The modern definitions of “trickster” are pretty uniformly negative. A trickster is someone who lies, cheats, and steals. You can’t trust those sly and cunning characters.
At their mildest, they’re inclined to play practical jokes on other people, tricking them and making them feel foolish. No matter who they are, their middle name is deception. It’s quite unsettling!
This perception of tricksters, though, is based on a belief that there’s an agreed-upon set of rules that everyone ought to follow—indeed, that there’s an agreed-upon version of reality that is both obvious and accepted. The problem with tricksters is that they routinely violate those basic societal rules and agreements. They simply do not conform.
But, although they definitely do have agendas and desires and big appetites, tricksters didn’t develop their nonconformist spirit with an ulterior motive in mind. Tricksters never did conform; it’s not in their nature. So they aren’t rebelling against anyone or anything. They just don’t see things the same way other people do. They perceive the world and its rules and boundaries and beliefs as being considerably more fluid than some may find comfortable.
As it turns out, science is on the side of tricksters. It’s our brain, after all, that tricks us into building the sense of the “real” world we take for granted. According to Marcelo Gleiser in The Tricksterish Brain:
Who you are and how you relate to the world depend exclusively on how your brain integrates sensorial stimuli with the memories you manage to invoke.
That means your Inner Narrator played the original trick, which is getting you to believe in the constructed Story of You. It’s your Inner Trickster who suggests from time to time that all is not as it seems—that there is more to you, more going on in the world around you, and more possibility than you currently see.
Every construct is constructed. The trickster puts us in contact with the sources of creativity from which we can be empowered to construct our own construct…and reminds us that life is endlessly narrative, prolific, and open-ended. —William J. Hynes, Ph.D.
Plasticity vs. Stability
Your Inner Narrator’s job is to provide you with personal stability, a sense of self that persists over time, by weaving together your experiences, your memories, your beliefs, and your desires. Most of this happens below your level of awareness, without your direct input. Without your Inner Trickster, you would essentially be stuck on the hamster wheel: a result of an unconscious process—a complex process, but an unconscious one nevertheless.
While tricksters are usually observed tricking others, and using their wit and their wiles, their scheming and their mischief-making, to outfox adversaries, consider the possibility that the greatest gift your Inner Trickster may offer is its ability to outfox you—to trick your brain into creating transformational change.
Yes, one part of your brain (associated with the Default Mode Network) is focused on survival and maintaining the status quo, which means that you get to continue doing what you’ve always done and being the person you perceive yourself to be. That part of your brain, which is the source of the Inner Narrator, is both powerful and relentless, so if you do seek change, you’re likely to discover that it’s a lot harder to sustain than you thought it would be.
But another part of your brain (associated with the Salience Network) is ready to help you disrupt the ongoing story, change the predictable course, challenge the status quo—not by overpowering the Inner Narrator, but by tricking it or catching it off guard.
The trickster is a perpetual incarnation of change and surprise, doing the last thing expected, the most unpredictable action, coming like a thief in the night, violating the usual rules of going in through the door at a reasonable hour and first giving a knock. —David Williams, The Trickster Brain
The key is in not taking anything too seriously. In her article titled It’s Better to Be a Trickster than a Martyr, Elizabeth Gilbert says:
The trickster understands that all this world is temporary, all of it is shifting, all of it is nonsense, all of it is fair game for delight.
And as Tracy Chapman sings in Telling Stories:
In the fiction of the space between…sometimes a lie is the best thing.
NOTE: All the images in the article above are of Reynard the Fox, a trickster originating in the Lorraine region of France in the Middle Ages. There are many stories about Reynard, not only French, but Dutch, English, and German, too. They are primarily literary parodies or satires of political or religious institutions. The image at the bottom of the newsletter is of Kitsune, the shape-shifting Japanese fox with nine tails.