~~Lightening Thrower~~

In the practice that I follow with Lynn Andrews and the Sisterhood of the Shields, we often talk about Heyoka energy.  Sometimes people wonder exactly what that is, so I thought I would write a little bit about that energy and my understanding of it. 

 

Heyoka energy is an attribute of the Thunder Beings and heyoka beings are also known as the tricksters or the sacred clowns.  The sacred clown is a part of just about every tradition that I can think of.  They are the tricksters who hold mirrors for us so that we can see in their buffoonery our own false and wrong policies and behaviors. Heyoka energy informs our lives thru the back door so to speak.  It is also associated with total unshakable trust in Spirit, Goddess or God, that divine Creative Force of beginnings.  In the Sisterhood’s traditions, Heyoka warriors are the ones who ride backwards into battle with a broken lance, so deep is their trust.  Jesters in the courts of kings and rude clowns in ancient towns of Europe were given carte blanche, allowed to say and do outrageous things in order to bring people into awareness of themselves, their true selves.  It is no wonder these beings often wore masks.  It is said that the lives of court jesters who informed the king with their backwards wisdom, often had short lives indeed.  It was they who suggested the kings “wore no clothes” or were following failed policy.  Their job was not only to entertain but to inform. Today, Heyoka clowns, painted in black and white stripes with strange hats, still participate in pueblo ceremonies in the Southwest where they may chide or embarrass the citizens and fear no reprisal.  They may also inform the population in general of policies they believe are dangerous or not working by their actions.  They are the practitioners of crude humor so that the people can laugh at themselves in the midst of serious messages.  So extreme trust in the messages they are given by Spirit, in Spirit’s support and presence, and crude humor seem unlikely combinations to use for teaching. It is however an ancient tradition that helps us stop taking ourselves too seriously while making it possible for us to look at our flaws. 

 

The Sisterhood teaches that Heyoka energy lives on the east side of the medicine wheel.  That is the side of illumination, fire, old wise ones and masculine energy.  It is the side of rational thinking and yet, Heyoka beings enlighten us, and see thru our false selves, revealing them to us through a process which is a very backwards or reverse version of ration.

 

Heyoka energy is also our bridge to the Thunder Beings, those who are next to the Great Creative Source in their power and knowing. They use the thunder and the lightening strike of new understanding to wake us.  Their ribald behavior startles  and embarrasses us into laughter as we look into that mirror of ourselves at our worst.  The lightening/enlightening flashes of insight they bring are the wisdom of the Thunder Beings.  They have been given this task of speaking to us thru the back door, to move us beyond old logical arguments and receive their messages. Their ability is to hold the lens of the Great Creator‘s illumination up to us, to create mirrors so that we may see ourselves as we truly are. Our willingness to have total trust in that process and in Spirit is what gives us their magical learning.  In this work we are often called to be willing to do backwards or non rational things and I see that as another part of our own heyoka spirit.  For us to play the part of the clown, the jester who uses buffoonery at times to get people's attention or just to follow our feminine intuitive bodymind rather than our masculine rational one, takes real trust and courage on our part.  Our society is so acculturated to believe that any action that seems to be nonrational must be wrong, that it follows ration even when it is totally at odds with our intuition and path of heart.    It is not acceptable, unthinkable…notice it is the mind at work here….unthinkable to do the nonrational thing.  That is part of our heritage from the patriarchy and a real weakness in our feminine energy shields.  We need that feminine intuition and body mind knowing whether we are male or female, not only straight line reasoning.  We need this in order to live a balanced life, heal ourselves and this world. What is rational is not always what is true, or what we need to do.  Knowing that and honoring it with prayer and meditation as we make our most important decisions is living in heyoka energy.

Many blessings of the Heyoka Way
Feather