In my childishly simple animist gnostic pantheist gut, heart, and mind (and body, soul, and spirit) I grant to all shamans and shamanizers 1/360 or so of the peculiar honors due the mysterious, original, and ever present Shamans or Shamanic Wise Fools of the Universe and their flip-side Trickster Twins who save and liberate us all from Seriousness. In some way to some degree, shamans (and dedicated shamanic practitioners) as well as deliberate, obvious shamanic jesters and clowns must fall down and give their lives as individual ways to bridge wisdom and folly - in all levels, dimensions, orders, and realms of consciousness and being, spirit and experience, living and dying. All shamans must somehow resonate, reveal, and conduct the cosmic antics of Light and Spirit, and digest a lethal dose of the waste products from this universal feast of matter and energy - then recover from the symptoms, dis-eases, and side-effects enough to show back up around our circles and tell about the ordeal, incarnating the perfect remedies for curing whatever ails us. One of our teachers paraphrases another teacher: "What kills you is what cures you. But first it has to kill you. Not everyone returns right away, to tell the story." So, in a way, all Shamans are Shaman Fools - dying amidst ordinary moments, exploring what is beyond the everyday, doing the best to return to show the ways - and the very Christ-like look like the Holy Fools and the most extreme Shaman-Fools take after Trickster, known by some as Lucifer, the dark side or Twin of Christ and ultimate light container.

This show played out notoriously in this world in the teachings and actions of the Jewish Rebbe Yeshua, whose name can mean "LIFE is setting life free," who told his Adversary - the Satan, the inclination to go one's separate way, who took separation too far and turned into the sullen builder of the same old, tick-tock, status quo, "get behind me!" Rabbi Yeshua did not say "Go away!" to his Adversary or Satan, in this story - he said "Get behind me (where you belong)!". Because the sullen, humor-deprived Adversary has become so influential in our world, the Christ, to keep on liberating us and putting the Adversary in the proper place (and saving the Adversary too), shows up as or teams up with Trickster(s), who can pop up ahead of us in the daily news, or even in the person of our closest companion. And the show of the Shaman Fool and Trickster, and the Teacher and Adversary, tours on and on, as it always has, and still does to this day. Eventually, a critical mass of even this world's most die-hard tyrants and their blandest bureaucrats will receive the drinking cup and grok the beautiful, funny, Truth - that LIFE ALL WAYS LIBERATES LIFE, and nothing in the universe can stop the ecstatic vibrating of this Song of songs.

The Shaman-Fool may appear less of an authority and seem less of a success than other more respectable Shamans, and might catalyze and collect ridicule and even disgust, while revealing and conducting re-creative Holy Spirit and the Spirits of Life, amidst the suspense of everyday scenarios, by acting out as Trickster, Trickster's fool, or Trickster's foil. A Shaman Fool can unmask fraud with a mask, release blessings through disguises, upset customs with costumes, break habits with a routine, and re-mind us of Truth and Beauty with funny hats. On the best of days, the Shaman Fool can help even the most sour or sullen Bureaucratic Builder finally crack into a smile, die laughing, and dream on into new life.

The Shaman Fool is the Christ and Sophia, who ever and always gives up all for one, and one for two and three and all, both earthward and heavenward. The humor-deprived cannot yet dance or play this Knowable Mystery long enough to receive more than a taste of the FUN.

Trickster is the twin, the companion, the consort, the sister, the brother, the left hand with tricks up the sleeve, and can play all roles as the shadow or the nemesis - in the 1000 gestures and guises of every spiraling spacetime moment. Trickster teaches the Shaman Fool the trick of coming and going, turning upside down and inside and out, being this and yet that. The Wise Fool and Trickster are companions, and flip sides of one coin of the realm, always inviting in and releasing new versions of that mysterious, mercurious, even chaotic hint of something more than the sum of all the parts. The Wise Fool and Trickster switch on and off, around and about, as the catalyst, the clown, and the clone of the many smokier or clearer mirror images of the Sovereign (Holy Family), the Universal Extended Clan of All Relations, the Grail (Stone, Cauldron, Cup, and Ship), and the seamless, holey, strings of light and darkness woven, Robe of Many Colors. When the Shaman-Fool and Trickster adventure and return, side by side, they are really two and three as one and zero - the one for all and all for one, as everyone, yet none.

In our Ages of Here and Now, the sulky sibling who stayed at home and followed directions, who lost the crucial sense of humor, is becoming more and more an ailing, victimized, surviving, victimizing, progeric, lost child sovereign of this world - fear-bound and mean, or despairing, yet secretly longing for shape and dream shifts, for love, death, and an honoring feast. Only healing laughter can make Light of this poor, serious, imperious, satanic, demiurgic killjoy. But the final door to the Royal City will never stay open for any one or all, until this last and least one of the two, and three, and more is lit up and drowned out in divine laughter, set free, and brought along with us into the Full Circle.

This is a job for the shaman fools and tricksters of many families, tribes, clans, schools, and orders - whether they quest by land, sea, or sky - who question and jest, to entertain yet awaken.

I notice that mystics, mages, alchemists, metaphysicians, gnostics, and artists are all in some or several ways acting as shamans, conducting and revealing wholly Life Spirit and the holy Spirits of Life. Frontier scientists, technicians, and philosophers sometimes also fulfill the shaman's callings to be the prophetic entertainer, new dreamer, blessing in disguise revealer, and consciousness-self-reality shape shifter. All of these practitioners may emphasize, intentionally or unintentionally, a lot or a little, more or less, or one or more aspects of the Wondrous Way of LIFE freeing Life as life - experience or reason, will or grace, nature or art. And, some of them may function and remain within a paradigm, tradition, or institution, even while they push out the boundaries. A shaman reconnects gut, heart, mind, self, and the universe - and opens new dreams and adventures and returns to sing and dance the stories - no matter what kind of work and play s/he engages in, or whether or not or how s/he is ordained within a religious organization.

To me, all real shamans, shamanists, and shamanic practitioners are shaman fools, to whatever extent they live paradox and lay down their lives and bodies intentionally for all - as bridges, vessels, archways, and doors to the Sacred and Divine, anywhere and anytime, and so everywhere for all time. I say, all shamans must be humorists and optimists, to some degree, to pull off this life and death performance, and make it real for others. In some way(s) all shamans companion the Other, travel with with Trickster (at least now and then), and keep handy an up to date kit bag of tricks of the trade - to be ready any here and now, in the moment for Holy Spirit and the Spirits to stir the fire and trouble the waters of our world.

A Shaman Fool learns from Trickster to refine and purify each moment by being the darkest container for making Light of everything. The Shaman Fool acts out boundaries yet shifts and dreams across and back, quantum leaping from one end of any polarity to the other, doing the best to shine like both Morning and Evening Stars. Trickster, the Light Bearer, can break everything up by carrying the greatest quantity of Divine Laughter possible in any moment, setting the stage for the Shaman-Foolish Adventurer to rush in, attempt to play the hero, and start connecting all the broken Ends to new Beginnings.

To be continued and revised...I am planning to add links, too. ~ Chammy)