The Trickster is in various parts of mythology.  Coyote, Loki, and Raven within the lore of the First Nations.  The character of the trickster tends to fall along the lines of a malevolent individual – bent on sowing the seeds of chaos through some form of mischief.  In literature and media, the Trickster is typically applied to the role of villian – such as the Joker in the Batman stories, or Q within the Star Trek: Next Generation roles – and has thus become easily identified with individuals of ill-intent.

The past week or so, I’ve begun reading Charles De Lint after a nearly two year break from his stories.  Currently, I’m working my way through his series of short stories in “Tapping the Dream Tree”.  In one of the stories, his infamous tricksters, Maida and Zia — know as The Crow Girls, make an appearance.  Throughout the story, both know the answer to return one of the characters from the Dream World back to our current world.  When queried about the process of doing so, they answer in riddle-like fashion and latch back to the promised reward of sweets.  While their actions are maddening, frustrating and sometimes infuriating, they hold an aspect of the Trickster that I completely grok.  Their point in answering questions in a round-about fashion isn’t about being difficult – but rather to allow the individual posing the query to formulate the answer.  They guide rather than direct.  While the Trickster’s responses and actions can sometimes be frustrating, the seeker has to look through the actions and responses – to strip away the distracting material, and puzzle out the answer for one’s self.

Given that Coyote and Raven are both my totems, this is obviously a posture I’ve learned to work my way through.  Puzzling my way through responses and actions that are sometimes completely puzzling and often hair-tearing in degrees of frustration.  However, I’ve often found that working my way through to an answer can be quite rewarding – not for the answer, but for the process in retrieving that answer.  As such, I’ve come not to see the Trickster in the light of the villian, but as a challenge of sorts.  Solve this particular puzzle of seemingly unrelated materials – and from that, you’ll find the answer you seek.

Incidentally, the Crow Girls are my favorite characters in De Lint’s Newford stories.  While infuriating, they are also entertaining – almost to the level of distraction from the storyline.  Just as a true Trickster would be….