Stalking the Tricksters

By Christopher O'Brien

Manifestations of the Trickster persona such as cryptids, elementals, werewolves, demons, vampires and dancing devils have permeated human experience since before the dawn of civilization. But today, very little is publicly known about The Tricksters. Who are they? What is their agenda? Known by many names including fools, sages, Loki, men-in-black, skinwalkers, shapeshifters, jokers, jinn, sorcerers, and witches, Tricksters provide us with a direct conduit to the unknown in the 21st century. Can these denizens of phenomenal events be attempting to communicate a warning to humanity in this uncertain age of prophesied change? Take a journey around the world stalking the tricksters! Since 1992 Christopher O’Brien has investigated the mysterious San Luis Valley (in CO/NM)-possibly America’s most anomalous region. Among the many high-strange events he has investigated there and elsewhere are dozens of reports of unusual “trickster-characters including: Bigfoot, devils, crypto-creatures, and witches. He also has experience with other fantastic trickster-like phenomena worldwide. O’Brien’s Mysterious Valley book series and numerous TV and radio appearances have been appreciated by millions. Join him on this intriguing quest to identify the tricksters impacting the world in the modern age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press
• Release date: Mar 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781935487586

Christopher O'Brien

Christopher O'Brien moved to the San Luis Valley in 1989 and began his private investigation of unusual events documented in his 1996 book The Mysterious Valley . He has written articles for numerous magazines, including Fate, UFO Universe, Phenomena, Zeitgeist, and UFO Encounters. His investigation and research have been featured in the Denver Post, Pueblo Chieftain, New Mexican, Rocky Mountain News, Albuquerque Journal, and in an ongoing series in Spirit magazine. O'Brien has also helped develop, field-produce, supply footage, and appeared in four segments of the syndicated Paramount television program Sightings; appeared on Inside Edition, Showtime, Extra; was featured in the TBS Documentary "UFO: The Search," and in a BBC2 documentary aired in the fall of 1997. Chief Investigator for Skywatch International, he has field-produced and directed television segments for the nationally syndicated paranormal news-magazine program Strange Universe and is currently working on a documentary on location in San Luis Valley.

Book preview

2009

zero

Trapping Mercury:

Defining the Tricksters

Don’t you ever wonder why, nothing ever seems to change?

If it does its for the worst, seems its just a modern curse.

Sometimes when I take a peak, outside of my little cage,

Everyone looks so asleep, will they die before they wake

And hey, don’t you know we’re just products of our time…

Change—Danny Elfman

What exactly is a trickster and is this a valid, important question in the modern age? No. There is nothing to see here—lets go back to our slumber, let world events and your dreams wash over us like warm milk—it will all be over soon…

To be blunt: for the vast majority of the world’s population this is an absurd question that was rendered moot a long time ago somewhere around countless campfires. If we have a need to ask about tricksters, today, we probably couldn’t handle the answer, let alone the implications of the question. For the sake of argument, what role, if any, tricksters are playing in this modern, hyper-technological age of enforced catharsis and ungrounded change seems to be irrelevant. It is the ambiguity of any viable modern definition of tricksters that lies at the heart of why I have elected to write this book. Foolishly, or wisely—flying with clipped wings into the face of Pollyanna-peril, I am attempting to examine these ancient, multi-cultural—arguably paranormal figures—all in an effort to discover who these tricksters are and why they appear to be running gleefully rampant in today’s fractious world. Sometimes, when the going gets weird, we need to redefine the parameters and quality of the questions we ask and be prepared for the answers, however strange they appear.

Since prehistory, thousands of (paranormal, mythic and real-time) tricksters have been wrapped inside world cultural tradition. Cloaked in shamanic-inspired superstition they have always enacted an important agenda for catalytic change. Tricksters often exhibit paranormal abilities that deflect any and all attempts at defining their true nature and agenda, but always seem to be pulling us forward in our cultural process toward some unspecified goal just out of reach. It would appear to me that they have always exerted tremendous influence since the time of the ancient stories, and their apparent influence in today’s modern world renders them more important than ever.

So how does one go about examining these enigmatic forces and the players that appear to be behind today’s events? Watch FOX News or CNN? Read your favorite blog? Go to church or your local MUFON meeting? Hello? Our world appears to be falling apart at its financial seam, and no one really knows exactly why. Do you? All the talking heads have their opinions but most of the time they contradict one another. It seems to me that if we don’t consider the possibility that paranormal forces are at work and ask basic, fundamental questions, we will never be graced by answers. Isn’t it obvious? Today, more than ever, we need definitive answers, and fast!

You have to acknowledge that here at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, time is becoming increasingly compressed and the effects are bewildering to the babyboomers. Word of world events instantaneously spread across the globe and then the events seem to spin out of control—pushing their entrenched perception of time into a new fact paced reality. This is the realm of the Tricksters. Whether we recognize them or not, this is where we find ourselves. This is a time where kinetic forces cavort and bedazzle us—pushing us toward uncertainty and tricksterish sounding end-of-the-world scenarios. This has happened in the past many times, but it would seem that we are at a crucial historical crossroads—believed by many to be taking place between October 2011 and December 2012 and these tenuous times find us losing our comfy fiscal security blankets and peace of mind. Amid dazzling advances of technology that are coupled with personal freedom issues, we are being challenged by economic uncertainty at home; by a volatile Middle-East; and pop-culture fueled, impending doom interpretations of ancient predictions that many accept but find hard to believe. When the basic bedrocks of the modern world seem to be disintegrating is it too fantastic to suppose that some form of trickster-ism is at work? Sit back, take it in and take notes, my gentle reader: If my intuition proves correct, some sort of existential switch appears to have been tripped by trickster triggerman, unleashing a deeply embedded program of change that is now injecting novelty into our untenable western system of culture—currently undergoing cathartic change.

Today, we have tricksterish characters like con man Bernard Madoff with $50 billion of his client’s missing money, and need I mention the trillions of dollars magically sucked from Wall Street, pension funds and 401(k)s? Did a vast percentage of the world’s wealth just disappear? Or was it ever there in the first place? It appears that current events reflect a troubling new phase of trickster energy that may be reemerging to challenge us to change, before its too late. I would hope that you recognize this trend and that this is why you are reading this book.

Before we can address these rather obscure questions, we first need to define what we already think we know about tricksters. Perhaps an overview of a few tricksters is in order?

What Exactly is a Trickster?

The term trickster is actually a fairly recent addition to the English language—the first definitive use of the term was probably by anthropologist Daniel Brinton in the 1870s or 1880s, although this is still in question, because ironically, there is some confusion and uncertainty as to when Brinton actually first coined the term trickster to define these enigmatic archetypal figures we now know are found throughout the world. I have been unable to definitely establish the first use of the term, and I’m not surprised— need I point out, it comes with the territory.

Worldwide, there have been (and still are) many manifestations of tricksters and their trickster energies, but your average person today would be hard pressed to actually define a trickster. Basically, they can be described as primal archetypes that dwell within the amorphous collective-consciousness. Carl Jung created the term archetype which in Jungian psychology, [is] an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience and present in the individual unconscious.¹

Annabelle Fogerty explains Jung’s idea of archetypes and the collective unconscious in an article at helium.com:

From the dawn of humanity we have lived in a world of symbolism. Our symbols define and explain the world around us, our relationships with each other and our connected place in the universe. These symbols, these essences of pure being, are the primordial qualities of the truly real. In Plato’s cave light casts shadows on a wall. The world that we know is merely a shadow. The reality behind the shadows is the eternal forms, the essences the archetypes. Freud’s younger colleague, Carl Jung took Freud’s idea of the unconscious mind a step further. He conceived of a collective unconscious [that] consists of the eternal forms, and is the instinct and inheritance of all humanity. This collective unconscious provides us with our symbolism, our hope, our meaning, and our connection to the truly real. Some of the primary archetypes discussed by Jung are Shadow, Trickster, Anima, Animus…Transformation, Mandala and individuation of Self.²

I have chosen the Jungian concept of archetypes found within the Jungian collective consciousness to identify and define historical trickster forms. As we will see, this definition will always be malleable and this is ingeniously by design. Trickster characters, usually male, are varied in description but they all tend to share similar, sometimes exact, cross-culturally attributional characteristics. I sense this is not by accident. George P. Hanson’s groundbreaking book The Trickster and the Paranormal points out that tricksters are archetypical, abstract properties—often manifested in paranormal-based characters found in many historical and modern cultural systems. Hanson states:

[Tricksters are a] collection of abstract properties that can manifest on several levels (e.g., within individuals, situations, small groups, entire cultures). The properties are not necessarily related by cause and effect; rather they are a constellation. As more of the properties come together, the archetype strengthens, and other [tricksters] tend to manifest³

In other words, tricksters may begin as a simple a concept—and as this concept gains strength and manifests self-awareness, it evolves into characters that embody dominion over the original idea. It seems as if the culture manifests change and then has a need to anthropomorphosize the change—creating characters that kick-start the process.

Another important point that Hanson insightfully raises is the disruptive use of anti-structural techniques that tricksters invariably invoke/introduce as they deconstruct order into chaos, structure into anti-structure, truth into lies and so forth. Hanson also discusses the role of liminality, or the conscious state of being on the ‘threshold’ of (or between) two different existential planes… [where] one’s sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation… a period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed—a situation which can lead to new perspectives. Hanson continues:

Liminality involves blurring of distinctions and oppositions such as life-death, male-female, and food-excrement…These are also associated with the Trickster…[who] is a mediator between binary oppositions.⁴

Tricksters play subtle but crucial roles as they disassemble the rules of a particular cultural situation within which they manifest. Sometimes they change their facade subtly working the process over time, evolving and altering their character and the lesson to catalyze needed change. Or, when needed, they are willing to alter and sometimes even change the very nature of Gaia itself. But, in general, they are here to break down outmoded structures and dissolve order into chaos so they can introduce elements of novelty and change into a particular cultural belief system. This anarchic introduction of novelty to topple the status quo has tremendous power and influence and the powers-that-be are getting nervous. On the surface these elements of change and the deconstructive process appear negative (to the status quo) but the end result of this manipulative behavior tends to have a positive outcome. Of course, this recognition of any positive result is usually present only in hindsight.

Often, trickster behavior appears (on the surface) to be amoral, nonsensical and bewildering, but this appears to be an integral part of some sort of calculated agenda. Tricksters can be cunningly wise or extremely foolish, or both—even simultaneously. Sounds like W, doesn’t it? Sometimes tricksters are profane and irreverent, but at other times they are sacred, even wise. They can present themselves as human jokesters—even, paradoxically, while performing important cultural or religious tasks. In some cultural versions, tricksters are obscene, profane and highly sexual in nature. In many pantheons, tricksters and other important heroes can be synonymous. These particular trickster types are portrayed as hero victims, such as the Maui god Kappa who stole fire from heaven and gave it to man for the betterment of humanity.

It is important to remember that tricksters are most often willing boundary pushers and convention deifiers. They can effortlessly move between heaven and earth as messengers of the gods or, if found lacking and locked out of heaven, they can become cunning thieves and agents for man against the gods. The Greek trickster Prometheus also secretly stole fire, which he then gave to man. He was punished by Zeus for this transgression, but with this act helped raise man out of his primitive state. Raven, in some Native American traditions is said to have provided man with daylight; Loki, the Scandinavian trickster gave man the fishing net, and so on. There are many examples of this beneficence around the globe.

The Fool: Sometimes the King relied on the advise of the Fool over that of his Wise Men. The zero card in Tarot, this clownish figure is found globally.

Tricksters are sometimes amoral adepts that use secrecy, thievery and cunning to accomplish their goals. When tricksters act in this manner it isn’t necessarily to get away with something or get over on a situation, but it appears they inadvertently shock us into action. We are inspired to creatively react to challenging stimulus in the static cultural state within which we find ourselves firmly stuck.

Tricksters first became important when humanity worshiped a polytheistic pantheon of gods and goddesses. With the advent of monotheism, tricksters became diminished and less important in culture. They became shackled and shunted aside by man’s belief in a static, omnipotent creator and and it seems as if they have faded from view. Today they only appear to have survived intact within indigenous traditions.

Tricksters by their very nature need boundaries to cross, taboos to break and conventions to shatter. Monotheism has corralled them into the realm of insignificance and impotence where strict control and convention are administered by intermediaries—the keepers of the gate to God in Heaven. But it takes a lot to stop, or even slow tricksters down as Harvard professor Lewis Hyde, author of Trickster Makes This World observed in his groundbreaking 1998 book:

[Trickster] knows how to slip through pores, and how to block them; he confuses polarity by doubling back and reversing himself; he covers his tracks and twists their meanings; he is polytropic; changing his skin or shifting his shape as the situation requires…Trickster’s cunning now takes on its mental, social, cultural and even spiritual forms.⁵

It is important for the reader of this book to remember that tricksters by their very nature defy left-brain, rational analysis. I have elected to attempt the Herculean task of examining this conundrum but the underlying perplexity and provocation renders any purely intellectual examination virtually impossible. I feel however, that this transcendent mythical archetype may provide us with insight into this disturbingly tricksterish period in history. These times, like the tricksters themselves, contain the hopes of a transcendent nature, that feature epic events and players that are truly awesome yet at times abysmally absurd and extremely frustrating. I have carefully utilized the Internet and over 30 books to present what I feel are important insights and others excellent research concerning aspects of the meta-tricksters I am attempting to identify. I discovered this insightful definition of The Trickster at Elli Crystal’s excellent educational website, crystalinks.com:

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. 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.⁶

So, what do the tricksters around the world have in common and what is their role in culture? Throughout history cultures have been blessed (or cursed) with the synchronistic challenge of the trickster. When a given subculture is at a crucial crossroads during periods of novelty and change, tricksters appear to exercise supernatural powers that fabricate situations and scenarios where their transformational lessons can be revealed. Many trickster forms seem to exist beyond mere life and death; they have the mythical paranormal ability to shapeshift into a variety of animal forms, manifest as pure energy and even appear simultaneously in more than one location. Some trickster types are said to be cross-gender—choosing male or female forms at will. The trickster is arguably the most ancient of all cross-cultural archetypes and their role in any given society or tribe has ancient importance/relevance that rivals the influence of all other god-form(s). Consensual reality is the cultural, theatrical stage on which the tricksters direct the change that takes place in the play as they introduce novelty into the script at will. The lessons they impart to us actors on the stage are rendered to trick or shock us out of complacency, striping away particular outmoded stereotypical thinking while reminding us of the limitless possibilities of new thinking. I found this distinction that helps define the Trickster at Cariel’s heartlink website:

The Trickster is an older, deeper archetype than the hero, warrior, or king. In that the Trickster carries with it a pejorative in connotation, I like to emphasize not just the Trickster, but the Shaman/Trickster… the Shaman being much more positive. So I link the two together. And certainly you can see that the Shaman/Trickster appears in the cave paintings of the early European tribes, about 18,000 about years ago. Warriors don’t appear until about 9,000 years ago. Kings appeared even later. It appears historically that the Shaman/Trickster came a lot earlier, perhaps even before the cave painters appeared. The Shaman/ Trickster is closely tied to hunting, and hunting and gathering were the origin of human society, maybe 50,000 years ago. The warrior and the king are possible only after the development of cities.⁷

There are countless tricksters types found worldwide in North America, Europe, Africa, Meso-America, Australia and Asia. You’ve probably heard of one or two. As an aspiring techno-shaman, I have combed through many reference books and tapped the Internet to present a modest sampling of various trickster types, and what follows are brief overviews of the more important trickster figures from a variety of cultures. Some are legendary, some paranormal, and others are simply extramundane. As you will see, there are countless trickster types and, where possible, I have indicated cross-cultural connections between different categories. This by no means is a complete list, for each of these tricksters, individually, could be the subject of an entire article or book. I have attempted to feature specific forms from around the world to represent what could be considered archetypal variations within the given theme. Steve Mizrachs in an article comparing the clown archetype with the thunderbird legend observes:

Clowning… [can] be found in almost every North American Indian society. In every case, it involved ridiculous behavior, but on the Plains it especially exhibited inversion and reversal as elements of satire. There were four types of clown societies on the Plains— age-graded societies, military societies, the northern plains type, and the heyoka shamanistic societies. While clown societies were found throughout the Plains, the heyoka, or sacred clowns, were usually few in number, but were found in almost every clan.⁸

The Heyoka card is featured in the Sacred Path Cards: The Discovery of Self Through Native Teachings by Jamie Sams. Sam’s distills the Heyoka archetype into the following definition:

All Heyokas operate through opposites. The Heyoka’s purported wisdom, imparted to a seeker, could be the exact opposite of the answers the person would find for the Self…The Heyoka is known for creating lessons at the expense of another’s seriousness. Laughter is the ultimate lesson that breaks the bonds that destroy balance in people. If the Heyoka is successful, all is taken in good fun, and the bonds of old habits, no longer helpful, are broken…The Heyoka is a master…and can use the joking part of…nature to trick others into enlightened states of understanding. Occasionally Heyoka Medicine will backfire and zap the Heyoka in a blind spot. If this happens, the true Heyoka will take it in stride and laugh at the backfire, learning from the lesson along with others…The Heyokah is able to master the art of balancing the sacredness with irreverence.⁹

A clay statue from Tlotlico, Mexico, thought to show an Olmec-Zapotec shaman. He has four eyes, and would probably carry with him crystals and psychedelic mushrooms.

I found this interesting observation on the web from Red Elk at redelk.org/website/heyoka.htm. He claims he teaches invisibility, teleportation and levitation. He offers the following caveat to his wisdom: I do not represent any Indian nation. I represent only the Inner Heyoka Society. Our orders do not come from man, but from the Creator only. In so doing, many traditional ways are ‘stepped on’. If anyone has a complaint, go to the Creator and tell HIM. I will continue to do what I and the other 12 are ordered.

When you think on it, we are surrounded by clowns over the course of our entire lives. From the two-faced Roman Janus to Mickey D’s Ronald MacDonald or Bozo the clown, Clowns and harlequins have been used as personifications of absurdity throughout western history. This omnipresent fool/ clown figure in Native American culture is echoed in the European equivalent: the court jester, or ‘holy fool’ At crucial times through history, frustrated kings undoubtedly trusted the advise of the fool over that of the wise men in matters ranging from simple legal disputes to complex affairs of state. The donning of masks at a masquerade party is a good example of the westernized trickster clown archetype in action.

Heyoka: Sacred clown of the Lakota. One of the most popular trickster forms in North America.

The clown persona and the role of the clown in tribal society is undoubtedly the most obvious trickster form in indigenous North American culture. These liminal figures share many commonalities with their counterparts around the world. For thousands of years Native peoples persevered by utilizing their wits along with a healthy dose of good-natured joy, and indigenous people around the world all seem to share a good, healthy sense of humor. This is the arena of the Sacred Clowns. Aided by their knowledge of the natural world and a special insight into the very essence binding together the community of family groups, or clans, Clowns are charged with playing an important role preserving the traditional stories and creating a sense of joy amid the hardships of life. They present anti-structural situations and create drama where everyone in the tribe subjectively learns important lessons and is entertained by the experience. Like a Hollywood comedy but with a twist.

Hopi clowns, as an example, are considered key tradition keepers and curiously, at the core of Hopi belief, is the axiom that ‘we are all clowns’ (my italics). This great truth, if in fact can be powerfully utilized by trickster Adepts (which we shall cover later) and it is hard to escape the tricksterish irony in this age of missing trillions and bailouts in a bushed Obama world. Y2012 indeed! The parade of modern clowns is hard to miss and will undoubtedly continue. The current state of today’s political process could be offered as an example of tricksterism run amok with clowns seemingly smirking along with the media at every turn. Back in the day, clowns in some Native cultures acted irreverently funny and obscene or sometimes forebodingly serious—like, let’s say, Darth Cheney or Osama bin Laden today. But, for the most part, each lesson imparted by the clown’s worker bees—through ritual and/or societal manipulation, had a special significance as it occasionally does today. Whether good, bad or amoral, sometimes lessons targeted at individuals had special added significance when applied to the community as a whole. The time is at hand for us to define and identify the clowns of our existence, for what was once worth counted in thousands, is now tabulated in the trillions and the joke is on you.

The Court Jester, Harlequin, Fool, and Clowns are various versions of the Trickster from Old Europe.

The origins of the heyoka (Lakota) version of this traditional path are blurred by countless generations perpetuating a proactive oral tradition. When clowns appear in the creation stories they play important roles that help define traditional societal roles during the reemergence of The People from the previous world into the next. The Jicarilla Apache, for example, have a creation/reemergence story that features two female clown figures who manage to keep the people underground by twisting the vines that they want to use to climb out of the earth. By twisting the vines the plants become unstable and unusable as ladders. The people are then forced to use their ingenuity to fashion ladders that can be used to climb out of the cavern where they have been living while the earth cleanses itself. This example clearly illustrates the importance of trickster behavior as a means of invoking creative thinking, novelty and change.

Don’t stereotype the clown as there are many types of clowns to ponder. Unlike most of their counterparts around the world, there is often more than one Native American clown society, for example: some southwestern pueblos divide clowns into summer and winter distinctions. And it is not always fun and games and clowning around—some are capable of guiding individuals whose dreams and visions take them to the World of Souls or the Land of the Dead.

Clowns have an important role in terms of portraying and symbolizing subliminal concepts. Clowns portray the boundaries and the limits of the world by going beyond them, acting in a non-ordinary way while doing so, and in this way contrast their own contrary behavior with the orderly ritual directions and sacred worlds. Clowns reveal aspects of what is considered sacred without the people realizing a lesson has been taught to them. Clowns, with their antics, are not particularly concerned with concepts or convention. They do not focus on definitions within the traditional knowledge, yet by their actions they define and sometimes help re-define concepts at the core of tribal belief. Often these primary concepts address moral and ethical behavior, taboos and the concept of balance and imbalance within the tribe.

Clowns are known for their backward talk, jokester behavior, satirical skits, profanity and lewd behavior, absurdist antics and begging for food or favors, however their main function is to teach by bad example and cause imbalance during ritualized ceremony. Another important clown function is to prepare the tribe for disasters such as drought, calamitous weather and outbreaks of sickness. Also, many clowns are considered to be adept healers. Some may even feed the sick medicine out of their own mouths. Clowns are not always cast as purely social figures, as in some Southwest traditions they also have a direct association (or mystical connection) to atmospheric manifestations of water such as: rain, fog or mists, storm clouds and the resulting thunder and lightening. In some traditions clowns are thought of as mediators between the rains and the people and clown clan members make good rainmakers.

At the onset of my research and my attempt to stalk of tricksters, I intuited that the clown archetype could be crucial to fully understanding manifestations of trickster energy in today’s modern world. When I began, the most enduring and firmly entrenched trickster figure, the clown (or sacred fool), had my vote as the most obvious boilerplate for a modern trickster form, but as I dug deeper into other versions, I began to wonder. Could there be more primordial examples just as powerful and compelling?

The archetype Native American peoples have called Coyote, Coyote Man and Old Man is a central figure in many Native American mythologies. Tricksters are widely considered and revered in many indigenous Meso-American cultures—particularly in the Southwest US. Tricksters, many symbolized in their animal forms, serve important roles in defining indigenous society and they can range from being portents, omens, teachers, survivors and fools. This attributional aspect is found at the root of Native anthropormorphic thinking and wild animals are powerful symbols that supply cultural insight into the human animal’s conditions, traits and tendencies—especially when faced with liminal, anti-structural situations in the society. The small cousin of the wolf, Coyote plays an important archetypal role.

Coyotes inhabited North America for tens of thousands of years before humans, who supposedly first ventured into North America from Asia, about 14,000 years ago. Coyote as an important symbol figures prominently in many Native American cultural traditions, but European refugees who started showing up on the continent 500 years ago (and now act as if they own the place) do not pay mystical homage to Coyote. The small prairie wolf mostly attracts their attention in a long-standing, unsuccessful effort at his complete extermination, mostly by western ranchers. But the unwavering, knowing gaze of this canny creature with a perpetual bounty on its hide only obliquely hints at its importance. Coyote inhabits a tricksterish world of wisdom and antics. David Perkins reminded me that ranchers tell stories of setting traps for coyote, with poison bait. The coyotes, in turn, dig them up, turn them upside down and defecate on them. What a perfect analogy. Coyote is present at the beginning and lurks about the periphery of the end. In some Native American traditions, Coyote impersonates the Creator, making humans out of mud and bringing into being the buffalo, elk, deer, antelope and bear. In these myths, Coyote-Creator is never mentioned as an animal, though he can and does meet his animal counterpart, coyote; they walk and talk together, addressing each other as elder brother and younger brother. In these traditions the spiritual and corporeal are brothers who always walk and talk together.

While coyotes (the animals) are certainly responsible for destroying some domestic livestock, they are important to the eco-system as scavengers and destroyers of rodents. They are omnivorous feeders; they prey on small animals, eat plant matter, carrion and garbage, and they sometimes though not regularly team up to hunt larger animals. They are an invaluable part of a healthy environment.

That the livestock industry has waged a brutal, unrelenting and environmentally irresponsible slaughter (most of it at taxpayer, not industry, expense) of coyote for more than 100 years is as shameful and scandalous as it is unsuccessful, unnecessary and expensive. That coyote has persisted, prospered and expanded, both in numbers and range, since the livestock industry put a price on its head is an indication of why Old Man Coyote continues to live in the mythology and dreams of Native America and in the literature and imagination of its more recent arrivals. Coyote Man is the shadow trickster/teacher of American lore as Carl Jung insightfully points out:

A primitive cosmic being of divine-animal nature, on the one hand superior to man because of his superhuman qualities, and on the other hand inferior to him because of his unreason and unconsciousness. The more civilized we become, the more we will blame a shadow for our misfortunes. Like the trickster of old, the shadow represents a quality that isn’t accepted into the awareness. It can ‘pester’ us unmercifully but always has a gift for us, a missing quality, an attitude needed to cope, or self-realization¹⁰

Raven is an important trickster figure among the Native Americans, most notably those of the Pacific Coast, and like his black-feathered counterparts around the world, he is revered for his intelligence and service to humankind. Considered a divine trickster, Raven can play either the fool or the joker, but most often he assumes the role of teacher and provider. Raven is an expert in magic who brings revelations from the spirit world to those who need them and is often depicted in situations that appear to be outside of time. He is also a shapeshifter who can transform into different guises, depending on a particular situation. In many traditions and stories he is immortal, and no matter how dire his circumstances, he can save himself and return to his original healthy, vital form. It should be noted that many stories featuring Raven are about basic needs including food, comfort, sex, and the great lengths he will go to satiate his