Human Archetypes Series
I've decided to start a series in human archetypes. In human cultures across the world, many common cultural figures re-appear through preserved stories. There is a hypothesis in psychology that these archetypes a common, collective psychological inheritance (the idea of the human "collective unconscious"). Carl Jung had a large influence on this idea, which is that dreams and collective archetypes help solve problems in normal waking life, through the use of mixing of ideas, actions, and metaphors). The Trickster figure is a basic archetypical figure found in literature, art, and dreams.
The Trickster
The trickster comes in many diverse forms. In whatever form it shows up in (one common characteristic of tricksters is that they can 'shapeshift', they use their cleverness to get what they want, and to survive. And sometimes they do this by cleverly speaking truth to power. That might be one reason why the same - or similar - character shows up in different forms throughout the world, depending on the local environment.
One familiar trickster archetype common in Western cultures is in the form of a court jester (in the court of a King). He shows up on playing cards in the West from the late Middle Ages, but was almost certainly a folkloric hero of sorts prior to. The Joker is seen as a figure to bring truth to a King's court through mockery and self-deprecation, which was an outlet for the court to here harsh or embarrassing truths (at least on occasion), and otherwise have a laugh or two.
He also shows up as one of Batman's greatest enemies, in the Batman comics and larger franchise.
However, in most other societies, the trickster comes in the form of an intelligent animal - usually one who is sometimes smart and not always easily predictable. The Coyote, the Raven, and the Crow have all represented intermediaries between the normal world and the deeper world (or between the world of the living and the dead). A world where we can sometimes be outsmarted by, and where death is all-too-real. They also might show us something we may not have thought of before. In the real world, crows and ravens are known to use a variety of tools with its beak (they can even make toys for themselves), and the coyote finding ways to outsmart other animals, or rival packs of coyotes, to defend their territory. It's no wonder that these animals began to represent trickster animals for us, across the world.
The coyote, too, has the ability to reproduce much more quickly when its number have dwindled. In fact, that is the purpose of their howling. When they pull their heads high and howl, what they are doing is asking for a 'head count'. They want to make sure the whole pack is still all together. But if one or more individuals do not return the howl, this means that the pack is weaker and needs new members more quickly, and so they female coyotes become much more likely to produce a bigger litter of pups the next time they get pregnant. Talk about an odd trick! Even if humans wanted to get of coyotes, it has been almost impossible to do so. In this way, it's not surprising that they would be seen as a mediator between life and death by our ancestors.
Coyote mythology is on of the most popular mythologies of the Native American (especially North American and First Nation) peoples, including throughout the Western portions of North America, like California, Arizona, New Mexico, and the Great Plains). Both the coyote, as well as the crow and raven, are also scavenging animals. In that way, too, they represent an intermediary between life and death.
In Sweden, crows are commonly considered ghost of murdered people. In Native Australian and Native American legends, the raven was believed to have originally been white, reflecting a dualistic view of the Raven in its role in the world, or perhaps as a kind of fallen creature. In Greek mythology, ravens were associated with Apollo, the goddess of prophecy. That is, the ability to see into the future and make predictions. There is an ancient Greek myth that Ravens were once white, but were scorched black from fury from a god who was jealous of another god.
The raven is also the first species to be mentioned in the Bible, originally in the Old Testament (also known as the Five Books of Moses). In the story of Noah, a raven was chosen out of all of the animals to find land after the great flood. The raven did not return. It was a dove that did.
In Islam, a raven is mentioned as the creature who taught Cain how to bury his murdered brother Abel.
In Hindu cosmology, a very old sage in the form of a crow, Bhusunda, recalls a succession of epochs in the earth's history. He survived several destructions, living on a wish-fulfilling tree. Crows are also considered ancestors in Hinduism and duriring the practice of offering food or pinda to crows still occurs.
Foxes play a role of the trickster in other cultures. In Japan the fox figure is called Hinufe, and in Western Europe, Reynard, who relies on deception to get his way. Foxes have playful qualities, and they are clever, playing into the archetype of the trickster.
The trickster also often acts as a scapegoat for our fears, mishaps, and unattained ideals of an individual or culture. It is someone to blame for things that you wish but aren't there.
Some other archetypes that have qualities of a trickster, around the world, include: the Leprechaun (Ireland), Genies (Islamic), Loki (Norse), the fairy (Celtic), the Nine-tailed Fox (China), Robin Hood (English), the Pied Piper (German). These are just a few of the hundreds or more that have been documented. They each have varied characteristics, but what they all seem to have in common cleverness of some kind, and an ability to skirt the distinction between life and death, acting as middlemen to achieve their own aims. Sometimes, they help us understand things we may never have thought of ourselves, bringing life to death. Conversely, they can also bring death to life. Such is the paradox of the trickster archetype in human mythology.