The Trickster....

[~Sam~]

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The trickster is a very important archetype in the history of man. He is a god, yet he is not. He is the wise-fool. It is he, through his creations that destroy, points out the flaws in carefully constructed societies of man. He rebels against authority, pokes fun at the overly serious, creates convaluted schemes - that may or may not work - plays with the Laws of the Universe and is sometimes his own worst enemy. He exists to question, to cause us to question & not accept things blindly. He appears when a way of thinking becomes outmoded needs to be torn down built anew. He is the Destroyer of Worlds at the same time the savior of us all.

The Trickster lives inside and outside of Time. He is of our world, yet not of our world, so our laws will not always apply. Other symbols, associated with him include keys, clock, masks, infinity among other mythologicla images

Trickster is a creator, a joker, a truth teller, a story teller, a transformer linked to the spiritual frequency changes humanity is experiencing at this time.

We seem most accessible to the synchronistic gifts of the Trickster when we ourselves are at or near boundaries or are experiencing transition states - periods of major life transitions seem to be occasioned by an abundance of meaningful coincidence. Personal growth sees not only to facilitate synchronicity, but in turn to be facilitated by it. As an archetype, the Trickster, the boundary dweller, finds expression through human imagination and experience.

The Trickster is the Alchemist
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The part of you that transforms

We live in a dual reality - opposite polarities - yin /yang - male/female - good/ evil - God/Devil or Trickster.

Our reality is created by electromagnetic energy fields - the poles (North and South) - positive and negative energy.

This is much like a game. In order to win the game you must create balance. You can beat the trickster if you ignore that which he brings as challenges.

The Trickster is not just one soul acting alone. He is part of each of each of us as we are all created from by source. He is our polar opposite - the god and the trickster - who exists in each of us and shows itself from time to time. We see it in the little devious/devilish things we do. He is the child in many of us - the sometimes self centerd aspect that wants immediate gratification at any cost.

Our souls come into 3D to play many different roles - some of them may not be the best. The trickster 'stirs the pot' and creates the Drama while we are here.

When you abuse someone - that is the trickster in you - showing itself. When you allow yourself to be abused and remain stagnant in your life - the trickster aspect of you is in control.

The trickster is the unconscious mind at work vs. the conscious mind.

The trickster seems to have supernatural powers which help him perform his tricks. He lives, dies, comes back, shapeshifts - all sorts of magic as our reality is nothing more than an illusion.

There are times the Trickster brings lessons that we came into 3D to experience. Notice that I call the Trickster HE. This represents the masculine side of our polarity - the aggressive side that deals with the lower frequency emotions - fate, jealousy, anger, self destruction, rage, depression (the lower chakras).

On the other side we have the feminine polarity - intuition, creativity, spiritual awakening, healing, compassion, helping, nurturing, loving unconditional without judgement and allowing every thier own experiences - (higher chakras).

Planet Saturn and the Trickster

Saturn, the grim reaper, rules responsibilities, restrictions and limitations you are apt to encounter, and the lessons you must learn in life. He does not deny or diminish imagination, inspiration, spirituality, or good fortune, but he does demand that these things be given structure and meaning. The karmic lessons we have come to experience and overcome in this lifetime are expressed by Saturn.

Saturn is a great teacher if you allow it to be so. If you resist, then you feel like you have been dealing with the Trickster. It takes being a spiritually mature person to move beyond the Trickster and to embrace Saturn the Teacher. It means moving beyond feelings of limitation, vengeful behaviors, stinginess, bitterness, selfishness, fear, ridigity and narrow thinking.

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The Trickster takes on many guises - some we easily recognize and others that are more obscure:

Devil
The Fool - Tarot
The Magician
The Clown
The Jester
The Villian
The Destroyer
Mars The Warrior
Evil Witches and Warlocks - those who use power to harm and abuse others
Entities that fall under the heading Cryptozoology

Trickster in Mythology - Oral Tradition

The concept of the Trickster is as much a part of humanity's history as the concept of God.

All creational myths deal with polarity - good god vs. bad god.

We are here in 3D as if in a game - holographic in nature - where we are the players but the creator/ creators are outside of the game.

The Trickster is the energy that allows us to break out of our stereotypes, whether they've been imposed by ourselves, our families, our culture. This is the energy that opens the world of limitless possibilities and it behooves us all to work with it before it destroys us, to touch the Trickster as he touches us.

There are those who have taken the dark, negative, trickster energy to the max. These are the villians we read about in history - Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Alexander the Great, many of the Egyptian Pharaohs, etc.

Roles of the Trickster

* MERLIN
* THOTH - The scribes who write the games
* HERMES
* LOKI
* KOKOPELLI

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COYOTE the trickster is teacher, survivor and fool, coyote has inhabited this land we call America much longer than the later arriving humans from Asia, who have only been here about 10,000 years or so. The European refugees who started showing up around 500 years ago and who now act as if they own the place, do not pay as much attention to Coyote as do their indigenous predecessors. The small prairie wolf known as coyote mostly attracts their interest in a long standing, unsuccessful effort at extermination; but this creature with a perpetual bounty on its hide resembling a medium-size dog with a narrow face, tawny fur and a bushy tail, is only one aspect of what native American peoples have called Coyote, Coyote Man and Old Man Coyote.

In some Native American traditions, Coyote impersonates the Creator, making humans out of mud and bringing into being the buffalo, elk, deer, antelope and bear. In these myths, Coyote-Creator is never mentioned as an animal, though he can and does meet his animal counterpart, coyote; and they walk and talk together, addressing the other as "elder brother" and "younger brother." In these traditions the spiritual and corporeal are brothers who always walk and talk together.

While coyotes (the animal) are certainly responsible for destroying some domestic livestock, they are important to the larger environment as scavengers and destroyers of rodents. They are omnivorous feeders; they prey on small animals, eat plant matter, carrion and garbage, and they sometimes though not regularly team up to hunt larger animals. They are an invaluable part of a healthy ecology and environment, which sustains all life, including that of domestic livestock.

That the livestock industry has waged a brutal, unrelenting and environmentally irresponsible slaughter (most of it at taxpayer, not industry, expense) of coyote for more than 100 years is as shameful and scandalous as it is unsuccessful, unnecessary and expensive. That coyote has persisted, prospered and expanded, both in numbers and range, since the livestock industry put a price on his head is an indication of why Old Man Coyote continues to live in the mythology and dreams of native America and in the literature and imagination of its more recent arrivals. Coyote Man is the primordial trickster/teacher of American lore.

The creature coyote has managed to survive and thrive in the American West in the same (murderous) environment that drove the wolf to the edge of extinction. The coyote learned quickly not to eat the strychnine-laced cow carcasses that ranchers put out to kill predators, but the wolf did not learn. The wolf, despite its recent re-introduction in small populations and limited areas, is mostly gone from the vast territory over which it roamed just 200 years ago. The coyote, equally persecuted and slaughtered in that same time period, has expanded its territory from the plains of central and western America so that now it is found as far north as Alaska, as far south as central America, and from the Pacific Coast to New England. They have been seen in New York Cityºs Central Park and are currently thriving in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Coyote/coyote is ubiquitous.


continued below.............

[~Sam~]

There are many stories told of Old Man Coyote “trickster, teacher, survivor and fool": he is a hero, always traveling, stupid and awful, outrageous and cunning, foolish and wise, mischievous and often doing good despite himself.

RAVEN is famous among the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. Raven assumed the divine trickster role, similar to Coyote in other parts of the country. The divine trickster could play the fool and the joker, but the intent of doing so was to teach. Raven is also credited with sheltering the first humans, and with placing the sun, moon, and stars in the proper places in the sky. He was an expert in magic, and brought revelations from the spirit world to those who needed them.

Brer Rabbit - The Tar Baby

AFRICAN PEOPLE have tales about tricksters (hare, spider, tortoise, etc.), which slaves brought to the New World

MAUI OF THE THOUSAND TRICKS - was an ugly, excitable, but quick-witted half-divine, half-mortal trickster who was covered in tattoos. If he didn't like the ways things were, he changed them. And there were many things Maui didn't like. For example, the sun.

Every day, Maui watched human beings scramble to work, or plant, or cook, or make bark cloth in the few precious hours between sunrise and sunset. There was never enough time, the sun moved too fast, the people suffered. They had no choice but to eat their food raw.

Maui grabbed his rope and his grandmother's magic jawbone. With a quick flick of the rope, he lassoed the sun and beat the sun-god with the jawbone, until the golden one agreed to move more slowly across the sky. Then Maui looked closely at the sky itself. It hung way too low. With a mighty heave, Maui shoved the firmament up higher.

The Maui went fishing. His brother wouldn't share their bait, so Maui punched his own nose and used his blood to fish. He hauled in catches so big they became the Polynesian islands.

In mythology the pranks of the trickster seemed almost a compulsion, something they could not control. The trickster was usually blessed with a curiosity that led them into trouble, but also had a cunning wit to get them out of trouble. He played the Game! Humans would forgive the trickster, knowing that when the gods were plagued by the trickster's wit and arrogance, with the side effects sometimes beneficial to humans. We recognized that at the heart of the trickster was a savior. So even if Coyote caused a great flood because of a theft, he did lead the human race to a better world.

continued below...........

[~Sam~]

In oral traditions worldwide, a story of deceit, magic, and violence perpetrated by a mythical animal-human trickster. The trickster-hero is both creator god and innocent fool, evil destroyer and childlike prankster.

Some people link that to the part
of our brain called the reptilian brain

The Reptilian Brain - Good and Bad - The Same Symbols
God - Prophet - Zarathrustra - Zoroaster

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Sumarian God - Reptoid Alien
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The reptilian brain is the oldest and smallest region in the evolving human brain. It's similar to the brain possessed by the hardy reptiles that preceded mammals, roughly 200 million years ago. It's "preverbal," but controls life functions such as autonomic brain, breathing, heart rate and the fight or flight mechanism. Lacking language, its impulses are instinctual and ritualistic. It's concerned with fundamental needs such as survival, physical maintenance, hoarding, dominance, preening and mating. It is also found in lower life forms such as lizards, crocodiles and birds. It is at the base of your skull emerging from your spinal column. [This is the part I see plugged in as in the movie Matrix.]

- Accelerated Learning for the 21st Century by Colin Rose

The Reptilian Brain is the aggression-survival center of our existance. The basic ruling emotions of love, hate, fear, lust, and contentment emanate from this first stage of the brain. Over millions of years of evolution, layers of more sophisticated reasoning have been added upon this foundation-- our intellectual capacity for complex rational thought which has made us theoretically smarter than the rest of the animal kingdom. When we are out of control with rage, it is our reptilian brain overriding our rational brain components. If someone says that they reacted with their heart instead of their head. What they really mean is that they conceded to their primative emotions (the reptilian brain based) as opposed to the calculations of the rational part of the brain.
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The brain stem is the most ancient part of the brain. It evolved 500 million years ago and is more like the entire brain of present-day reptiles. For this reason, it is often called the 'reptilian brain'. Various clumps of cells in the brain stem determine the brain's general level of alertness and regulate the vegetative processes of the body such as breathing and heartbeat. - Mapping The Mind by Rita Carter

Carl Jung states that the trickster archetype is: http://www.crystalinks.com/coyote.jpg
A primitive cosmic being of divine-animal nature, on the one hand superior to man because of his superhuman qualities, and on the other hand inferior to him because of his unreason and unconsciousness. The more civilized we become, the more we will blame a "shadow" for our misfortunes. Like the trickster of old, the shadow represents a quality that isn't accepted into the awareness. It can 'pester' us unmercifully but always has a gift for us - a missing quality, an attitude needed to cope, or self-realization.

Trickster is at one and the same time creator and destroyer, giver and negator, he who dupes others and who is always duped himself . . . He possesses no values, moral or social, is at the mercy of his passions and appetites, yet through his actions all values come into being. . . . The Trickster myth is found . . . among the ancient Greeks, the Chinese, the Japanese and in the Semitic world. Many of the Trickster's traits were perpetuated in the . . . mediaeval jester, and have survived . . . in the Punch-and-Judy plays and in the clown. (The Trickster, A Study in American Indian Mythology) Paul Radini

Few mythological figures have such a remote origin in time and broad distribution among cultures as the one called Trickster. This character has long puzzled its commentators, largely because Trickster defies any purely rational or intellectual analysis. In fact, anyone who has studied any particular trickster story can testify to its disturbing undertones of perplexity and provocation. For Trickster contains a transcendent nature whose epic qualities are truly awesome. We can think, for example, of when Maui, the Polynesian Trickster, snares nothing less than the sun. Yet with all his enormous power he is enormously stupid, the fool of the ages, the epitome or personification of human absurdity.

Attesting to this essential duality and ambiguity of image are the descriptions of Trickster given us by the scholars. A "bestial, human and divine being," says Stanley Diamond (In Search of the Primitive, ). "A mixture of clown, culture hero and demigod," asserts Weston La Barre (The Ghost Dance, The Origins of Religion, ). We have already seen portions of Paul Radin's references to this strange and contradictory being. What is clear from it all is that this is a figure and a theme which are primal, and which have exercised a permanent fascination for mankind since civilization's dawn and probably even before. They are omnipresent, ambivalent, tragicomic. By such tokens we know the myth obviously has something of immense importance to tell us. But what?

In world mythologies Trickster's guises are legion; so much so that a well-known commentator, Joseph Campbell, has called him the "Hero with a Thousand Faces (The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Bollingen Series XVII, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.,)." He is Krishna as the World Magician, tricking all -- men and gods -- by his playful ruses as an incarnation of Vishnu, Lord of the World. He is Manabozho or Hare of the Algonkian peoples, whose father, Earthmaker, sent Hare to be born of a virgin as a human being in order to destroy evils threatening mankind. He is Eshu, the trickster-divinity of Yorubaland in West Africa; Raven of the Eskimos and Northwest Coast Amerindians; Loki, if not Odin, of Norse tradition; Coyote or Wolf of western North American native peoples; and, as noted, Maui of Polynesian mythoi. He is also Hermes of early Greek mythology; but a young Hermes, seen before he became a hero and benefactor to man. And in this we have a clue.

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[~Sam~]

For under whatever name, Trickster, as some like Campbell and Radin have noted, evolves. This outlandish yet remarkable thing in human form learns, grows in understanding, changes and, at a certain point in his adventuresome blunders, is transformed. Until that moment, however, Trickster keeps changing shape and experimenting with a thousand identities, including shifts in sex, in a seemingly never-ending search for himself. During all this he inflicts great damage on those around him and also suffers innumerable blows, defeats, indignities, and dangers resulting from his thoughtless, reckless forays. On entering upon existence he is first seen as a blurred, chaotic, hardly unified being, having no self-knowledge or life-knowledge, despite his divine parenthood. It is only later on in his peregrinations that Trickster emerges as a culture hero, demigod, and savior of peoples. But this occurs only after his transformation or self-integration takes place, and brings to the fore the great and epic qualities initially given him by his divine progenitor.

Many scholars seem to have missed or ignored the full significance of the paradox that Trickster becomes Hero-Savior, and some separate the two cycles as though they were unrelated. There is some justification for this, because different cultures have emphasized sometimes this and sometimes that part of this particular myth. Unless a scholar is alert the connections can be overlooked, as Campbell notes:

In the later stages of many mythologies, the key images hide like needles in great haystacks of secondary anecdote and rationalization; for when a civilization has passed from a mythological to a secular point of view, the older images are no longer felt . . .

Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed. The living images become only remote facts of a distant time or sky. . . . temples become museums, and the link between the two perspectives is dissolved.


Nevertheless the unity of Trickster with Hero-Benefactor is clear in a great number of the mythoi. The hero must trick the gods of their wealth, steal it, and in some manner make it available to humankind. This heavenly treasure usually is "fire" or is related to it. Raven steals the gods' fire sticks. Maui goes against Mahu-ika, the guardian of fire, to get it and bring it back to the people. In Greek myth it is Prometheus who does this. The many references to the sun-snaring feat of Trickster-turned-Hero extend illustration of this development (Katharine Luomala, Oceanic, American Indian, and African Myths of Snaring the Sun, Bernice P Bishop Museum Bulletin 168, Honolulu, 1940; reprinted by Kraus Reprint Company, N.Y, 1971). The hero who deceives, slays, or by his "wiles" appeases the gods, is honored as a savior of the world.




Trickster's hero qualities were present, then, from the very beginning of his career. But they lay dormant, in seed, until he decided to exercise them, which he did only after a long and painful process of trial and error, growth and metamorphosis. For in all of his manifestations Trickster remains a primordial being of the same order as the gods, despite his prolonged sojourn in the human condition. In a fine study of New World myths, Daniel G. Brinton traced the trickster figures of this hemisphere to an original high god of light (Myths of the Americas,originally published in 1868; reprinted by Multimedia Publishing Corp., Blauvelt, N.Y., 1976; pp. 172-207). For traditional peoples light, fire, and sun are words that have always had a double meaning. While they certainly stand for the physical things named, they also and more importantly stand for the spiritual reality behind these. Fire is the illumination of consciousness or direct knowledge. Light is such interior knowledge. Sun refers to the spirit of the sun: the source of the life and light and fire of knowledge in our system. And it is with such peoples that the poetry and transformative power of Trickster as the "enemy of boundaries" -- adopting Karl Kerenyi's penetrating phrase -- has remained alive and strong.

No matter how often scholars have analyzed this myth in the attempt to reduce it to any strictly rational value, it endures in all of its polyfaceted and multileveled grandeur. To restrict understanding of it merely to one or two of its features would be to rob us of its unusually important meaning. For serious reflection upon the myth in all of its world variety brings a conviction that it can refer only to the evolution of human consciousness and the full range of phases and multiple colorations which this implies. Yes, the evolution of our consciousness, but from a gigantic perspective and nothing less; one which carries us back to the fabulous illo tempore: into the night of time millions of years ago to the magic moment of first creation, that, dawn time "when first the world was born" and we "walked with the gods."

From the initial dimness of a consciousness newly-born, lacking any real integration of its components, and having forgotten his divine mission, we follow Trickster as his awareness steadily comes forth in ever greater measure. We watch as the self-knowledge of this inchoate entity develops, bringing with it strength, remembrance, and a firmer sense of identity -- all this until, at a certain point, by capturing the fire of inner illumination from the gods, he gains a full measure of self-consciousness or self-recollection, and can act to benefit mankind. To use Jungian terms, the Unconscious within himself has been transmuted into the Conscious, bringing lucidity of spiritual vision of self and the universe. It is Radin, again, who asks the question and reaches the conclusion:

Is this a speculum mentis* wherein is depicted man's struggle with himself and with a world into which he had been thrust without his volition and consent *[Speculum mentis, Latin: "mirror of the mind."]? . . .

On the basis of the very extensive data which we have today from aboriginal tribes it is not only a reasonable but, indeed, almost a verifiable hypothesis that we are here actually in the presence of such an archaic speculum mentis.

Our problem is thus basically a psychological one. In fact, only if we view it as primarily such, as an attempt by man to solve his problems inward and outward, does the figure of Trickster become intelligible and meaningful. -- Paul Radin, op. cit., p. xxiv.


Radin's insight emerges from a profound study of years of this mythological phenomenon. It converges remarkably with an unusual injunction or "golden precept" offered in the Orient to beginning seekers of spiritual reality:



The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real.

Let the Disciple slay the Slayer.
-- H. P. Blavatsky, The Voice of The Silence, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, 1957; p 1.

Here is an arresting insight into the nature of our mind. We learn that mind can cause us to misperceive the true nature of things -- first and foremost, of ourselves -- and we are advised to overcome it. For obviously we are not told to destroy the mind, that marvelous instrument of perception and analysis which we possess by virtue of evolution, only to master that power it has which in classical Eastern thought is called mayaor "illusion." This is clear when, later, the same source says:

For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects. It needs the gentle breezes of Soul-Wisdom to brush away the dust of our illusions. Seek O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and Soul. -- Ibid., p. 26.

And here is a further discernment: the mind must be dual in its powers. While it can blur our perception of the real, it is paradoxically the faculty in us that -- properly employed -- can carry our vision beyond the data of the mere brain and the senses. Our mind is not the sum total of our consciousness, then. And it is when we fall into the error of believing this to be so that mind tricks us. Only when we use mind to free ourselves of such limitations can it work the transformation releasing us into the full consciousness of our complete being, allegorized in the sun-snaring episodes of the mythoi, the seizing of the divine fire of knowledge.

Many Amerindian peoples, to say nothing of traditional cultures elsewhere, knew this and were fully aware of the pernicious effects which could result for the community when people thought with the brain alone and forgot the thought arising from the heart. In their mythoi we see Raven and Coyote hilariously doing everything their cultures forbid to its members, and other myths have Trickster doing everything ritually backward. In fact, with the Lakota of the great plains the trickster was made a permanent asset of the community in the person of the medicine-men known as the Thunder Dreamers or heyokas, the "clowns." Only the heyokas were permitted to do all acts in reverse of the usual order. Whenever an ugly situation developed resulting from misunderstandings and misapprehensions among the people, the beyokawould burst upon the scene with his clowning and cavorting. Seeing this strange performance was usually enough to restore good humor and restraint to those embroiled in the matter, allowing a more humane solution to be reached and protecting the community from itself. The heyoka was a living speculum mentis whose contribution was to help transform the trickster in us into the beneficent hero for the good of the whole.

And with this, I leave you good folks. See you next week some time.

Sam

[Fractual_]

wow sam tha was really interesting, i havent even read the whole thing yet but so far its great

[loveflower]

i loved that, i havent finished it all but what ive read i loved

[~Sam~]

It is a bit of a read, huh? I found it in; "How Things Work", when I was looking for the History of Friday 13th superstitions.

As I read through this piece myself... I began to realize who I was. The growth of the Trickster brought home to me the reality of my own personal growth. The words in the above Mythology rang so true to my own experiences in life, that I had to take some time to think about the reality of who I am.

I come away from the realization with great peace of mind and calmness of soul. I had been "Called". But I didn't for what role or purpose. Now I know.

Glad that you enjoyed the read.

Sam

[Fractual_]

yeah sam, as i thought about it more and more, it made a lot more sense. being a trickster, and jester, in order to love, and learn, and the universe also being a trickster in a sense, to teach us, thats what it meant to me anyways.

[SandyLee]

alot of your posts have really resonated with me sam, from the Great Blue Heron and This one too.

Ive been going into my trickster lately and presently, its fucking bad yet at the same time i cant stop.

madness.

im really dammed stoned, smoking everyday since i got back from europe, and i just want to get higher, and try other drugs, like ectasy and mushrooms.

i hate it but at the same time i love it.

have you had any similar experiences sam?

[~Sam~]

Fractual, one thing that I've found as I've wrestled with the negative aspects of being a Trickster is that people often times will hate you for a time. This is good. It separates the wheat from the chaff, and you end up with friends in whom you can really trust. The others who dislike the things I have done, if they really think about it, end up learning a lot about life.

Life's lessons don't come easy. As I'm fond of saying; one doesn't learn from the good times, but one truly learns from the unpleasant experiences along the road. And... learns them well.


Sandy, I would say I've had some experiences in my life. But to go into the past right now is not where I'm at. I'm here, in the recent future, and I'm busy forming new Life experiences.

Sometimes words Do have two meanings. And, in the context that you use the word; "High", I would call the physical effect of whatever drug you speak of to truly mean; "Low".

Be it pot, lsd, or alcohol... the effect on your mind/brain and body is a real Low. It gets in the way of really experiencing life on life's terms. It adds years to the learning process, and keeps you from maturing at a natural rate of personal growth for you.

Back in the psychedelic years, mind expanding drugs showed us that there was a doorway in the mind that you could go through to access areas of the mind/brain that consciousness would not allow one to walk through normally. I have come to find that one doesn't need chemicals to access that door.

Altered States, of any kind, were used in a sacred manner to speak with the spirits. In ancient times, Datura or Amanitas shrooms were used to reach this state. But, in reaching an altered mental state through meditation or consciously lowering the normal brain wave functioning, through calcium efflux, from 20 Hz (beta state) to 4-7 Hz (theta state) one can open up a whole new realm of psi possibilities without the use of drugs.

This is how I get to altered states when I find it necessary. I don't often find that using this power is necessary these days, so I simply get high, and I mean truly high, on life, as life presents itself to me.

I'm really glad that you've found these posts interesting. One thing to remember with all these little tidbits I post, is that they are "Awakening Stories". The Great Blue Heron, when observed by the human brain, looking through human eyes, is a big bird. He is a Heron, and thinks and acts and behaves like a Heron. Same with the Snake or any other animal or plant guide.

We give animals human qualities when we do this. And... and this is a Big And... Animals, Trees, Fish, or rocks and crystals simply don't have these human characteristics. I call this tendency, Anthropopatholism. Much more correct than using the term Anthropmorphism.

Even though we belong, and are part of the Multiverses, we are still individuals. Occupying individual physical bodies in the Now, from where we live.

We occupy human bodies, thinking with human mind/brains. Dogs occupy dog bodies and think with dog mind/brains. Horses... cats, snakes, mice, bugs, lizards... the very same.

When we do observe animals in the wild, we watch how they behave. We try to recognize similarities in their behavior to reconcile our own behavior. We give them, in our own minds, our human thinking capabilities. Animals do not have human thinking capabilities... they have their own. And these are not lessor than human thinking... only different.

But when we do this, it is anthropomorphism at its finest. And not necessarily true to form. I do, however, receive mind pictures from my own animals here on the farm. They are animal pictures, sent with animal thoughts. Not a human quality among all those pictures.

Shamans and Healers of the past did this to form lessons that could be understood by those who looked to them for guidance. So when a Heron or a Snake shows up... Voila! You have those stories of their qualities at hand to use in human lessons... lessons you need to be reminded of... not because the Heron is looking to teach you lessons in human terms... but because someone in the past has spent a lot of time studying these animals and putting their behavior into human terms and human lessons that humans can understand.

So... Humans give human qualities to other animals. Those animals do not have those human qualities. They are themselves, and not truly concerned with your human personal and spiritual growth. They show up in your life if you place yourself in the world where they are likely to show up... looking for food, a mate, or for rest. They are concerned with their own survival, pure and simple. Survival in the strictest of terms, because the animal world is not as friendly or peaceful as we humans would like to believe that it is.

Anyone who tells you differently is full of shit. Period. Or they think that they can hear the animal through their own vivid imaginations and then turn around and tell you their fantasies, so that you will believe that animals are thinking of you and concerned for you on your own journey through this life. Animals are not Altruistic for the most part. Dogs can be. And Bluejays have shown some altruistic qualities towards those of their own covey. But, for the most part, survival is their concern.

I hope that I haven't sounded to harsh. But there is a lot of psuedo-spiritual, psuedo-psychic drivel out there. Please, use the stories, but don't get fooled into thinking that animals think and behave like humans. We only use them as reminders of what we need to concentrate on in our own lives, or work on in our own spiritual and personal growth lessons.

Sam

[Fractual_]

wow sam, i love reading your posts. i was just talking about animals the other day with a member named Caitlin on here, she said animals have a certain understanding of the world that we dont, and she was right, but i said they were very selfish with their instincts though. cant forget the selfless dog though...

and sam, i know what you mean, sordove like "the dark night of the soul" you have to know evil to overcome it, and the truth is not always a beautiful thing, but its a beautiful process discovering it, but doesnt always look that way to others i guess.

and i just had a conversation very similar to what your talking about with drugs, i dont know about them hindering learning processes, i know they CAN, but i know they certainly sped mine up, i'm incredibly, almost too young to be learning some of the things i am. i can honestly say i wouldnt be who i am had i not done the drugs i did, their very beautiful spiritual tools i think. but the lady i was with argued that anything you find on them is not real, its just your creation... well i don't know about that, if one is really experiencing the divine or not, but i know its certainly seems real to whoever is experiencing it, especially if your lucky enough to truely share that experience with. but she basically said if you cant remember all the great stuff you learned felt and experienced the next day then what good did it do you, but i guess its a matter of remembering and intertwining with everyday life...

but me personally, ive never got very into psychadelics, not yet at least, i did acid and mushrooms and DXM, but i never exeprienced ego loss, or that nothinng and everything everyone talks about, but i'd love to. i saw the girl with the sun in her eyes, but then she was gone... doing such things on your own is sooo much more hard work, and takes much more dedication and practice, but im human, im lazy and i like shortcuts... the lady also argued that if one does decide to change ones conciousness, that one should wait until one has lived until 25 i think she said, so they have some foundation and understanding of life already, before they change life too much, which made a lot of sense to me... but then you have to wonder, by the time you get to that age, if your environmental imprints havent already gotten the best of you, and its too late to really experience a good spiritual trip, or even want to do such a thing...

[~Sam~]

*** Nods her head in respect and appreciation ***

It is always so nice to read your replies, Fractual. Sometimes I have a hard time reconciling your keen intelligence with your age as posted... but, positively so.

I think that your friend was probably referring to an age, around 20 years for most, when the Frontal Cortex/Temporal Lobe neural Net, of the physical brain/mind, completes its hook-up. Until that neural network is complete, I don't believe that forward thinking, in the truest sense, can begin to take place. I would say that you are an exception to the rule.

To DO drugs... or Not to Do Drugs?

That's a personal choice only you can make. I used to be like Tommy Chong... when someone put something in my hand to help with expanding my mind; "What is it? ... No, No... don't tell me, I'd rather be surprised." A Garbage Head is what they used to call me. It would certainly appear that those many "Swallows" did nothing to slow down or inhibit my thinking capacity. But, then again, that's just me I'm talking about here. And I've lived a lot of years with and without the aid of chemicals.

I'm still learning and growing. Sometimes, I get to thinking that I'm too old and tired to be bothered with this whole Sheebang of learning any longer... That's when a great big whopper of a life lesson gets dumped into my lap. And that's when I discover that I ain't so damned old after all.

Good Talkin' with Ya....

Sam

[Fractual_]

i dont know sam, i still have a LOT to learn, a lot of real basic stuff about the art of living and such. i wrote a lot about it last night in a poem, but lots of different ideas thrown together in one thing, maybe i will sort it out and post it on here soon. but something along the lines of peaking behind the curtain, and then not being very certain, trying to open the door from the floor.

but i was definatley a really smart kid there for a while,and still am, i just need to excercise it more. i was really using my brain, but i thought i was a genius. i never really said, what next ya know, what can i learn next, where do i go from here? i thought i had it all figured out, but even then i had much to learn. but now, i feel like i am in a rut, in a hole thats so intense i often wonder if i will ever get back to where i want to be.

yeah basically, i think she meant that you have to have some foundation and experience of life, before you alter it so drastically, like i did. and that makes sense, but i can honestly say i wouldnt be who i am today had i not done drugs. theres ups and downs to that, ups being it introduced me to a whole new way of seeing the world, and the spiritual world, negative being the drugs started fucking with my head, literally fuckin with my head. i had heard it before but never really listened to it goin to a pot rehab thing with my friend for kicks, and the guy was really cool, but he said if you continue to abuse the herb, the herb will eventually in turn abuse you, and youll start to feel some of the more negative affects, and he was right.

i was also like you to an extent, with the garbage head, i used to just loooove getting high when i discovered drugs, i didnt care what it was, if it got me fucked up i wanted it some. and i did a disassociative called DXM, that is not so good for you i later found out. i was never a really responsible drug user.

but yeah, at this point, i would most likely trip again given the opprotunity, but pot is only cool in moderation when im by myself for me now. when im high and alone, i have a beautiful understanding of the world around me and myself, but when im high and with people, my mind is completley scrambled and anxious.so im tryin to chill on the reefer

and i think your absolutley right about my age, im incredibly young to be learn some of the stuff i did. and i did not have that foundation of life and experience. and once i found out all this stuff, i was like wow i just HAVE to tell so and so about this! and i was baffled when they didnt want to hear about, and sordove went through the 'messianic phase' as ram dass says, where i was like jesus and had to spread the word. essentially, i embraced a LOT of truth, a mindblowing amount of truth, through my actions and words, and it scared people i think, because truth is not beauty, and beauty is not truth as our friend on here blackie put it. and i had always been a bit of a loner, and i spent the whole summer by myself not excercising my mind at all, and it ruined me i think. cuz i had that 'all figured out' mentality...

and man, its a lot harder when your trying to go to the light as opposed to the light coming to you.....

[~Sam~]

Carl Jung was credited for saying;

"Enlightenment is not a matter of imagining figures of light, but of making the darkness conscious."

I would love for you to post that poem here, Fractual. Truth is always changing and evolving for us as we move through this frozen river of time. It's never what you think it is. Only when it comes up and bites you in the ass, does the truth you were seeking become apparent...

I'm learning new truths, even at my age, on a daily basis. Sometimes I'm so overwhelmed by just how wrong I was about this thing or that thing, that I feel I should go live in a cave somewhere and forget about saying another intelligible word to anyone ever again.

Then, a few seconds, or a few hours, or many days go by... and here I am again... shooting off my big mouth.

But... now I have to go out and put Kaibab and Allyson in my pickup truck and take them to their new home. I'll be back soon... I hope.

Love,
Sam