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The Trickster Inside and Out
with Allan Combs
The trickster is a shadow figure, a dynamic archetype, hidden in every human psyche. It arises uninvited as impulses that urge us to “play the devil” with our own rational side and behavior. But it can also manifest as a sense of playfulness, when one becomes a clown in an otherwise “serious” situation. The trickster is projected in myths and stories of virtually every traditional culture, from the Native American crow and coyote, to the closely related Mexican/Aztec dancing Huehuecóyotl (or Ueuecoyotl), and on to the African spider trickster, Anansi, and Renard the trickster fox, popular throughout Europe during the late Middle Ages; and includes great trickster gods such as the Chinese monkey king, the Norse Loki, and the Greek Hermes, said to be the “friendliest of the gods to men.”
The trickster protects us as individuals, and society as a whole, form taking ourselves too seriously, and from growing rigid and inflexible in our traditional ways. Often by the event of synchronicities that trip us up at first, and make us stop and examine ourselves. If we are open to these seeming stumbling blocks, we often discover them to be treasures in hiding; gifts from the trickster to enrich our lives.
This lesson will encourage each of us to explore our personal experiences of synchronicity, share them with others, and question how they reflect the work of the archetypal trickster, often to our consternation at first, but ultimately facilitating our own growth and transformation.
Allan Combs is Professor of Consciousness Studies at the California Institute for Integral Studies. He is author or coauthor of over 200 publications on consciousness, including Synchronicity: Science, Myth, and the Trickster; The Radiance of Being, best-book award-winner of the Scientific and Medical Network; Consciousness Explained Better: An Integral Understanding of Consciousness; and Thomas Berry: Dreamer of the Earth.