Elder Tricksters

September 28, 2024

Protecting eccentric elders
lets them do vital work.
It is work that only they can do
to protect our communities.

Today I read the September 28 entry of Juno Covella—Perpetual Calendar Of The Fellowship of Isis, by dear departed Lawrence Durdin-Robertson. Here’s an excerpt:

“A comic old woman … with her jokes and lewd gestures moved Demeter to laughter. … This episode served to relieve the mourning.”

In Japanese lore, the sun Goddess Amaterasu retreats to a dark cave after being overcome by misery. An old woman, with humor and lewd gestures, draws Amaterasu from the darkness. Amaterasu’s exit brings Her light back to the world, which had darkened during her retreat.

To my mind, the old woman who made the Greek Goddess Demeter laugh ensured humankind’s survival. Demeter is a harvest Goddess. When She was not able to move on from Her immense grief, plants could not grow. Food is life, just as the sunlight that Amaterasu embodies is necessary for life.

Both these myths reveal tricksters to be Shamans. This is contrary to the usual portrayal of tricksters.

Elders Who Teach, Heal, & Empower Us Through Good-Natured Tricks and Joy

Seeing trickster as Shaman is only one way I reject the standard definition of a trickster. I also reject the portrayal of a trickster as someone who plays mean tricks to teach us important lessons. I view a trickster as a kind person who empowers us enormously through joy, fun, and good-natured tricks. (Read a pivotal 4000-word essay about Trickster in a two-volume Book of Shadows. It provides a more comprehensive look at my unusual theories about tricksters and their powers. Both human tricksters and trickster Deities can give you so much.)

Trust Your Intuition and Common Sense

The two old woman tales embody my understanding of a kind, joy-bringing trickster. How wonderful to finally find my theory embodied in traditional lore. It shows me, once again, that if I trust the conclusions I reach through intuition and common sense, I will eventually find them backed by traditional lore.

… Perhaps I noticed this embodiment in the Japanese lore decades ago. However, seeing the same archetype in a second tradition today brought it home.

Kind Eccentric Elders Are Important to Humanity’s Survival

Elderly tricksters healed Demeter and Amaterasu of pain so that They could bring Their gifts to the world again. This embodies elders of all gender identities who are kindly, joy-bringing tricksters helping younger individuals overcome pain. Thus, younger generations are more able to contribute to their community and the larger community that is All Our Relations.

This is a pivotal and overlooked power of crones.

One reason patriarchy devalues and otherwise oppresses elderly women: So that they cannot uplift their community, which is then more easily oppressed.

Elderly trickster men are devalued for the same reason. The disrespect heaped on them is seriously damaging. It may not be as bad as the disdain commonly shown to elderly trickster women. But pointing that discrepancy out might be splitting hairs. In any case: Wisdom is often attributed to the tricks of elderly men, and the positive results of their antics are more likely to be acknowledged. Regardless, they vitally need their communities’ support. Keep reading.

Elder Tricksters Help Us During Crisis

When crisis causes paralyzing grief, pain, and anger, so we cannot overcome the crisis, eccentric elders can step in. Each one is Trickster as a Shaman who heals us and empowers us.

It is important to know that they will bestow their joyful healing tricks on anyone. Tricksters embody love.

It is equally important to recognize old lady tricksters as Shamans who heal matriarchs—the latter being women who, like Demeter and Amaterasu, provide for their loved ones, communities, and All Our Relations.

It is important to recognize this because matriarchs usually lack even the dubious support their male counterparts receive. This affects everything from their mental health to their physical health to their productivity.

In a moment, more about the importance of supporting their male counterparts. My immediate point is:

It is important to see old lady tricksters as Shamans who heal matriarchs because patriarchy pits younger and older women against each other. Both lose vital support. This influences not only their productivity but also their chances of survival.

Wonderful trickster men uplift the individuals who lead by vitalizing—instead of by dominating—communities. These elderly fellows are like the tricksters who uplifted Demeter and Amaterasu. It is important to support these guys. They reject patriarchal male leadership models. By doing so, they give up privilege and fight systemic oppression. This makes them vulnerable to oppression.

I’ve been talking about men and women. It is equally vital to recognize and protect tricksters who do not identify with either gender. Or who identify with both. Or who otherwise gender-bend.

Some lore represents ultimate power as a hermaphrodite. There is good reason. By transcending gender, a hermaphrodite transcends all divisive dualities, thus embodying the ultimate connectivity—the union of all parts of the cosmos.

This is one of the greatest tricks that anyone can play! It is one of the greatest and most delicious tricks to have played on you! It invites you to open to a blessing that is the essence of life, love, and Shamanism. It is the trickster offering the following invitation to Demeter, Amaterasu, and any of us when we are trapped inside ourselves:

Come out from isolation and sorrow
so that you can be embraced by all of life
and be in union with the cosmos,
in all its goodness, beauty, joy, abundance, and power.

Tricksters who gender-bend are subjected to all the disdain and other harm that male and female tricksters encounter, and for the same reasons.

They are also targeted for additional reasons. Here is one specific to tricksters who heal honorable young leaders:

As mentioned, a person who does not adhere to so-called gender norms embodies unity and an invitation to union. All power resides in union within the self, union in a community, union with the cosmos. To alienate people from their inborn power and power as a community, oppressive cultures divide everything into opposing boxes.

Opposing boxes. Light supposedly opposes dark, as if day and night did not happen by the planet’s natural rotation.

Nature is not seen as harmonic union, but as separate parts always in feral conflict. This idea implies people must constantly vie for dominance or be crushed. Thus pitted against each other, they won’t work together to throw off oppressors.

Boxes. Our bodies and life itself are seen as machines, with mechanistic parts independent of each other. Death culture!

No! The universe is alive. It is a glorious, complex, synergistic, and jubilant weave, of which we are a part. And we each mirror this tapestry in all its wondrousness. The weave within and around us makes all magical and mundane power accessible. Ours!

Individuals who represent that by not gender conforming threaten the idea of mechanistic dualism. It is a core cultural underpinning of systemic oppression. So they are targeted in awful ways specific to them.

The horror can start at birth: The word intersex is a term for individuals born with traits that are not gender-conforming. This can include having both male and female genitals. Surgeries that cut away some genitals so the baby’s body represents only one gender still happen today. This is physical and emotional mutilation. An infant’s body and psyche are too vulnerable to withstand this trauma without suffering an awful impact that could last a lifetime. I imagine how terrible it would be for an adult to withstand the surgery, and then think of how much worse it would be for a newborn

I dedicate this post to a dearly departed friend. They were born with male and female genitals. That is still sometimes called a hermaphrodite. Some intersex individuals do not like the term hermaphrodite, and the term is definitely out of favor right now. It was a definition my friend liked.

A card in the Rider Waite Smith Tarot deck portrays a Hermaphrodite. A divinatory meaning of the card is ultimate power.

How to Learn from Old Tricksters and Let Them Empower You

Let us honor our elder tricksters, learn from their wise eccentricities, and be healed by their so-called peculiarities.

For example, have you ever thought an elder was rambling verbally, perhaps about glory days? Or repeating stories you’ve heard a million times?

Perhaps through repetition and so-called rambling, they are weaving a lifetime of experiences together for you and thereby weaving the different parts of the universe together. Open your heart and relax, so the weaving that is the universe can wrap around you like an enchanted blanket. It’s a trick!

Note: This essay emphasizes protecting elders because of their vital contributions. But everyone deserve protection and respect from their community, even when their value is not obvious.

If you liked this essay, there is a lot more: Fairy freebies, enchanted events, and stardust. Click the banner below to subscribe to my newsletter.

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Please tell me your thoughts about this post in the comment field at the bottom of the page. A single sentence can make a big difference to me.

Comments connect us better than social media does. We can share our ideas in a community without haters trying to divide and distract.

It’s okay to be the only person commenting on a post. I don’t care about receiving appreciation and approval from a lot of people. In Traditional Shamanism, people connect as individuals. That is what my Fey-touched heart wants.

Does anything come to mind that you’d like to share?

Or claim trickster power simply by writing “trickster” in the comment field. It’s a trick!

To respond to another reader’s remark, click reply below their comment. Yay!

Book of Shadows

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My Fey kin,

Announcing a two-volume Third Road Book of Shadows:

* consisting of two PDF ebooks,

* every page ornamented by my full color shamanic art.

SmBanrFull price for this two-volume Faerie Book of Shadows is $50. Buy it at the special price of $43.

This is easy traditional witchery with substance: Pagan liturgy, inspirational contemplations, prayer,
mystical musings, and other straightforward magics help you live free and create your destiny.

The books aren’t like my texts that require committing to a training. You can think of some of these Book of Shadows entries as relaxed strolls through Fey landscapes. Entries vary in length. Some are a few words, like a quick visit I hope makes you smile … or even giggle mischievously.

I believe these otherworldly moments, which access Third Road shamanism, add beauty, inspiration, and enchantment to the reader’s life.

This project is a deeply personal sharing—intimate glimpses into both my private Faerie journey and my day as a shamanic guide.

Total pages of the two PDFs is 191 pages. My original shamanic art blesses every page, so mote it be!

Book I is The Third Road: a Faerie Shaman’s Book of Shadows. Its magic overflows into Book II: Trickster, with more Third Road Book of Shadows entries, including my pivotal 4000 word essay about trickster energy.

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Trickster is usually portrayed as a conniving deity or person who perpetuates cruel jokes for our own good. The essay details how this is an erroneous view that squelches freedom.

I have an unusual view of trickster. The essay introduces you to the Trickster who’s neither cruel nor conniving. In a kind manner, she opens the door to freedom and joy. This trickster energy betters my private Fey life and work as a shamanic guide in ways not generally considered the sacred clown’s role, even in modern Pagan culture.

You meet the innocent—and often Divine Feminine—Faerie Trickster from whom all powers and joys spring. Divine Feminine Trickster is explicitly discussed in the essay a tiny bit and is implied in all its words.

I share this previously unpublished Trickster material after so many years because it’s pivotal to the immensely effective magic and enchanted Fey qualities people experience in the Third Road tradition of witchcraft.

Below is a sample page. It is not crisp and clear like the actual e-books because this website blurs images. Ditto the books’ covers.

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I set a low price for high value, because I want you able to acquire an enchanted treasure.

If you cannot afford the set: I’m exploring options for low-income folks. More about that in a newsletter.

This set is two digital ebooks: PDFs with all original art by the author. Available only from the author here:
PrchsBanr1

I decided against selling my last few books on Amazon. This is challenging, but some texts need independence. I sell them directly to my beautiful readers and fulfill orders personally.

From my Fey heart to yours,
Francesca De Grandis aka Outlaw Bunny

Coven of the Dead

November 2013

These past two years, the need to grieve
a passing on has come three times.
And, though each passing wrenched my soul,
and I sore miss my precious friends,
in other ways they are here still,
beside me in a way that’s real.

I have a coven of the dead.
We circle still, inside my head.
Lady Jane is there with pride.
Her generous love is clear and bright.
The grin of Trickster Dawn is wide,
his loyal soul stands by my side.
And when Olivia knows it right,
she too attends e’re day or night.

We circle round inside my head,
in morning rites and before bed.
Death robs all beings, it won’t stop.
But love and light remain throughout.

The veil is thin and visits come,
the wheel of life is never done.
And when my dead have need for friends,
my love remains, again, again.

When last I leave the narrow world
from which most people never stray,
until they leave it at the end,
my friends will walk me through the veil,
and we will circle—still, still,
a coven of the dead.

image

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I do not know why my language became archaic in this poem, nor why I chose to singsong. But it felt right. Perhaps, it distanced me enough from my pain to, paradoxically, write about it honestly. In any case, admitting my heartache opened a great joy in that aching heart, as you can see. On another note: Special thanks to VZR and KT for their support to post such a personal piece.

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Revitalizing This Site

Welcome, old visitors and new!

My friends and I have done massive prep to revitalize this site since late 2011. I’ve been jazzed about adding witchy witch stuff, old-fashioned craft, Druidic wonders, bardic innovations, intelligent blogs, dancing atoms (um, I couldn’t get dancing girls), and more.

 Boys and girls, come one, come all, this site has never been typical pagan.

We are kind of doing a site re-launch. I’m posting this before we do it, so you can read this when you arrive. Welcome, welcome, fellow stardusted traveler.

Past 10 years, the site received few additions and updates, because of my health. Despite that, a strong flow of visitors continued. That was awesome for me, but being able to finally make substantive changes is mega-fun. There are so many wild witchy things I want to do.

I have a mass of pieces written, built up over years.

You’ll see stuff added all the time, a whole new look, and a commitment to beauty of spirit.

 We’ll keep existing material (except bits no longer relevant) —I’m an ol’ witch who doesn’t throw out the tried and true. (This site is your grandmother. Online Wicca since 1995; I’ll tell you about that another time.)

Site navigation: The site is on three servers. (It’s a long and grassroots story.)

As of 2012, new Grimoire entries will be in my blog. Grimoire entries prior to 2012 will not be in the blog. The blog search engine and sidebar help find blog entries specific to your interests. The main Grimoire page will not have links to new Grimoire entries.

Portrait of Roberto Campus, Francesca De Grandis. Roberto kindly helped get the WordPress part of this site up and running.

Part of the long story: 1994, we ran out of space for the site. I couldn’t afford to buy any, so put some pages on the domain of my initiate and dear friend Dawnwalker. Dawn is a trickster extraordinaire and a generous loving heart. (I’m blessed by amazing people the Goddess sends me to train. I may not get zillions of students in my classes, but they’re awesome fellow seekers, we walk together and explore.). Free use of Dawn’s domain meant my site could hold more free stuff for visitors.

So I split the site between the original domain on well.com and Dawn’s, which is feri.com. Dawn, thank you, thank you. I love you. (Dear site visitor, do not confuse my tradition with Feri just because my initiate owns feri.com. Dawn used the term differently than it is used now.)

To revitalize the site, we’ve added a third domain, www.stardrenched.com, which is mostly for the site’s blog. (A long story for a later date).

SolarKing, silk painting, OutlawBunny. At the time of this post, this piece of art is available in my Etsy shop

My cauldron fire burned bright in a 2011 Solstice ritual—the first time I could have a cauldron lit in my home in years. A good sign that the cauldron was relit! My enthusiasm about revitalizing the site has been huge. My internal flame about it is bright. That flame, fueled by love of my Gods and their ways, and by Their endless love of us, is what I share in this post to you. May your hearth fire, heart fire, inner fire burn bright!

It’s a huge site. Even after I announce the “revitalized site” as “launched,” it will take us months if not a few years to work our way through creating a new look, updating text, etc. Omigoddess, there might be sadly needed updates for a while! Please forgive that and wonky layouts, etc., as we learn new software.

Portrait of Kristilee, Outlaw Bunny. Kristilee gave feedback on my site design and provided other important help.

I thank the gods for Kathi Somers, the longtime hard-working Fey-touched webmaster of this site  (a pic of Kathi is at this blog), and for the help of the www.bbs-la.com boys, who still believe that the internet belongs to the people.

Please come back often to see new stuff and changes. I hope you enjoy it because I devoted myself to it for years, and finally have time and health to refocus on it, including adding a blog. Please let me know what you think by posting responses to my blogs.

PS: While I was unable to do much on this site, I have been able to work on my everything-under-the-sun site because of the software on that site. So it has lotsa stuff, including its own blog. Check it out.

Blessing This Site

Blessing the revitalization of this site and ever-revitalization of my life. The festival of Imbolc approaches. Brid, all the Gods on my God committee (AKA my pantheon, dear visitor to this site—Faerie Gods, Oxala, Exu, Great Trickster Goddess, and all other gods I hold dear), my ancestors, and the rest of the crew, thank you!! The updated site is not ready to show yet, but I want even our process setting it up blessed and bawdy, holy and fun, and of service. May I remember that being whole and centered and healthy during the huge amount of web work needed on this project is in itself a service to the cosmos, Gods, all humans, all beings. May I be my best for the folks helping renew the site, never letting my worry about or ideals for the site’s renewal interfere with me being supportive and fun.

Thank you for being with us in the months of prep needed to get even this far. You bless me.