The trickster in myth – moral scales & storycraft scrapes

Mediation, Musings, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Table of contents

[Draft 5-25-2026]

  • Introduction
  • Parables about human nature
  • Coyote in mythology
  • Parallels in other major religions
  • The trickster as an “on-ramp” in storytelling
  • An outline for the structure of a trickster’s character arc
  • Examples of story premises
  • Scenario: Homelessness in the LA mayoral race
  • The story in no more than 5000 words
  • Related posts / pages
  • Notes

Introduction

A story on CBS News Sunday Morning about the coyote reminded me of the mythology surrounding the animal – as a trickster. As a narrative on-ramp in tales of moral behavior. A structure for conflict & growth in stories, in films or TV series like: Gods of Egypt (2016), Zootopia (2016), and The Good Place (2016 season 1).

This post is exposition for the story: A Clear Way for LA

Parables about human nature, connecting to the sacred

• CBS News Sunday Morning > “Out of the Wild” by Connor Knighton (5-24-2026) – What roles do coyotes play? – in history, in Native American stories, in art, and in today’s urban and suburban ecosystems. [1]

[Excerpt from transcript]

Knighton: Once primarily found in parts of the West and Southwest, they’re now in every state except Hawaii.

Flores: Coyotes have been howling the original national anthem for America for almost five million years.

Knighton: Dan Flores is the author of Coyote America, which explores the animal’s natural and supernatural history.

In Native American stories, the coyotes frequently presented as a deity type figure in human form, sometimes portrayed as a clever trickster.

Flores: What is important about these stories is not the trickster part, but it’s why the trick works, and the trick works because of the frailties of human nature.

Knighton: So a parable in some ways.

Flores: They’re parables about human nature, and that’s what they’re designed to do is to tell people about good behavior and bad behavior, and coyote personifies both of those kinds of approaches to life.

Coyote in mythology as revealing mankind’s foibles

[AI Overview]

Across many Native American mythologies, the Coyote serves as the ultimate trickster and culture hero. He mirrors human nature, functioning as an educational mirror. Through his humorous blunders, greed, and arrogance, Coyote teaches mankind precisely what not to do, allowing people to learn from his mistakes rather than suffering their own. 

The Sacred Fool 

In many legends, Coyote stands as a paradoxical figure—simultaneously a wise creator and a foolish, clumsy troublemaker. Because he exists between the animal and divine realms, his antics capture the duality of the human condition. He is often brash, driven by his stomach, and reckless, which leads him into absurd or tragic situations. By watching Coyote overreach or fall victim to his own traps, audiences are reminded of the follies of pride, gluttony, and selfishness. 

The Ultimate Mirror 

The oral tradition of Coyote tales uses humor as a pedagogical tool. Coyote allows communities to address delicate taboos and common human errors through laughter. 

  • Revealing Consequences: When Coyote lies, boasts, or steals, the narrative almost always ensures that chaos ensues, visually demonstrating the inevitable consequences of poor behavior.
  • Embodying Ambiguity: Coyote is neither strictly good nor wholly evil. He demonstrates that humans are capable of nobility and creativity, but always possess the potential for selfishness and disruption. ?

Culture Hero and Benefactor 

Despite his glaring foibles, Coyote frequently plays a pivotal role in shaping the world for humanity. He is often credited with organizing the theft of fire, placing the stars in the sky, and bringing plants, medicines, and wit to mankind. This paradox elevates him from a simple nuisance to a profound teacher—even when his intentions are purely selfish, his actions ultimately bring about wisdom, survival, and the creation of the world as we know it. 

Parallels in other major religions, including ancient Egyptian mythology

[AI Overview]

Yes, virtually every major religion and mythological tradition features a trickster figure that mirrors Coyote by exposing human flaws, subverting order, and bridging the gap between the divine and the mundane. 

While ancient Egyptian mythology does not have a single exact equivalent to the classic trickster, the chaotic god Set and the baboon aspect of Thoth serve similar structural purposes. Across other major world traditions, figures like Loki, Anansi, and Sun Wukong act as mirrors for humanity’s weaknesses. 

Egyptian Mythology: Set and the Baboon of Thoth 

Ancient Egyptian religion valued Ma’at (cosmic balance, truth, and order). Because of this, their trickster-like figures were often tied to chaos or base human instincts rather than lighthearted mischief. 

  • Set (The God of Chaos): Set represents the ultimate subversion of social taboos and order. By murdering his brother Osiris out of envy and ambition, Set acts out the darkest human foibles – jealousy, power-hunger, and betrayal. Unlike Coyote, who is often a buffoon, Set’s disruption of order carries high cosmic stakes, yet his myths served as a warning to Egyptians about the destructive nature of unchecked ego and malice.
  • The Baboon of Thoth (The Wild Mind): While Thoth is the dignified god of wisdom and writing, his sacred animal is the baboon. In Egyptian art and lore, the baboon represents the raw, unrefined, and impulsive side of intelligence. It embodies chattering vanity and unpredictable physical appetites, serving as a visual reminder of the primal nature that humans must discipline to achieve true wisdom. 

Parallels in Other Major Traditions

Culture / ReligionTrickster FigureHuman Foible ExposedHow They Reveal It
Norse MythologyLokiEnvy & MaliceLoki begins as a playful prankster but evolves into a malicious entity. His actions expose how petty jealousy and a desire to see others fail can ultimately destroy an entire community (Ragnarok).
West African / CaribbeanAnansi the SpiderGreed & Short-sightednessAnansi uses his clever wit to trick those who are larger than him, but he frequently falls victim to his own insatiable greed and pride, leaving him empty-handed and humiliated.
Chinese Folk Religion / BuddhismSun Wukong (The Monkey King)Hubris & ArroganceSun Wukong is incredibly powerful but deeply vain. He demands titles, steals divine peaches, and fights heaven out of pure ego, illustrating the spiritual blindness of the unchecked ego before he begins his path to enlightenment.
Greek MythologyHermes & PrometheusDeceit & OverconfidenceHermes is the patron of thieves and liars, embodying human craftiness. Prometheus tricks Zeus to steal fire for humans, exposing how human progress is often born from rebellion and boundary-breaking.

Cultural Differences in the Trickster Archetype 

While Native American traditions view Coyote as an essential, natural part of the human experience – allowing people to laugh at their own flaws – other traditions view these figures differently: 

  • Dualistic Traditions (like Christianity or later Egyptian myths): The trickster’s chaotic traits are often split into a polarized battle of good versus evil. Chaotic figures are frequently demonized (e.g., Set became associated with pure evil over time, much like Satan).
  • Cyclical Traditions (like Norse or African): Disruption is seen as a necessary, albeit painful, catalyst for change, renewal, and societal growth. 

The trickster as an “on-ramp” in storytelling which facilitates accessibility to moral philosophy

[AI Overview]

Yes, in storycraft, the trickster functions as a narrative “on-ramp” because they translate abstract moral philosophy into accessible, high-stakes human behavior. By operating outside conventional rules, the trickster bypasses defensive barriers that audiences typically raise against heavy-handed moral lecturing. 

The trickster archetype serves as a highly effective tool for accessible philosophy through several distinct storytelling mechanics: 

1. The Power of the Negative Example 

Instead of showing a perfect hero to emulate, trickster tales show a deeply flawed character to avoid. 

  • The Mechanic [Device]: Audiences instinctively resist being told how to behave.
  • The Philosophy [Entry point]: By watching Coyote or Anansi suffer cartoonish, embarrassing consequences for their greed or vanity, the audience absorbs the moral lesson through vicarious embarrassment rather than a dry lecture. 

2. Low-Stakes Entry to High-Stakes Concepts 

Tricksters often commit low-stakes or comical sins that introduce massive philosophical debates. 

  • The Mechanic: It is easier to engage an audience with a story about a character stealing a piece of meat or a magic item than a dense treatise on justice.
  • The Philosophy: A simple prank allows a storyteller to explore the nature of ownership, fairness, and cosmic balance without overwhelming the listener with dense terminology. 

3. Empathy Through Shared Imperfection 

Perfect heroes can feel alienating, whereas tricksters feel deeply human. 

  • The Mechanic: Tricksters embody our base impulses – laziness, hunger, curiosity, and pride.
  • The Philosophy: Because the audience recognizes their own secret flaws in the trickster, they become emotionally invested in the character’s journey, making the underlying philosophical takeaway much more personally resonant. 

4. Subversion as a Philosophical Tool 

Tricksters are natural boundary-crossers who question the status quo. 

  • The Mechanic: They break laws, trick gods, and ignore social hierarchies.
  • The Philosophy: This subversion forces the audience to think critically about why certain laws and societal structures exist in the first place, shifting them from passive listeners to active philosophical evaluators. 

An outline for the structure of a trickster’s character arc, including tips on how to avoid common tropes

[AI Overview]

An effective trickster character arc moves a character from purely selfish disruption to purposeful subversion, transforming them from a chaotic nuisance into a catalyst for systemic change.

To keep the character engaging, their transformation must feel earned, avoiding the cliché of turning them into a conventional, rule-abiding hero.

The 5-Stage Trickster Character Arc

Unlike a traditional hero’s journey, which is about achieving mastery and restoring order, the trickster’s journey is about shattering a false status quo and learning the weight of consequences.

[1. The Comical Nuisance]
  --> [2. The Disruption Event]       --> [3. The Catastrophic Backfire]
  --> [4. The Philosophical Crisis]   --> [5. The Refined Maverick]

1. The Comical Nuisance (The Setup)

  • The Status: The trickster is introduced living on the margins of a rigid or corrupt society. They use their wits to satisfy base needs (greed, comfort, ego) through low-stakes scams.
  • The Goal: Establish their charm, their unique worldview, and their core flaws (e.g., arrogance or short-sightedness).

2. The Disruption Event (The Inciting Incident)

  • The Action: The trickster pulls a stunt or a prank that is slightly too big for them to handle. Alternatively, they target the wrong person—usually a powerful, rigid antagonist.
  • The Goal: Their localized, selfish action accidentally exposes a massive, hidden flaw or hypocrisy in the ruling system.

3. The Catastrophic Backfire (The Midpoint)

  • The Action: The trickster’s cleverness fails them. Their short-sightedness or selfishness causes real, collateral damage to people they secretly care about, or to themselves.
  • The Goal: Strip away their armor of detachment. They can no longer pretend their actions don’t have consequences.

4. The Philosophical Crisis (The Dark Night of the Soul)

  • The Action: The trickster faces a choice: run away to save their own skin (their old behavior) or use their unique, rule-breaking skills to fix the chaos they helped cause.
  • The Goal: They realize that while rules are rigid, total chaos is destructive. They must find a philosophical middle ground.

5. The Refined Maverick (The Resolution)

  • The Action: The trickster defeats the antagonist not by matching their power, but by exploiting the antagonist’s rigid adherence to rules. They use deception for a greater, selfless good.
  • The Goal: The system is changed permanently. The trickster remains an outsider, but they have grown a conscience.

Tips to Avoid Tired Trickster Tropes

Trope 1: The “Suddenly Civilized” Hero

  • The Trap: Turning the trickster into a standard, law-abiding knight in shining armor by the end of the story. It dilutes what made them compelling.
  • How to Avoid It: Keep their methods chaotic even when their motives become good. If they save the day, they should do it by cheating, lying, or stealing from the villain. They don’t respect authority at the end; they just respect humanity.

Trope 2: Consequences Don’t Stick

  • The Trap: The “Bugs Bunny” effect, where the trickster never gets hurt, never feels guilt, and always outsmarts everyone without effort.
  • How to Avoid It: Make them bleed. When their plans fail, ensure the emotional or physical cost is heavy and permanent. A trickster is only relatable if their vulnerability matches their wit.

Trope 3: Intellectual Omniscience

  • The Trap: The character feels like a mastermind who predicted every single chess move ten steps in advance, making the plot feel contrived.
  • How to Avoid It: Let them improvise poorly. The best tricksters aren’t grandmasters; they are frantic jugglers. Show them panicking, adapting on the fly, and barely escaping the explosions they caused.

Trope 4: Unprovoked Cruelty

  • The Trap: Making the trickster punch down by mocking or stealing from characters who are already weak, which turns the audience against them.
  • How to Avoid It: Punch upward or outward. The trickster should target the arrogant, the hypocritical, the overly rigid, or the forces of nature. If they trick a regular person, it should be a mild lesson to cure that person of vanity or naivety.

Examples of story premises

[AI Overview]

Here are four distinct story premises across different genres that use the trickster character arc to explore moral philosophy, while carefully avoiding tired tropes.

1. Sci-Fi / Cyberpunk: The Code-Breaker’s Tax

  • The Protagonist: A cynical, low-level data thief who steals microscopic fractions of digital currency from massive corporate accounts just to fund a lazy, comfortable lifestyle.
  • The Premise: To escape a routine security sweep, they dump a stolen encrypted file into a public city-infrastructure network. The file accidentally overrides the city’s automated rationing system, turning off power to the wealthiest district while giving free medical care to the slums.
  • The Philosophical Hook: This forces a debate over utilitarianism vs. the rule of law. The trickster didn’t mean to be Robin Hood, but when the corporation threatens to level the slums to reclaim the data, the trickster must use their frantic, chaotic hacking skills to permanently break the corporate monopoly, realizing their apathy was a form of complicity.

2. High Fantasy: The Accidental Prophet

  • The Protagonist: A charismatic con artist who masquerades as a holy mystic, traveling from village to village to perform fake miracles in exchange for free room and board.
  • The Premise: They accidentally “predict” a real, impending monster invasion to a local king. The terrified king immediately appoints the trickster as the Supreme General of the Royal Army.
  • The Philosophical Hook: This explores authenticity vs. performative virtue. The trickster cannot fight a war and wants to flee, but they realize the king’s rigid, traditional generals will get everyone killed with their outdated tactics. The trickster stays and wins the battle not with honor, but through asymmetrical warfare, psychological warfare, and outright cheating—saving lives while remaining a fraud.

3. Historical Fiction: The Court Jester of Versailles

  • The Protagonist: A sharp-tongued, low-born entertainer at a highly stratified, paranoid royal court who relies on vanity and flattery to survive.
  • The Premise: Tired of being mocked by an arrogant Duke, the jester orchestrates a complex rumor that convinces the Duke to gamble away his entire estate on a fictional spice trade route.
  • The Philosophical Hook: This tackles hubris, class hypocrisy, and collateral damage. The Duke is ruined, but the Duke’s sudden bankruptcy causes his innocent tenant farmers to starve. Facing the direct, agonizing consequences of their petty revenge, the jester must use their access to the king’s ear to manipulate royal policy, gambling their own life to legally redistribute the Duke’s land to the farmers.

4. Modern Supernatural: The Deals of the Crossroads

  • The Protagonist: A minor, immortal crossroads demon whose only job is to trick humans into signing over their souls for petty earthly desires (like fame or wealth).
  • The Premise: Bored and arrogant, the demon tricks a terminally ill, hyper-rational philosopher into a contract, expecting an easy win. Instead, the philosopher uses their final days to legally and logically dissect the contract, trapping the demon in a localized loop where they cannot collect the soul without destroying their own immortal essence.
  • The Philosophical Hook: This flips the script on existential dread and systemic justice. To break the loop, the demon is forced to actually help the philosopher finish their final book on human ethics. Through this forced proximity, the trickster begins to understand the beauty of finite human life, ultimately deciding to cheat Hell’s bureaucracy to void the contract entirely.

Scenario: a charismatic, newly elected mayor of Los Angeles takes action to “solve” homelessness by sweeping away all encampments – all tents & tarps, etc., not really “connecting the dots.”

[AI Overview]

This is a powerful, high-stakes premise that perfectly fits the modern trickster archetype. In this scenario, the newly elected mayor isn’t necessarily an evil villain; instead, they are a political trickster whose core human foibles are vanity, short-sightedness, and an obsession with optics over substance. By treating a deeply complex human crisis like a public relations problem, their superficial “fix” shatters the system and triggers chaos.

Here is how you can map this specific premise to the 5-stage trickster character arc, exploring the moral philosophy of systemic accountability versus performative leadership.

The Mayor’s Arc: From Performance to Accountability

1. The Comical Nuisance (The Setup)

  • The Action: The mayor is introduced as a media-savvy, charismatic political maverick who won the election on flashy slogans and promises of “swift, decisive action.” They care deeply about their approval ratings, Instagram presence, and looking like a disruptor.
  • The Foible: Complete superficiality. They view governing as a performance and genuinely believe that simply clearing the visual blight of the encampments means they have “solved” the issue.

2. The Disruption Event (The Inciting Incident)

  • The Action: To fulfill a campaign promise within their first 100 days, the mayor orders massive, aggressive, city-wide sweeps of all encampments. They confiscate tents, tarps, and belongings, pushing people off the streets to create clean, camera-ready sidewalks for a major press tour.
  • The Twist: They didn’t “connect the dots.” By destroying the informal networks and geographic stability of the unhoused population, the mayor accidentally cuts off social workers, street medicine teams, and non-profits from tracking and distributing lifesaving medication, psychiatric care, and housing resources.

3. The Catastrophic Backfire (The Midpoint)

  • The Emotional Toll: The mayor faces a fierce public backlash. More importantly, they are forced to confront the human cost directly—perhaps a vulnerable person they used as a wholesome photo-op during the campaign goes missing or suffers a severe medical crisis due to the sweep.
  • The Action: The short-sighted plan implodes spectacularly. Stripped of shelter and scattered into unfamiliar neighborhoods, a severe heatwave or winter storm hits Los Angeles. Emergency rooms across Los Angeles County become completely overwhelmed, public transit shuts down due to overcrowding in stations, and a preventable public health outbreak spikes because hygiene infrastructure was destroyed.

4. The Philosophical Crisis (The Dark Night of the Soul)

  • The Action: The mayor’s slick PR team advises them to double down, blame county bureaucracy, or spin the chaos as a “temporary transition period” to save their political career.
  • The Philosophy: The mayor realizes their vanity has caused real suffering. They must choose between their survival as a polished politician or admitting their fundamental ignorance and using their systemic power to actually fix the underlying gears of the machine.

5. The Refined Maverick (The Resolution)

  • The Action: The mayor rejects their PR team’s advice and leans into their true trickster nature – but this time, they punch upward. Realizing that bureaucratic red tape, nimbyism, and corporate land speculation are the real structural roadblocks to affordable housing, the mayor uses their charisma to wage a chaotic, unconventional political war.
  • The Climax: They exploit legal loopholes, commandeer vacant luxury buildings using emergency powers, and publicly trick wealthy donors and corrupt city council members into funding comprehensive, wrap-around social services on live television. They don’t become a rigid, perfect bureaucrat; they remain a wild-card disruptor, but one who finally uses their trickery to force real systemic change.

Avoiding the Tropes in This Premise

  • Avoid the “White Knight” Transformation: Do not end the story with the mayor giving a somber speech, putting on a hard hat, and personally building a house while everyone cheers. It feels unearned. Instead, let them stay a fast-talking strategist. They should win the day by politically out-maneuvering, blackmailing, or out-tricking the institutional forces that created the crisis in the first place.
  • Do Not Weaponize the Unhoused Characters: Ensure the unhoused characters are not treated as passive props just to teach the mayor a lesson. Give them agency. For example, a street-level community organizer can act as a sharp-witted foil to the mayor – constantly calling out the mayor’s BS, refusing to be a political prop, and forcing the mayor to earn their trust through action rather than words.

The story in no more than 5000 words

• A Clear Way for LA

Related posts / pages

Notes

[1] For more info:

• Urban Coyote Research Project

• “Coyotes Among Us: Secrets of the City’s Top Predator” by Stanley D. Gehrt, Ph.D. with Kerry Luft (Flashpoint)

• “Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History” by Dan Flores (Basic Books)

• Dr. Andrew Lovato, city historian of Santa Fe, New Mexico

    [2] [AI Dive deeper] Coyote in mythology as revealing mankind’s foibles

    In Native American mythology, Coyote serves as a behavioral mirror for humanity, exposing mankind’s foibles by acting out our worst impulses – such as greed, vanity, and short-sightedness – and suffering the chaotic consequences. Rather than a distant, perfect deity, Coyote is an unpredictable trickster who embodies the full spectrum of human nature. By continuously breaking social taboos, he teaches communities what not to do through negative example. 

    How Coyote Exposes Human Flaws 

    • Impatience and Hubris: In Navajo lore, Coyote grows impatient watching the Holy People carefully arrange the stars into beautiful constellations. Driven by impulsiveness, he grabs the remaining bag of stars and flings them across the sky, creating the chaotic blur of the Milky Way and exposing how human impatience ruins meticulous order.
    • Greed and Gluttony: Stories often detail Coyote’s insatiable appetites. In Plains and Northwest traditions, he frequently tricks other animals out of their meat, only to lose it all through his own clumsiness or to fall victim to the revenge of those he wronged, illustrating how greed leads to self-destruction.?
    • Short-Sighted Arrogance: In a Caddo myth, Coyote grows tired of waiting for dead ancestors to return and hastily shuts a door against a passing whirlwind. This act introduces permanent, irreversible death to the world. His inability to look past immediate inconvenience highlights humanity’s struggle with long-term consequences.
    • Vanity and Boastfulness: Coyote frequently overestimates his own intelligence, trying to copy the skills of other animals or challenging forces of nature. In many tales, this vanity results in him being flattened by rocks, tricked by smaller animals, or left completely humiliated. ?

    The Purpose of the Tales 

    Oral traditions intentionally present Coyote as an ethically ambiguous figure – capable of bringing fire to humanity in one moment and introducing death the next. These stories traditionally served as an educational tool. They allowed tribal communities to navigate taboo subjects, reinforce social boundaries, and learn to laugh at their own human shortcomings without relying on rigid moral lecturing.