The Old Trickster
“The Trickster is a tester, one who makes sure you are
ready
before allowing you further along the Path.”
We all do stupid
things. Why? This is what I explored in my third volume of spiritual musings Stupidity Is Not a Gift of God, and I
thought I had a good handle on why I did stupid things in my life; but wouldn’t
you know it, the Old Trickster came out again last Sunday morning, the day
after I posted my spiritual musing “Being the Tao” on my blog, and the subject
of today’s musing has to do with the Trickster side of our shadow personality.
I brought it on
myself of course, because stupidity is not a gift of God; I was entirely responsible
for the accident that we got into on our drive to Barrie last Sunday (August 27, 2017) where Penny would be going
to Winners to do some shopping for
her niece’s wedding and I to Chapters across the street to browse the books and
magazines, but our shopping trip got rudely interrupted when I spontaneously
decided to switch into the turning lane at the corner of Concession 29 and
Highway 92 and did not see the vehicle behind me, and there you have it, a
stupid accident that could have been avoided had I not listened to the Old Trickster
who prompted me to switch into the turning lane to go into the gas station to
pick up my Sunday Star which was too
sudden for the truck behind me to pull out of the way and it collided into my
door, smashing it and the mirror, a
stupid stupid stupid accident…
Carl Jung
described the Trickster as an archetype that appears in all cultures, and I’ve
come to see the Trickster as that part of our unconscious shadow self that
seeks resolution with our conscious ego personality; and it does this by
prompting us to do things that wake us up and make us more conscious of our unconscious
ego nature, as it did when suddenly I felt “compelled” to switch into the
turning lane to go into the gas station to get my paper.
Why did I suddenly
switch lanes to get my Sunday Star at
the gas station when just a minute or so earlier Penny said to me, “You can get
your paper at Chapters”?
Switching lanes as
I did at the last moment was an act of idiocy because it did not give the proud
young driver of the brand new black Ford F-150 pickup behind me time to let me
into the passing lane, which caused the collision; and although I never got
charged by the OPP for my stupidity (I wasn’t speeding and I did put on my
signal, but it was too late), I have no one to blame but the Old Trickster who
prompted me to switch lanes at the last moment, and the Old Trickster is that
part of our archetypal shadow that has a compulsive imperative to be integrated
into our conscious ego personality; that’s why I say that stupidity is not a
gift of God, it’s entirely man-made.
“The Trickster is
not by nature evil,” says James Lewis in his book The Dream Encyclopaedia, “even though the results of his activities
are often unpleasant,” as mine were when I got into my accident. “These
activities centre around bringing attention to our own or other people’s often
hidden stupidity, shams or lies,” Lewis continues. “He is also the unexpected
spontaneous “idiot” aspect of life which for no reason will emerge into our
carefully arranged life to upset it,” just as happened to me. But why upset
it? Because, as I finally came to see after two days of processing my stupid
accident, we have become too complacent and need waking up to continue on our
destined journey through life.
What was my
complacency then that stirred up the energies of my shadow that it had to call
upon the Old Trickster Archetype to set me free of my shadow personality?
It hurts me to say
this, but perhaps I can soften the blow in my realization that it happens to
everyone who becomes too complacent in their life (Lord Conrad Black comes to
mind, whose public humiliation when charged with fraud and obstruction of justice
and three year prison sentence deflated his massive ego that caused his
metanoic change of heart that set him back on track to his higher purpose of wholeness
and completeness), because the teleological imperative of our life is to grow
in consciousness and realize our destined purpose. The omniscient guiding principle of life will always intercede to get
us back on track, and I had become so complacent in my gnostic conceit which I
concealed (my shadow side, if you will) in my spiritual musing “Being the Tao,”
which I had just posted on my blog the day before, that I had to be taken down
a peg or two. That’s why the Old Trickster was called upon to disrupt my life
when I listened to my “idiot” self and switched lanes and caused my accident,
letting me know that I was definitely not being the Tao (in sync with life) as
I so conceitedly, albeit unconsciously, believed myself to be; hence, my humbling
experience.
As I discovered while
writing Stupidity Is Not a Gift of God,
the word idiosyncratic comes from the Greek word “idiotes,” which means private person, or one’s own, which is
essentially one’s shadow self, and idiosyncratic behavior speaks to the
peculiar nature of one’s private, unconscious shadow personality; that’s why I
blame my “idiot” self for my stupid accident (Penny recognizes my shadow in my
“knee-jerk” reactions, which often get me into trouble), and it doesn’t matter
that we all have an “idiot” self, one can rest assured that when one becomes
too complacent the Old Trickster Archetype will pop out to disrupt one’s life
and wake us up to our blind complacency, and hopefully do something about it.
My accident was a
costly lesson, but I think I got the point; and I hope I don’t see the Old
Trickster again for a long, long while…
———
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