My Teacher had a Lakota Thunderbird
necklace. It was pearly white and she kept it wrapped in cloth. It resided on her altar and she considered it very
sacred.
She always explained the one blatantly
backward bead in this way: "It is backward to remind us that the world is not perfect."
She told me that this necklace
would some day be mine.
She also told me that
I was a powerful medium. She believed that I might be the Theosophical Messiah her group was expecting to appear sometime
in the 1970s. She remarked, over and over, that my overall vibes, and my eyes, were not those of an ordinary psychic. My power
was mysteriously cloaked though I was their direct link to the Mahatmas and Devas. I was not what anyone
would expect.
In my own mind I was none
of those things. Though I could always interact with spirits to a greater or lesser degree, and seemed to possess
an innate understanding of arcane lore and obscure cultic practices, I saw myself as being on a Herculean hero-quest to locate
the Olympians. At odds with my culture, I had declared myself an Outsider, a barbarian. And Sword & Sorcery
fiction spoke to my soul more powerfully than any of the occultists' sacred texts.
Well, my Teacher was right in many
ways and her original dreams for me all came true. They just didn't happen the way she expected them to. She was
very disappointed. I am still, even after all these years, considered to be the powerful soul who, despite his great gift,
was seduced by the world's darkness.
Needless to say, I did not inherit
the necklace but ultimately I did claim its power.
The Thunderbird is the totem of
the Heyoka, a type of Lakota shaman. The Heyoka is a mighty warrior in times of conflict: bold and reckless, heedless of consequence.
At other times he is considered even more dangerous: he disrupts and threatens the social order with relative impunity.
His medicine is the most powerful.
His community, for their greater good, is obliged to dance his thunder-dreams.
The Heyoka is somewhat sinister
and dark, a cosmic clown who violates taboos without fear of contamination.
-
Every Heyoka is different, a unique
individual.
-
Every Heyoka has his own Way, and
lives it.
-
Every Heyoka is both a powerful
medium and a messiah.
-
Every Heyoka is Heyoka, the Thunder
God.
-
Every Heyoka is not what you would
expect them to be.
My understanding of the significance
of the backward bead also differs from my once Teacher's take on it. This doesn't make me right, or her wrong. I saw
that the Heyoka, being contrary, will stand out... and attract attention. This is a powerful truth every eccentric
must learn to see, understand, live with and benefit from.
And I have come to know that
the world is very much a product of how we as individuals choose to see it and what we decide to make of it.
In closing I'd like to add that
according to the Lakota, who are, after all, in the best position to know, every Heyoka is a bit of a Trickster...
or isn't.
A Musing by Thor the Barbarian
