The Trickster

1362 Words3 Pages

The Trickster

Karl Jung's explanation for the archetypes that surface in cultural and religious literature is that they are the product of what he calls the collective unconsciousness. That thread of consciousness that connects all human beings and cultures around the world. Yet it is not visible to the naked eye, one must look for the signs of it by researching cultures who are long gone and comparing them to each other and our own. Studying it reminds us that all humans are bound together by a common source.
The "Trickster" is an archetype that surfaces in many cultural and religious stories. Each trickster is unique to it's own culture, but all tricksters are bound by certain characteristics no matter what religion they show up in. Anthropologists would argue that each trickster should be evaluated in it's own cultural setting, but in order to see their archetypal value they must be and can be evaluated as a group. Jung would say he is a manifestation of our own collective unconscious. Evidence to support such a claim was found by psychologist John Laynard. In his research on schizophrenia he found the qualities of the trickster surfacing in the disorder (p.54 Euba). This suggests that the Trickster is within all of us just sitting on the borderline of conscious and unconscious though.
So who is this Trickster? He has many forms both human and animal. His physical form seems to be particular to each religion. The best way to view a trickster is by his personality. "[He is] Admired, Loved, venerated for his merits and virtues, he is represented as thievish, deceitful, parricidal, incestuous, and cannibalistic. The malicious practical joker is deceived by just about anybody; the inventor of ingenious stratagems is presented as an idiot; the master of magical power is sometimes powerless to extricate himself from quandaries." (p.67 Hynes and Doty). The trickster seems to be a comedy of opposites. For every good aspect of his persona there is an equal and opposite aspect. In religious stories his role is very diverse. He is the breaker if taboos. He provides comic relief to a religious myth. And he will pull off elaborate schemes to teach a moral lesson or expose the folly of men.
The Trickster shares many attributes with man. In Native American st... ... middle of paper ...

...ard to meeting. This is when they meet the Borg. The Borg are much stronger than the humans and just when it seems that the Borg will destroy the
Enterprise he teleports them back to their end of the universe. Here we see again how the trickster reminds humans that there are many greater powers than them in the universe.
Now that we have seen several examples of the trickster and his ways we have a good way to identify him and understand him. In many ways he is a reflection of the human desire to become more than human. He is also a reminder that humans are just that, humans. The trickster's satire and ridicule serve as both comic relief and reminders of our own obvious limitations as humans. He represents all those parts of our psyche from wishing to fly like a bird to those that wish to rule like a God. It is fascinating to study his attributes with in a collective and within ourselves.

Bibliography

1. "Mythical Trickster Figures", William J. Hynes and William G. Doty
1993 The University of Alabama Press ; Tuscaloosa, Alabama

2. "Archetypes, Imprecators, and Victims of Fate", Femi Euba
1989 Greenwood Press ; New York, New York

Open Document