Chronata said:
For me, the trickster/fool is well represented by the Native American tales of Coyote.
Absolutely, and in Aesop's Fables this becomes the oft-recurring character Fox (whom I call Fox-trickster, though at least once he outfoxes
himself).
moonlitkim said:
In mythology, he is often compared to Loki, the trickster. While this may not be the most direct correlation (I would personally see it as the fool reversed) Loki is one who pranks others, without thought of the potential consequences.
And Loki was probably the same deity as Keltic
Lugh: both are half-god-half-giant and revered for their
craftiness, the latter perhaps shedding some light on Trickster, who is contrasted, I think, with the heroic, since craftiness is how the ordinary person makes up for lack of a hero's
strength.
Fudugazi said:
In the history of Tarot, until Waite changed that card, the trickser is Arcanum I - knowadays called the Magician, originally il Bagatto, le Bateleur - aka the Mountebank or Trickster. But the Fool as the "initiator-trickster" also has a history - a more mythological type of trickster, and far more worrying than the fairground trickster-Magician.
In mythology, the Fool might be related to Loki (Norse), . . .
But Loki was no fool (witness how he had Balder killed by mistletoe, which is trump XVIIII THE SUN), so the proper trump for him would rather, I think, be XIIII (L,
luis the rowan or quicken), which represents learning (i.e. learning one's
craft, which IS the tempering of some raw material or other). The trickster per se IS LeBateleur, though, surely.
[As an aside, if one takes the Trickster as the god of the waning year (who takes over after the sacrifice of the heroic god of the
waxing year at summer solstice), then the months
outlining him in the (Irish) tree-calendar (gemini and aquarius) are H and L, hawthorn and rowan, which are THE FOOL and TEMPERANCE, suggesting the course of the waning year (cancer to capricorn) emerges from ignorance (THE FOOL) and progresses to mastery of one's craft (TEMPERANCE).
]
The Fool lives outside of society, he walks between worlds, and that gives him both an advantage in what he can say and do, and a disadvantage, as he is an outsider. He also represents thresholds . . .
Interesting that in the tree-calendar H-huath-hawthorn (FOOL) comes just
before D-duir-oak (HANGED MAN), the wood of doors, corresponding to Hebrew D,
dalet ('door'), and Scandinavian Tifinag D (early Bronze Age),
shaped like a door. But I see THE FOOL more as the wall itself (he who is
excluded or
separated off by hedge hawthorn), meaning that
through which a door
leads. (These are just my speculations, to be ignored by all who deem me a meddler.)
. . . in Yoruba mythology, Eshu is both the guardian of thresholds and crossroads whom we must all honour as we cross a threshold (e.g. stepping inside or outside our front door) or reach a crossroad in our lives, and the trickster who delivers necessary, sometimes cruel, sometimes gentle and funny, lessons to humans.
I wonder if this may give us some insight into the Gaulish god
Esus, the woodcutter (that is, if
Eshu and
Esus are cognate)?