Trickster Tarot
“We constantly distinguish—right from wrong, sacred and profane, clean and dirty, male and female, young and old, living and dead—and in every case trickster will cross the line and confuse the distinction...Trickster is the mythic embodiment of ambiguity, and ambivalence, doubleness and duplicity, contradiction and paradox...
...in spite of all their disruptive behavior, tricksters are regularly honored as the creators of culture.
They are imaginined not only to have stolen certain essential goods from heaven and given them to the [human] race but to have gone on and helped shape the world so as to make it hospitable for human life”
-Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes the World Go Round
I picked up the book Trickster Makes the World Go Round by Lewis Hyde on a whim while walking past a used bookshop. When I found out a friend had recently done the same, I cracked into it and began doing what my mercurial self does best: learning.
One of my favorite things about my brain is that I can read a few lines or a few chapters, then suddenly find myself lost in the abyss of the astral realms. Printed words on paper turn into vivid pictures in my mind turn into dreamy ideas co-created with the spirits.
As I read the first few chapters of this book, an idea for a tarot spread came to me.
I felt my guide Amalia as she took over my hand to share the wisdom this three card spread has to offer:
“This spread helps us to consider something in our life, our world, that we have taken too binary of a view on. This may be a relationship, a transaction, a choice, a person—anywhere that the human tendency to box and label has created an unhelpful polarity.
Cards 1 and 2 are the opposing ideas, energies, forces that Trickster challenges in card 3.
Remember that Trickster is chaotic neutral. Neither predator nor prey, they are driven by their hunger for something more, something beyond what is accepted as sufficient or standard.
Where the binary may get us tripped up in moral vs immoral, Trickster presents the amoral, often seemingly radical, alternative.
We see this in the relationship of the Hierophant, the Emperor, and the Fool. The Fool, Trickster, goes to the Hierophant’s Heavenly Temple and learns from (or steals from) the Hierophant, then offers what they’ve taken to the Emperor (the “king of man”) to give support to the human inhabitants of the Earth. The things that make life comfortable, fun, worth living, worth sharing.
It is the Trickster spirits who teach humans to catch fish, who teach mankind to make fire, who bestow the gifts of stories and entertainment to the people of Earth.
The Trickster is responsible for granting humankind access to comforts that more sinister spirits and forces would prefer humans to simply suffer without.
While the blessings of the Trickster are many, we cannot embody the Trickster all of the time, for a few reasons.
Too much Trickster energy can eliminate the need for Trickster energy. Trickster is no longer the boundary breaker if their energy is the standard.
Too much Trickster energy can feel like madness. The vision they share with me is an iphone that is stuck restarting every time you enter your passcode and hit unlock.
I personally don’t think it’s possible to stay in Trickster energy, even if we wanted it. Trickster is elusive, Trickster not only steals the bait but shits on the trap. You can’t catch Trickster and even if you do, they do not stay trapped for long.
Eventually Trickster wears out their welcome - the novelty becomes nuisance. Trickster grows bored and moves on, or we must invoke magic to cast them out ourselves.
We can’t always be in the mode of boundary breaking. Sometimes - perhaps even most of the time - structure and discipline offer us the support we need - to care for ourselves, to care for our homes, our planet, those who depend on us.
To walk in the shoes of Trickster is a lonely road. But to receive inspiration, clairity, money, or a big ol’ slice of humble pie from Trickster as they pass through is a blessing.
We hope you enjoy this spread.
Love,
Amalia”
After chatting with Amalia, I pulled this spread for myself using the Wyrd Sisters Oracle, and tbh it was really juicy and exactly what I needed to hear. I'll be sharing more about my pull with Moonshadows Members on Discord. 🌹✨
If you would like to learn more about Tricksters and the many types of spirits we encounter in this realm and the many realms beyond, I invite you to join me this Spring for INTO THE VEIL.
Into the Veil is an immersive group mentorship in the disciplines and science of Espiritismo Cruzado. Through this portal, students cultivate unique, ancestrally guided, authentic spiritual practices.
In week 10, we learn how to identify the spirits who come to our altars (like the occasional Trickster), the levels of spirits in Espiritismo, and the many legions of spirits who engage with humankind.
