Author Topic: Trickster Gods (Read 2443 times)

dragonfaerie · « **on:** March 06, 2013, 09:42:52 pm »

So I've recently had Loki show back up in my life, not by choice. This has gotten me thinking about Trickster Gods and the roles they may play in our lives.

When I have gone digging around the internet, much of what I find about Trickster Gods is kind of derogatory. People make assumptions that folks who work with them are just thrill seekers, inexperienced teens, etc.

Well, I've never sought out the influences of tricksters in my life, but they are here all the same. We're usually in a state of uneasy truce, though Loki seems to be merrily prancing his chaos through my life right now.

Is anyone else in the situation of being an unwilling "worshipper" of tricksters? How do you cope? I generally don't like chaos myself, so this has been... difficult, the last couple months.

Karen

RandallS · « **Reply #1 on:** March 07, 2013, 08:14:04 am »

Quote from: dragonfaerie;99945

When I have gone digging around the internet, much of what I find about Trickster Gods is kind of derogatory. People make assumptions that folks who work with them are just thrill seekers, inexperienced teens, etc.

You might want to look into how various trickster deities were seen in their own cultures to get a better idea of how they fit into things.

Dark Waters · « **Reply #2 on:** March 07, 2013, 08:55:36 am »

Quote from: RandallS;99983

You might want to look into how various trickster deities were seen in their own cultures to get a better idea of how they fit into things.

Many of the Pacific Northwest Native American tribes view Raven as both the Creator of the World and Bringer of Light - yet they also consider him a Trickster God.

Tana · « **Reply #3 on:** March 07, 2013, 09:11:23 am »

Quote from: dragonfaerie;99945

My personal understanding of the role of a Trickster is that: Someone must dare to break the rules, because only in Chaos will be creation. When everything is strictly and firmly set, nothing new will ever come out of it.

Well, sometimes it causes only chaos, but it is also a reminder.
The only constant factor is change and we need to be on our toes.

Heliocoptero · « **Reply #4 on:** March 07, 2013, 09:33:10 am »

Quote from: dragonfaerie;99945

When I have gone digging around the internet, much of what I find about Trickster Gods is kind of derogatory. People make assumptions that folks who work with them are just thrill seekers, inexperienced teens, etc.

Chaos has a role to play in that it starts a creative or regenerative process. It destabilizes the old and makes way for the new, even if in an not always obvious manner. People may not like it, but then again people love stability and hope things will last long, if not forever. You probably heard the expression step outside the box whenever someone is asked to be creative, and that's how tricksters often work: they move in and out of the box, i.e. they move between realms, worlds and cross borders freely. They're fluid and Loki is very much so: He recognizes no boundary, including sexual and can be a friend, foe, god, giant, male, female, etc. I once wrote something about it here.

If a trickster is stepping into your life, my advice would be to acknowledge it and go with it to the best of your ability. Ask Him what He wants, but don't push Him away. They're the kind of gods that can make things a lot more chaotic when people refuse the ride. It can be like going on a rollercoaster against your will.

dragonfaerie · « **Reply #5 on:** March 07, 2013, 08:18:36 pm »

Quote from: Heliocoptero;99999

If a trickster is stepping into your life, my advice would be to acknowledge it and go with it to the best of your ability. Ask Him what He wants, but don't push Him away. They're the kind of gods that can make things a lot more chaotic when people refuse the ride. It can be like going on a rollercoaster against your will.

Yeah, I've pretty much decided to go with the flow, although I do have my boundaries.

Karen

feriseeker · « **Reply #6 on:** March 08, 2013, 11:20:15 am »

Quote from: dragonfaerie;99945

When I have gone digging around the internet, much of what I find about Trickster Gods is kind of derogatory. People make assumptions that folks who work with them are just thrill seekers, inexperienced teens, etc.

Karen

if you dont mind going beyond modern paganism, you may want to look at the way other cultures view trickster gods, esp. indigenous religions.
Eshu, of the yoruba is considered a trickster god and he is very much important and revered.
so, i dont think that view you found online is universal....i think it is a misconception stemming from post-judeochristian thinking that at times is found among some modern pagans.

LaminariaLutra · « **Reply #7 on:** March 12, 2013, 06:17:20 pm »

Quote from: dragonfaerie;99945

Is anyone else in the situation of being an unwilling "worshipper" of tricksters? How do you cope? I generally don't like chaos myself, so this has been... difficult, the last couple months.

Karen

Hi, Karen. Sorry to take so long to respond - new member, some things are harder for me to articulate, especially where chaos is involved.

My situation is somewhat analogous to yours. I have a long-standing relationship with The Cracky Lady (popularly known these days as Eris or Discordia), but it's mostly voluntary on my part. That doesn't stop Her from playing with me when She feels like it, so I can empathize with your situation. Actually, I'm not entirely comfortable with chaos, either - I think that's one of the things that attracts Her attention to me.

You didn't specify what form the chaos in your life is currently taking - I think this has a lot of bearing on what coping methods work (or maybe "play" is a better word here). For ex, Her Crackiness likes to drop me into various ludicrous and unlikely situations and try to get me to laugh. (She's especially fond of throwing technology failures in my path.) Kind of : "Aw, come on, can't you see how absurd this is? I'm laughing, why aren't you?" And pretty soon I am.

But then I understand this as one of Her core qualities - that laughter is what gets you through the most screwy and absurd or even painful situations in life. Especially that wild, really uncontrollable laughter that I associate with her. So for me She Herself induces the coping skill. YYMV, obviously.

Hope this helps - best of luck!

CalamityJane · « **Reply #8 on:** March 13, 2013, 08:00:26 am »

Quote from: dragonfaerie;99945

As people have said before, Tricksters seem to exist so we can learn to cope with chaos. Sometimes it's not even chaos, its more "sudden and unanounced changes" that we're totally not prepared to deal with. Or so we think. Sometimes amidst the turmoil we are surprised at how strong and how well we can cope with the seemingly random crazyness of the universe.

I kind of know what you feel. Since last summer my life has been one crazy incident after the other. I actually hit a rough patch several times since then and almost felt myself get dragged down and loosing hope.
Only very recently I've started to ponder if some trickster god had taken an interest in me OR if I might have offended some deity without knowing. And the only reason I considered this was that stuff went bad so often and so quick that it turned into these ridiculous situations where I would go: "Yup...of course it turned to sh*t. Lets see what else will go wrong next!" and just started laughing.
After that, things actually started to look up. I've also started doing daily incense offerings to the force behind this (that I still don't know if exists or not) and it seems to help. On the other hand, I'm only one week in on this bit so the jury's still out...

blackwolf696 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 12, 2013, 12:48:05 pm »

Quote from: dragonfaerie;99945

So I've recently had Loki show back up in my life, not by choice. This has gotten me thinking about Trickster Gods and the roles they may play in our lives.

When I have gone digging around the internet, much of what I find about Trickster Gods is kind of derogatory. People make assumptions that folks who work with them are just thrill seekers, inexperienced teens, etc.

Well, I've never sought out the influences of tricksters in my life, but they are here all the same. We're usually in a state of uneasy truce, though Loki seems to be merrily prancing his chaos through my life right now.

Is anyone else in the situation of being an unwilling "worshipper" of tricksters? How do you cope? I generally don't like chaos myself, so this has been... difficult, the last couple months.

Karen

well you do have a choice in the matter of worship, you just have to find a counter balance. or a deity that will claim you as their worshipper/follower. they would most likely step in and say "enough!".

i prodominately worship Manannan mac lir, he has various guises; trickster being one of them but is much more than that. he's almost like the friend/father figure that likes to have a good laugh every so often.