The trickster is an alchemist, a magician, creating realities in the duality of time and illusion.

The trickster deity breaks the rules of the gods or nature, sometimes maliciously (for example,

Loki) but usually with ultimately positive effects. Often, the rule-breaking takes the form of

tricks (eg. Eris) or thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish or both; they are often very

funny even when considered sacred or performing important cultural tasks. In many cultures, (as

may be seen in Greek, Norse or Slavic folktales, along with Native American/First Nations lore),

the trickster and the culture hero are often combined. To illustrate: Prometheus, in Greek

mythology, stole fire from the gods to give it to humans.

He is more of a culture hero than a trickster. In many Native American and First Nations

mythologies, the coyote (Southwestern United States) or raven (Pacific Northwest and coastal

British Columbia) stole fire from the gods (stars or sun) and are more tricksters than culture

heroes. This is primarily because of other stories involving these spirits: Prometheus was a Titan,

whereas coyote and raven are usually seen as jokesters and pranksters.

Frequently the Trickster figure exhibits gender variability, changing gender roles and engaging

in same-sex practices. Such figures appear in Native American and First Nations mythologies,

where they are said to have a two-spirit nature. Loki, the Norse trickster, also exhibits gender

variability, in one case even becoming pregnant; interestingly, he shares the ability to change

genders with Odin, who despite being nominally the chief Norse deity also possesses many

characteristics of the Trickster.

The Trickster is an example of a Jungian Archetype. The Fool survives in modern playing cards

as the Joker. In modern literature the trickster survivors as a character archetype, not necessarily

supernatural or divine, therefore better described as a stock character.

In later folklore, the trickster is incarnated as a clever, mischievous man or creature, who tries to

survive the dangers and challenges of the world using trickery and deceit as a defense. For

example many typical fairy tales have the King who wants to find the best groom for his

daughter by ordering several trials. No brave and valiant prince or knight manages to win them,

until a poor and simple peasant comes. With the help of his wits and cleverness, instead of

fighting, he evades or fools monsters and villains and dangers with unorthodox manners.

Therefore the most unlikely candidate passes the trials receives the reward. More modern and

obvious examples of that type are Bugs Bunny and The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin).

The trickster is an important archetype in the history of man. He is a god, yet he is not. He is the

wise-fool. It is he, through his creations that destroy, points out the flaws in carefully constructed

societies of man. He rebels against authority, pokes fun at the overly serious, creates convoluted

schemes, that may or may not work, plays with the Laws of the Universe and is sometimes his

own worst enemy. He exists to question, to cause us to question not accept things blindly. He

appears when a way of thinking becomes outmoded needs to be torn down built anew. He is the

Destroyer of Worlds at the same time the savior of us all.

The Trickster lives inside and outside of Time. He is of our world, yet not of our world, so our

laws will not always apply. Other symbols, associated with him include keys, clock, masks,

infinity among other mythological images

Trickster is a creator, a joker, a truth teller, a story teller, a transformer linked to the spiritual

frequency changes humanity is experiencing at this time.

We seem most accessible to the synchronistic gifts of the Trickster when we ourselves are at or

near boundaries or are experiencing transition states, periods of major life transitions seem to be

occasioned by an abundance of meaningful coincidence. Personal growth sees not only to

facilitate synchronicity, but in turn to be facilitated by it. As an archetype, the Trickster, the

boundary dweller, finds expression through human imagination and experience.

We live in a dual reality, opposite polarities, yin /yang, male/female, good/ evil, God/Devil or

Trickster. Our reality is created by electromagnetic energy fields, the poles (North and South),

positive and negative energy. This is much like a game. In order to win the game you must create

balance. You can beat the trickster if you ignore that which he brings as challenges.

Our soul spirals its consciousness into a physical body to experience different roles and

emotions. The trickster 'stirs the pot' and creates the drama, to that end.

When you abuse someone, that is the trickster in you, showing itself. When you allow yourself to

be abused, playing the victim, and remain stagnant in your life, the trickster aspect of you is in

control.

The trickster seems to have supernatural powers which help him perform his tricks. He lives,

dies, comes back, shape shifts, all sorts of magic as our reality is nothing more than an illusion. It

is the mythology of our reality, birth, death, and rebirth from the ashes, the flame of creation.

There are times the Trickster brings lessons that we came into this experience. Trickster is almost

always portrayed as male. In the duality he represents the lower emotions, lower chakras, that

which gets us into mischief. This represents the aggressive side that deals with the lower

frequency emotions, fate, jealousy, anger, self destruction, rage, depression and goes to mental

illness.

Trickster is the emotional body, our Inner Child or wounded soul, who evolves in our lifetimes

as it spirals back to higher light.

All creational myths deal with polarity, good god vs. bad god, the duality of our nature and with

each of us. To be emotionally challenged is to listen to the voice of the trickster and live in a

space of drama and negative emotions. To create balance is to live in the so-called 'god aspect' of

who we are.

Physical reality is a game in which the Trickster challenges us at every turn. That is his role in

the duality of this bio-genetic experiment in liner tome and emotion.

Trickster is the teacher, when you attract lessons into one's life. With his lessons, he awakens us

to who we are and allows us to explore the true purpose of our soul's journey in the holographic

experience through which we experience consciously at this level of awareness.

His energy allows us to break out of old stereotypes, whether they've been imposed by ourselves,

our families, our culture, or circumstance. This is the energy that opens the world of limitless

possibilities and it behooves us all to work with it before it destroys us, to touch the Trickster as

he touches us.

Trickster is a teacher, survivor, hero, always traveling, outrageous and cunning, foolish and wise,

mischievous and often doing good despite himself. He is a metaphor for the evolution of

consciousness in the alchemy of time.

Eshu( African culture) is a trickster-god, and plays frequently tempting choices for the purpose

of causing maturation. He is a difficult teacher, but a good one. As an example, Eshu was

walking down the road one day, wearing a hat that was red on one side and blue on the other.

Sometime after he departed, the villagers who had seen him began arguing about whether the

stranger's hat was blue or red. The villagers on one side of the road had only been capable of

seeing the blue side, and the villagers on the other side had only been capable of seeing the red

half. They nearly fought over the argument, until Eshu came back and cleared the mystery,

teaching the villagers about how one's perspective can alter one's perception of reality, and can

be easily fooled.

Raven is famous among the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. Raven assumed the

divine trickster role, similar to Coyote in other parts of the country. The divine trickster could

play the fool and the joker, but the intent of doing so was to teach. Raven is also credited with

sheltering the first humans, and with placing the sun, moon, and stars in the proper places in the

sky. He was an expert in magic, and brought revelations from the spirit world to those who

needed them.

Trickster is at the same time, creator and destroyer, giver and negator, he who dupes others and

who is always duped himself. 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. Many of the

Trickster's traits were perpetuated in the medieval jester, and have survived in the Punch-and-

Judy plays and in the clown.

Few mythological figures have such a remote origin in time and broad distribution among

cultures as the one called Trickster. This character has long puzzled its commentators, largely

because Trickster defies any purely rational or intellectual analysis. In fact, anyone who has

studied any particular trickster story can testify to its disturbing undertones of perplexity and

provocation.

In world mythologies Trickster's guises are legion; so much so that Joseph Campbell, has called

him The Hero With A Thousand Faces.

This outlandish, yet remarkable being in human form, learns, grows in understanding, changes,

and at a certain point in his adventuresome blunders, is transformed. Until that moment,

however, Trickster keeps changing shape and experimenting with a thousand identities,

including shifts in sex, in a seemingly never-ending search for himself.

The unity of Trickster with Hero-Benefactor is clear in a great number of the mythoi. The hero

must trick the gods of their wealth, steal it, and in some manner make it available to humankind.

This heavenly treasure usually is "fire" or is related to it. Raven steals the gods' fire sticks. Maui

goes against Mahu-ika, the guardian of fire, to get it and bring it back to the people. In Greek

myth it is Prometheus who does this. The many references to the sun-snaring feat of Trickster-

turned-Hero extend illustration of this development.

Trickster's hero qualities were present from the very beginning. But they lay dormant, in seed,

until he decided to exercise them, which he did only after a long and painful process of trial and

error, growth and metamorphosis. For in all of his manifestations Trickster remains a primordial

being of the same order as the gods, despite his prolonged sojourn in the human condition.

No matter how often scholars have analyzed this myth in the attempt to reduce it to any strictly

rational value, it endures in all of its polyfaceted and multileveled grandeur. To restrict

understanding of it merely to one or two of its features would be to rob us of its unusually

important meaning. For serious reflection upon the myth in all of its world variety brings a

conviction that it can refer only to the evolution of human consciousness and the full range of

phases and multiple colorations which this implies. Yes, the evolution of our consciousness, but

from a gigantic perspective and nothing less, one which carries us back to the fabulous illo

tempore: into the night of time millions of years ago to the magic moment of first creation, that,

dawn time "when first the world was born" and we "walked with the gods."

From the initial dimness of a consciousness newly-born, lacking any real integration of its

components, and having forgotten his divine mission, we follow Trickster as his awareness

steadily comes forth in ever greater measure. We watch as the self-knowledge of this inchoate

entity develops, bringing with it strength, remembrance, and a firmer sense of identity, all this

until, at a certain point, by capturing the fire of inner illumination from the gods, he gains a full

measure of self-consciousness or self-recollection, and can act to benefit mankind. To use

Jungian terms, the Unconscious within himself has been transmuted into the Conscious, bringing

lucidity of spiritual vision of self and the universe.

Saturn is a great teacher if you allow it to be so. If you resist, then you feel like you have been

dealing with the Trickster. It takes spiritual maturity to move beyond the challenges of the

Trickster and to embrace Saturn the Teacher.