"The howling coyote took up common dirt and scattered it toward the sky. He caused the dirt to become stars and the rainbow."
I believe I wrote this essay sometime in middle school, meaning that it was probably created between early 1997 through early 1998. It actually appeared on my very first webpage which I created before I knew HTML (I would put the link up, but it's really embarrassing! The design is horrible!). My writing skills were not as well developed, and generally speaking this essay is not very good. Perhaps one day I will rewrite it and improve upon it since there is a lot more to be said for the topic of this writing.
- Song in the Yuma Deer Dance
I see Coyote as someone incredibly wise who observes from the shadows,over your shoulder, and often enough in plain view. In my spiritual journey as of now, he seems to be my major tie to the God, whereas the rest of my life is rather Goddess oriented.
I connect what I will call the "Coyote Principle" (I'm really not sure if this term has already been used, it probably has) with various other figures in mythology. Loki stands out as a good Norse comparison, however, Coyote has never been quite so dangerous to me, and I think the Greek Gods Faunus and Dionysis (i.e. Pan and Bacchus) share similar qualities. In Ancient Egypt, the God known for the rather malicious creation of chaos was Seth, who was pitted against Horus, a God of order.
The trickster has always been represented by animals, and in European mythology the animals wren, rabbit, and fox have taken the role. While even in North Western America Coyote is replaced with Raven, and in Africa, Anansi the spider is the trickster of choice. All of these cosmopolitan archytypes share traits and similar attributes, however, the one that seems to feel the most like the one I encounter frequently would be the Coyote of Southwestern Native American tribes.
As I've said, He's amazingly wise with an immense sense of humor. He's very fond of reaking havoc and then leaving a very Cheshire-catesque smile as a calling card. He is a Puck of sorts if you would like to get Shakespearean.
Most legends describe Him as a baffling, arrogant fool Himself, but in my experience at least He has taken all of his skill from the mythic terrains of creating chaos and irony for Himself and applied that to doing such with my life. He creates destruction and disorder and loves it, and He has all the precision of a surgeon in carrying things out.
The most imperative advice I can give is never, ever wish for anything to happen. He seems to especially love toying with those! For as they say "be careful what you wish for, it just might come true".
He shows up again and again, shattering over idealistic whimsy and foolish pursuits.To be honest, I really used to hate Him for it!
Now though, the situation is somewhat different. I still don't readily welcome His interference, but I appreciate Him much more. He provides for a wealth of learning (mostly of the "learn from your mistakes kind"). He enjoys pulling strings behind the scenes, and while you may get very frustrated (to say the least about it), you later discover that those strings loosed a curtain of that sheilded you from the truth. It was a veil of ignorance that was lifted. Usually you end up, in all irony, (and you can bet He planned that too!) thanking Him for allowing you to do something stupid to prevent you from commiting furthur stupid acts.
I find that the more you pay attention to His antics and the more you are willing to learn from them, the less He becomes such a menace. I suppose I am lucky, for there are people who are so arrogant, selfish, and ignorant that Coyote's "tricks" adjust to scale and thus can be substantially more influencial. Often, these "tricks" are unnoticed because people are still so absorbed in petty glorifing of the ego that they don't realize them for a long time. They aren't awake enough to learn from them that they can snowball until maybe something tragic happens.
That is not to say that Coyote is evil, because this is simply not true.You set yourself up for the things that happen, your destiny is your own and you can't blame others for your mistakes. He can make it difficult at times, but it is your decision to learn from it and to change (or not to), not His. He perhaps is the one in charge of purpetuating Murphy's Law, but he only causes things to go wrong if the stage is already set.
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