The pure, positive Trickster, on the other hand, is beyond human power play, and yes, will on occasion lay themselves down for the slaughter if that is what is required for the greater common good.

WoW! Now I understand why they called me Chester the Jester. Hope I graduated to Trickster.

Lol, I think you have trickster days, and jester days. Me too, how else are we going to get used to it?

jf

[onawah]

With keeping a sense of humor being a theme focused on on the forum lately, this channeled message was timely:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?60340-Humor-Channeled-by-Marlene-Swetlishoff-6-20-13&p=691550#post691550

[Chester]

The winner's cup is an empty vessel which is only filled by our actions within the game. If we have won the day by deception, or by cruelty, or by circumventing common decency, then the winner's cup is not filled with glory, it is filled with our shame.


...so perhap's the fool (the empty cup) was once a winner (the same empty cup) who got bored and decided to jump back into the game again?

[heyokah]

I think this is a very good article about Health, Science and the Trickster.

I didn't want to give just the link, so I started to copy parts... and parts.... and.... oh, that's a nice part as well ....

OK, what the ...., here is the whole lot.
Sorry for it's length :o

The Trickster: Medicine's forgotten character


MOST physicians are trained to be thinkers, analysts, logicians. When we encounter clinical problems such as cancer, heart disease, or AIDS, our search for solutions begins with the assumption that we need more facts and information, which form the substrate upon which reason can operate. Only an approach anchored in analysis and reason, we say, stands a chance of working.

In contrast, many cultures have recognised that an intellectual approach to life's problems can be carried to excess. They have accorded great respect for irrationality and foolishness in its many forms — play, humour, nonsense, light heartedness. One of the most universal expressions of this point of view is the Trickster figure, which has appeared in the mythology and folklore of perhaps every culture on earth.

In modern psychology 'Trickster' is often used to refer to a universal force or pattern within the mind — what Jung called an archetype — that represents the irrational, chaotic, and unpredictable side of human thought and behaviour. This aspect of the mind is contrasted with the logical, analytical, and intellectual side that values order, precision, and control. According to the tenets of depth psychology, a balance between these two vectors of the psyche is required for optimal mental heath. When either the rational or irrational side dominates, self correcting forces come into play to restore some semblance of harmony between the two. The countless Trickster tales describe how this process plays itself out in everyday life.

The Trickster operates largely outside conscious awareness but always from within the human mind. We are the Trickster; and when we describe Trickster phenomena we are always describing aspects of ourselves. Thus the Trickster has been called a speculum mentis: a mirror into the mind.

The Trickster in different cultures

Trickster lore flowered in the mythology of native North America, as well as in traditional cultures throughout the world. Not only does the Trickster exhibit trickery, buffoonery, and crude behaviour in indigenous tales, he also appears as a creator, cultural hero, and teacher. He is partly divine, partly human, and partly animal, and is an amoral and comic troublemaker. (I say 'he' because the Trickster is usually male, although occasionally female or disguised in female form.) Although he appears most frequently as the coyote in cultures in the south west of the USA, many other creatures are also represented. including the raven, crow, blue jay, mink, rabbit, spider, racoon, mud hen, opossum, and bear. Trickster figures also appeared in ancient Greece, where they were known as Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Hermes. In the European Middle Ages, the court jester or fool served the Trickster function. In our time clowns, comedians, movie actors, and cartoon characters often fulfil the role.

The Trickster and modern medicine

Probably everyone involved in healthcare sooner or later confronts the fact that all medical therapies, for all their power and popularity, can be frustratingly capricious, unpredictable, and sometimes harmful. This is true not only for drugs and surgical procedures but also for the alternative/ complementary and consciousness-based methods that are becoming increasingly popular. All therapies work only some of the time; they work sensationally for some people and not for others; they sometimes kill as well as cure. Moreover, scientific studies demonstrating efficacy often give conflicting results. They sometimes show that a therapy that was previously thought to be helpful is actually harmful, and vice versa.

The Trickster perspective suggests that some of these problems and paradoxes may result from too much, not too little, reliance on logic, analysis, and reason — the very bedrocks of modern science. Is the Trickster afoot in medicine? Evidence for Trickster effects is subjective but, in spite of this limitation, we can look at some specific areas in contemporary medicine where the Trickster may be leaving his tracks: areas where confusion and chaos arise in frustrating degrees. We shall notice that the confusion often takes the form of paradox.


• Nearly three and a half thousand Swedish business executives were given maximum attention to reduce their risk factors for cardiovascular disease. After five years of intervention and a total of 11 years of follow-up, even though they succeeded in reducing their risk factors by 46 per cent they had a higher mortality rate than control subjects.

• In the highly publicised 'Mr Fit' (Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial) study, researchers at 22 medical research centres in the USA studied almost 13,000 men. Half of them received an all-out push by physicians to reduce their risk factors for heart disease. But at the end of seven years, even though they were successful in lowering their risk factors, their death rate was higher than that of the control group, for reasons that are still being debated.

• According to a CNN report, air bags may be contributing to auto accidents by making drivers feel invincible.

• "There is considerable inter-observer variability in the radiographic diagnosis of pneumonia. This variability does not improve with increasing experience."

• Because most kidney stones are made of calcium, physicians often recommend that patients who have already suffered from stones reduce their calcium intake. A research team from the Harvard School of Public Health reports that men who ate a diet rich in calcium faced a 34 per cent lower risk of developing kidney stones than did men who consumed a restricted calcium diet. "This goes against everything we had been taught," says kidney specialist Gary Curhan, who led the calcium investigation.

• Although the periodic health examination was introduced over 80 years ago, it remains a controversy in internal medicine. There have been few data from controlled studies to document the examination's efficacy for adults; nevertheless, its popularity has become a multi-million dollar industry in the United States.

• A new study suggests that doctors and nurses should offer this seemingly paradoxical advice to patients awaiting surgery: "Don't relax, be worried." Although relaxation training before surgery helps people feel less tense, the investigators found that the greatest post-surgical increases in adrenaline and cortisol, two hormones associated with the body's reaction to stress and danger, were significantly higher among patients given relaxation training prior to their surgical procedure, compared to control subjects.

• New evidence indicate that elderly men boasting low cholesterol levels also suffer markedly more symptoms of depression than peers with moderate or high cholesterol levels … Several cholesterol-reduction trials have found unexpected jumps in suicide and other violent deaths … Neither weight loss (which often lowers cholesterol) nor the presence of various medical problems accounted for the link between cholesterol and depression.

• New data challenge the widely held assumption that US women, who usually enjoy higher levels of education, employment, and income, have healthier infants than immigrants. According to statistics from San Diego County from 1978 to 1985, the lowest infant mortality rates were seen in Southeast Asian and Hispanic women, most of whom were foreign born; highest rates were seen in white and African American women, most of whom were US born.

• Professional working women enjoy lower blood pressure than women who stay at home. "Basically, the theory that job stress will make women as susceptible as men (to high blood pressure) doesn't bear out."

Our usual approach to paradoxes such as these is to design more and better studies to clear up the ambiguities. The problems, we say, are not a failure of reason but a lack of sufficient information to which reason can apply itself. Can we eradicate all the confusion with good studies? It would be foolish not to employ our intellect as skilfully as possible. But how fully can reason serve us without becoming susceptible to the self-correcting, intra-psychic forces of irrationality and unpredictability?

Alternative medicine and the trickster

Alternative/ complementary medicine also generally follows a rational, causal framework: If you do X, Y will follow — whether X means taking vitamins or herbs, using a homoeopathic remedy, or praying, imaging, or meditating. In alternative circles, as in orthodox medicine, heroic vigour and assertiveness are also routinely emphasised, epitomised by the frequent advice that patients "take charge," "assume responsibility," and "fight" their illness. As complementary medicine attempts to match the intellectual rigour of orthodox medicine, there is a risk that it, too, may ignore the Trickster forces in the psyche.

Many researchers and clinicians in alternative medicine realise that it may be impossible to subject some healing methods to the rational strategies favoured in contemporary biomedical research, such as double-blind methodology. Consider, for example, studies involving the effect of prayer among patients who are seriously ill. How can one establish a control group that, by definition, should receive no prayer? People facing serious illness routinely pray for themselves, whether or not they belong to a control group. Even if they did not, their loved ones pray for them. No one has yet devised a way of annulling the 'problem of extraneous prayer'. An alternative research approach has been to study the effects of prayer not on humans but on non-humans — assessing, for example, the effects of prayer on growth rates of bacteria or fungi or on the healing rates of surgical wounds in rats or mice. Presumably the bacteria or mice in the control group do not pray for themselves, nor are they being prayed for by their fellow creatures.

In spite of these difficulties, however, we should not abandon the customary forms of investigation that are based in reason in favour of an 'anything goes' policy, for this approach would lead to the opposite excess in which too little, not too much, reason is employed.

The Trickster and the creative process

The Trickster, therefore, suggests not that we abandon our rational faculties altogether, but that reason must be complemented by unreason if it is to achieve full flowering. Nowhere is this lesson clearer than in the creative process of great scientists.

When Jonas Salk was researching the polio vaccine that would bear his name, he decided to distance himself from his work for a short period by going to the monastery of Assisi in Italy. Salk had a keen interest in architecture, and his encounter with the shapes and spaces, light, materials, colours, and the history of this monastery had a profound impact on his mind and spirit. Salk became highly energised. "Under the influence," he later recalled, "I intuitively designed the research that I felt would result in the desired vaccine. I returned to my laboratory in Pittsburgh to validate my concepts and found that they were indeed correct!"
Salk's experience is not unique. Throughout history researchers often have achieved success only when they allowed play and other distractions to mingle with the intellect — in other words, when they have invited the Trickster to come out to play.

Arthur Koestler observes in his landmark book, The Act of Creation: "The creative act, in so far as it depends on unconscious resources, presupposes a relaxing of the controls and a regression to modes of ideation which are indifferent to the rules of verbal logic, unperturbed by contradiction, untouched by the dogmas and taboos of so-called common sense. At the decisive stage of discovery the codes of disciplined reasoning are suspended — as they are in a dream, the reverie, the manic flight of thought, when the stream of ideation is free to drift, by its own emotional gravity, as it were in an apparently 'lawless' fashion."

The paradoxes involved in the creative process are vividly exemplified in the life of England's Michael Faraday (1791-1867), one of the greatest physicists in history. Perhaps the most remarkable fact about Faraday is that he lacked any mathematical education or gift, and was "ignorant of all but the merest elements of arithmetic." Faraday was a visionary in the literal sense. He was able to see stress lines around magnets and electric currents as curves in space, for which he coined the term lines of 'forces'. For him, these patterns were as real as if they were made of solid matter. These images "rose up before him like things" and proved incredibly fertile, leading to the birth of the dynamo and electric motor, and the postulate that light was electromagnetic radiation – and this with only "the security of instinct, without the help of a single mathematical formula."

Writing in the 1950s in Scientific American, Frank Barron, an expert on the psychology of imagination, captured the essentially un-harnessable nature of the creative process:

"Creative individuals are more at home with complexity and apparent disorder than other people are … The creative individual in his generalised preference for apparent disorder, turns to the dimly realised life of the unconscious, and is likely to have more than the usual amount of respect for the forces of the irrational in himself and in others … The creative individual not only respects the irrational in himself, but courts it as the most promising source of novelty in his own thought. He rejects the demand of society that he should shun in himself the primitive, the uncultured, the naive, the magical, the nonsensical … When an individual thinks in ways which are customarily tabooed, his fellows may regard him as mentally unbalanced … This kind of imbalance is more likely to be healthy than unhealthy. The truly creative individual stands ready to abandon old classifications and to acknowledge that life, particularly his own unique life, is rich with new possibilities. To him, disorder offers the potentiality of order."

Barron's statement might well serve as a kind of Trickster manifesto, emphasising as it does the central role of the irrational, chaotic elements of the psyche in the creative process.

Discovery as trickery and deception

In Greek mythology the classic Trickster figure is Hermes, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods and the deity of speech, communication, and writing, whose first act as a baby was to steal cattle from Apollo. Thus we see in Hermes the qualities of thievery, trickery, and deceit combined with the skill of communication.

This may appear to be an odd combination of traits, but if we look closely we can see that the pairing of deception and communication makes sense. Because Trickster happenings are paradoxical, confusing, and chaotic, they take us off guard mentally and jolt us into seeing unexpected patterns and new meanings. The writer G K Chesterton emphasised this 'breakthrough' potential by defining paradox as Truth standing upside down to attract attention. In the wake of paradox we see connections and patterns to which we were previously blind. It is as if our normal modes of perception have been tricked. The logical mind, accustomed to following old paths of reason previously laid down, is momentarily side-tracked into a different mode of perception. A new communication channel with the universe suddenly opens and grand patterns are revealed — creativity and discovery as a prank played on the habits of reason.

Trickster effects in healing

Similar processes happen in healing. Myrin Borysenko was a prominent researcher in immunology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He was intrigued by the work of Harvard's David McClelland on the impact of belief in healing. On one occasion Borysenko asked McClelland how a particular healer in the Boston area healed people. "Oh, he messes up your mind," McClelland replied.

One morning while at his laboratory Borysenko began to come down with symptoms of flu — fever, aches, cough, and congestion. By noon he felt miserable. Unable to function, he decided to leave work and go home to bed. On his way home he suddenly thought of the psychic healer he had discussed with McClelland. Why not give the healer a try? There's no adequate alternative treatment, he thought, and no one will ever know.

He found the healer in a dilapidated part of the city. As he climbed the rickety stairs he began to have second thoughts. What if my colleagues could see me now? he worried. The door to the healer's apartment was open, as if Borysenko were expected. He entered to find an enormously fat, unkempt man sprawled on a sofa watching a soap opera on TV and drinking wine from a gallon jug. Summoning his courage, Borysenko said, "I hear you can cure people. Can you cure my flu?" Without taking his eyes off the TV, the healer reached for a small bottle of purple liquid on the floor. "Go into the bathroom, fill the tub half full of water, pour this stuff in, and sit in it for 30 minutes. Then you will be cured."

Borysenko did as he was told. As he sat in the tub, up to his waist in the densely purple water, he was struck by the sheer absurdity of what he was doing. He felt so silly he began to laugh uncontrollably. He was still laughing when he realised his half-hour was over. He dressed and walked to the living room to find the healer still engrossed in the soap opera. He simply said, "Now you are healed." Then he pointed to the door, indicating he was free to go.

Driving home, Borysenko gradually realised he felt different. He sensed no symptoms whatever. He felt well — so well that he decided to return to work. He worked late. As he recited his adventure that night to his wife while undressing for bed, she suddenly burst into laughter. Looking into the mirror, he knew why. He was purple from the waist down.

Borysenko's healer was a first-rate Trickster — one who upsets expectations, creates confusion, and jumbles the normal categories of thought. Borysenko was enticed to abandon everything he believed about how healing worked, put his intellect on hold, and simply "let it happen."

It is perfectly natural to try to find approaches to healing that are completely objective and that can be successfully applied to all individuals who have the same illness. One might try, for example, to reduce Borysenko's experience to an algorithm whereby every patient with a diagnosis of flu is advised to add a specific amount of purple liquid to his bath water. But when used in a repetitive, formulaic way, these approaches rarely work as dramatically as for Borysenko, perhaps because they do not 'mess up the mind', as McClelland put it. This is perhaps one reason behind the adage, "One should use a new medication as often as possible, while it still has the power to work."

Arrogance and the Trickster

As long as we lie to ourselves, the Trickster will be with us. He'll show up just when we least want him, to embarrass us on a first date, to prove us fools in front of the learned company we're trying to impress, to make us miss a power breakfast with that all-important business contact. Yes, he'll leave at our bidding, but he always comes back with a vengeance. The only way to get rid of him is to listen to his message — and to admit the truth about ourselves in all its beauty and ugliness.

The Trickster not only deceives others, he is always being duped, often by pranks that backfire. Trickster tales show that humiliation is never far away; thus the Trickster warns of the dangers of arrogance and hubris. When we make rash assurances to patients that "everything will be fine," that our favoured therapy is sure to work, or that we can find the problem when a string of other diagnosticians has failed, we are setting ourselves up to be tricked. "You can think as much as you like," the Russian proverb warns, "but you will invent nothing better than bread and salt."


http://www.hgi.org.uk/archive/thetrickster.htm

[Sunny-side-up]

OK Fred you asked for this ?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78ghXGR_47M&feature=endscreen

Not a trick cause ya new what was coming ha

[Fred Steeves]

OK Fred you asked for this ?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78ghXGR_47M&feature=endscreen

Not a trick cause ya new what was coming ha

Actually you DID trick me, I was thinking that little bugger was going to lay a turd!!! http://www.bigtenfever.com/forums/images/smilies/rofl.gif

[Chester]

OK Fred you asked for this ?


Not a trick cause ya new what was coming ha

Actually you DID trick me, I was thinking that little bugger was going to lay a turd!!! http://www.bigtenfever.com/forums/images/smilies/rofl.gif

What's scary is that's what I thought too, Fred - blew my mind when I read your comment.

[onawah]

I'm so glad Stephen Colbert did a video commentary on this!!
It's not on youtube yet, and I don't know how to embed it, but it's definitely worth your time to go to the link!
http://aattp.org/colbert-exposes-nestles-disturbing-desire-to-privatize-water/
Colbert Exposes Nestlé’s Disturbing Desire To Privatize Water
June 21, 2013

In this incredible clip, Stephen Colbert brings attention to a Nestlé chairman’s chilling comments about water not being a human right, but a commodity that should be privatized.

From an article we wrote a few weeks ago:

Nestlé’s 68-year-old former CEO and current Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, says he wants to privatize the water supply because people have a sense of entitlement that causes them to waste copious amounts of water. That all sounds well and good until you realize that, as the #1 seller of water in the world, 8% of Nestlé’s 2011 sales were from bottled water.

Watch Colbert’s take on it, courtesy of Comedy Central:

[music]

The winner's cup is an empty vessel which is only filled by our actions within the game. If we have won the day by deception, or by cruelty, or by circumventing common decency, then the winner's cup is not filled with glory, it is filled with our shame.


...so perhap's the fool (the empty cup) was once a winner (the same empty cup) who got bored and decided to jump back into the game again?

... and within the game, if we can resist the disinfo regime of the illusion, we find the Grail, the cup within, wherein we discover that our actions mean nothing, but the intent behind our actions means all.

With Golden Intent, the true quest of the alchemist and the awakened fool.

[music]

Heyokah, interesting article, but I would add one caveat to most of that. When we research anything within the human sphere, our very attention will alter the outcome. If we have a strong enough energy, our expectation of results will tip events in that direction. It is a property of the physical world that the act of observance changes the nature of the thing observed.

When I practiced reflexology, I had some very good results, but I told my clients to expect nothing. I made no claims, when I was asked what the therapy would do for them, I replied that the only thing I could guarantee was that it would be relaxing for them, with occasional instances of pain :) I had good results, yet I claimed and expected nothing. I let the energy do the work it needed to do. Mostly, my clients' energy.

Another interesting thing? I had no set fee, I asked people to pay what they could afford. some paid nothing, some paid well, some gave me food or crafts. As a rule, I found that people did well if they were honest about what they could afford. If they could honestly not afford to pay me, and didn't, they progressed in their treatment. If they could afford to pay, but didn't, they didn't do well. I valued them all the same, and treated them all the same, but those who cheated on their valuation of themselves never thrived under care. This would illustrate the fool within the context of this discussion, as opposed to the trickster, who would have given me a gift (no matter how small) that challenged my assumptions and helped me grow.

[onawah]

MUST SEE!! Stephen Colbert on animal rights.
http://www.mfablog.org/2013/06/stephen-colbert-ridicules-congressman-steve-kings-cruel-farm-bill-amendment.html
I don't know how to imbed the video, but it's truly priceless.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/427378/june-20-2013/steve-king-on-chicken-cages
"June 22, 2013
Stephen Colbert Ridicules Congressman Steve King's Cruel Farm Bill Amendment
By Nathan Runkle
colbert2.jpgIn a sweeping victory for the nation's farmed animals, yesterday the United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted down the 2013 Farm Bill, which included the dangerous King Amendment.

Notorious Iowa ag-industry henchman Steve King's amendment to the Farm Bill would have eliminated the few state laws that ban cruel production practices, including extreme animal confinement in cages and crates, the force-feeding of ducks, horse slaughter, and shark finning.

In a tongue-in-cheek segment on last night's Colbert Report, comedian Stephen Colbert spotlighted King's career-spanning crusade against animal welfare and the deplorable conditions imposed on factory-farmed animals.

Colbert used humor to bring much-needed attention to a very serious issue: the miserable plight of the billions of animals raised and killed for food each year in this country.

MFA says thank you to all our members and supporters who took quick action against the King Amendment by contacting their representatives and voicing their opposition to its inclusion in the Farm Bill."

[onawah]

"Gasland Part II" director Josh Fox on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Exclusive - Josh Fox Extended Interview Parts 1 and 2
In this exclusive, unedited interview, "Gasland Part II" director Josh Fox disputes the idea that natural gas is a boon for the environment.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-26-2013/exclusive---josh-fox-extended-interview-pt--1
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-26-2013/exclusive---josh-fox-extended-interview-pt--2

[onawah]

Colbert interviews Bill Moyers
6/27/2013
"Last night, Bill dropped by The Colbert Report to talk about the July 9 Frontline documentary, “Two American Families,” featuring two hard-working Milwaukee families whose stories of economic hardship and perseverance Bill has been chronicling since 1992. Colbert peppered Bill with questions about personal responsibility and the need for a middle class in the first place.

Given this was also the week the Supreme Court invalidated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, Colbert couldn’t let Bill go without a few pointed questions about it, especially since Bill was “in the room” during the Act’s development and passage in 1965."
http://billmoyers.com/2013/06/27/stephen-colbert-interviews-bill-moyers/
LQu_6w2iEA0

[Fred Steeves]

Thanks for the interesting links onawah, but what do they have to do with the trickster?

[onawah]

Colbert is a master Trickster in the positive sense, and his videos demonstrate that.
Do my posts seem off-topic to you?
I can start another thread, if you prefer.

[kfm27917]

How to Become a Cosmic Hero

Notion Versus Opinion: The Importance of Thinking Rather Than Believing

Heyoka As Archetype: Counting Coup on Culture

7 Reasons Why Cops Are a Menace to Society

The Art of The Undeceived

From Survivor to Striver: Cultivating courage and building boldness

The Art of Absurdity: On Unreasonable Happiness

Diamond Sharpens Diamond: from tragedy to transcendence

Quantum Self: The Psychology of The Many Worlds Theory

Trickster Metaphysics: Transforming Anxiety into Artistry


Heyoka As Archetype: Counting Coup on Culture


“When gods die, they always die many kinds of death. Away with such a god. Better no god, better to produce destiny on one’s own account, better to be a fool, better to be a god oneself.” ~Nietzsche


In a world drowning in religion but thirsty for spirituality, the sacred clown archetype, more specifically the Heyoka archetype, is the panacea of our time. It’s the vital force of nature that can provide the magic elixir we need to heal our profoundly sick society.


When outdated gods need to die, our inner Heyoka is just the energy we need to get past the fortified ramparts of our cognitive dissonance. Heyoka energy is ruthlessly contrarian. It strikes at the roots of culture though merciless high humor.


When a culture is healthy, such energy is easily absorbed, painlessly reconciled, and brought into harmony. But, when a culture is unhealthy, as ours is, then such energy is a profound shock, a difficult and painful awakening that shines a spotlight on our sickness and forces us to deal with the cognitive dissonance regarding that sickness.


We can tap into our own Heyoka energy by counting coup on culture and producing a destiny of our own. We can use this energy to turn the tables on the profoundly sick society that surrounds us while also creating a healthy balance.


The Heyoka archetype is courageous but not obedient, humorous but not comedic, fierce but not violent. It has the cross-cultural capacity to flip scripts, flatten boxes, and stretch stifling comfort zones. And it has never been more imperative to our health as a species, as a global tribe, than it is right now.




1.) Courageous but not obedient:

“Freedom is the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.” ~George Orwell


Heyokas of old were the checks and balancing mechanism of a healthy tribe. Nobody was more free than a Heyoka. They were walking, talking, clowning, countervailing power constructs. They were cultural leveling mechanism par excellence. They were forces of nature first, humans second. They poked holes in inflated egos. They questioned all authority figures through direct and indirect humor. Their only obedience was to civil disobedience itself.


They didn’t need permission to challenge cultural values. They sunk their teeth into fixed values, all at once revaluating all values. They were the personification of counting coup. They counted coup on the tribe every day through the brilliance of their contrarian humor.


We need such energy today. Our zeitgeist needs a spiritual awakening, an existential overhaul. Our modern global tribe needs a force of nature to counter its anti-nature sickness. Such courage can only come from a force from within that is not tainted by the sickness; a force that can see around the small picture perspective of cultural conditioning and take in the big picture perspective of a much-needed cultural reconditioning. That force is our own inner heyoka archetype.


Much as we can tap into the energy of the well-known Jungian archetypes (Shadow, hero, trickster), we can tap into the energy of the lesser known Heyoka archetype to give us the courage needed to square the circle of our cultural sickness and discover a way to heal ourselves.


The old archetypes simply won’t do, even in combination. The Heyoka archetype is like a combination between the Jungian Hero, Shadow, Trickster, Wizard, but it is also so much more. It is also anti-heroic, overt, and amoral in its agency. It tricks even the trickster with its blatant ability to go beyond good and evil, transcending cultural modes of rightdoing and wrongdoing.


2.) Humorous but not comedic:

“When war turns whole populations into sleepwalkers, outlaws don’t join forces with alarm clocks. Outlaws, like poets, rearrange the nightmare.” ~Tom Robbins


In a world of bleating Betas and braying Alphas, Heyokas transcend the lot by becoming howling Metas.


Our inner Heyoka is always seated at a great table for play and mockery. It’s the only archetype that can bluff God and the devil at the same time. It does it through the use of nonchalance and high humor. It is never serious, but it is always sincere. No low humor here. No slapstick comedy for comedy’s sake. No. This humor is high because the stakes are high.


Heyoka humor is a sword of truth that cuts through all false narratives. It’s a beacon of darkness in the blinding light just as it is a beacon of hope in the darkest night. Such humor dices up Hate into digestible pieces of compassion. It recycles anger into biodegradable passion. It cuts through the thickness of existential angst revealing thin layers of laughable fate. It burns without being burnt. It guilts the gelded and the glutted.


Heyoka humor is humor that resonates between worlds. It’s a deep laughter that slips through the cracks of the soul. It slips through the broken places of the heart and creates lightheartedness. It reminds us that we are both worms and gods, tragically mortal and yet comically transcendent. It mocks all self-seriousness and half-measures. It’s a monkey wrench leveraging holy shrines into monkeyshines.


Heyoka humor is not pretend humor. It’s radical humor. Unforgiving and unconditional in its absolution. It is beyond resentment. It is beyond sentiment. Indeed. Pity is poison for a Heyoka, and so the Heyoka practices a walking state of radical humor that subsumes forgiveness. Like the way a Zen monk practices a walking meditation. It is precisely this type of humor that we can use to count coup on our culture and create a world that is less codependently self-serious and more interdependently sincere.


3.) Fierce but not violent:

“The art of life is more like the wrestler’s than the dancer’s; it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected.” ~Marcus Aurelius


Heyokas of old were feared just as much as they were revered. They were just as likely to make you sweat as to make you laugh. Their fierceness came from their ruthlessness. They were compelled to maintain balance, even if that balance came at the expense of people’s comfort.


Comfort was anathema to a practicing Heyoka. Comfort meant laziness, and a lazy tribe soon became an unhealthy tribe. It was the Heyoka’s job to make sure their tribe didn’t become so comfortable that it became unhealthy. They did so through the fierceness of high humor.


As it stands today, we live in fundamentally unhealthy societies rampant with too much comfort and laziness. Especially when it comes to balance, harmony, and interdependent (as opposed to codependent) spirituality. Our societies are so profoundly sick that we ignorantly pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the minds we think with. This is due in large part to overly comfortable and lazy lifestyles that are codependent upon excess creature comforts at the expense of Truth and Health.


Something has got to give. And modern Heyokas—that is, individuals who have tapped into their inner Heyoka archetype—are the ones drawing a line in the sand and taking leaps of courage out of culturally-inflicted comfort zones. They are determined to make a difference. This will require fierceness against excessiveness. This will require a ruthless force of high humor in the face of the unhealthy lifestyles that are destroying the world.


But Heyoka energy is not violent. Life is both too precious and too laughable for violence. The human condition is too fleeting and utterly mortal for violence. Indeed. The universe is already violent enough. Thus, the Heyoka archetype, ever a bastion for balance, ever a stronghold for harmony and survival despite entropy, is fundamentally at odds with violence except in defense of balance, harmony, and survival. Irony is Heyoka’s copilot.


At the end of the day, Heyoka counts coup on culture by counting coup on violence itself. The profoundly sick societies we live in are excessively violent. They violently effect the health, harmony, and balance of the human tribe by poisoning that which the human tribe needs to survive.


We need the Heyoka archetype now more than ever. We need its fierceness, its courage, its high humor. We need it to adapt and overcome. We need it as a cure for our current sickness. When the tribe fails to regulate itself, Heyoka must regulate the tribe. So, Hoka Hey! Hey Hoka! Regulators mount up! Today is a good day to die.


Image Source:

Heyoka and The Skeleton Drummer by Andre Peraza


About the Author:

Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.

https://www.self-inflictedphilosophy.com/single-post/heyoka-as-archetype-counting-coup-on-culture

[Matthew]

...
We need the Heyoka archetype now more than ever. We need its fierceness, its courage, its high humor. We need it to adapt and overcome. We need it as a cure for our current sickness. When the tribe fails to regulate itself, Heyoka must regulate the tribe. So, Hoka Hey! Hey Hoka! Regulators mount up! Today is a good day to die.
...

Yeah we need this archetype! Then I saw this below and the penny dropped; have our cultural heyokas - Joe Rogan at the moment. The sacred clown/heyoka says the awkward truth. If it's funny it penetrates and spread like an infection - the truth and something funny all in one go. Very difficult to resist :bowing:


Joe Rogan is a comedian, they are literally threatened by a comedian
source twitter (https://twitter.com/DrewHLive/status/1482141081152065538)

[Matthew]

But not in the style of Loki. There is a wide divide between Loki trickster and what heyoka is about ;)