Shamanic Cap

"The Trickster or Foolish God teaches us that we often deceive ourselves. Beneath the ego and its mask of order and reason lies an untamed, wilder, lawless self as genuine as the masks of respectability we present to society. By embarrassing us, the Trickster teaches us deeper truths about ourselves. not only does the Trickster confront us with the multiple nature of the universe, he shows us the multiple nature of ourselves, a truth the shaman learns through the tricks and deceptions of his initiating spirits. Indeed, trickery is part of a shaman's craft, for he or she understands that often the mind has to be tricked for the body to heal. Some shamans relied so heavily on trickery and sleight-of-hand that Western observers misunderstood their motives and dismissed them as charlatans. They failed to appreciate the purpose of trickery and illusion as a means of 'performing' in ordinary reality the transformations that were occurring on the psychic or spiritual plane..."Undoubtedly, a person who engaged in shamanic practices in Western Europe was often considered the village idiot, but we should not assume that every village idiot was a shaman. Similarly, not everyone taken by the faeries became a shaman. Nevertheless, there is something shamanic in any encounter with the Otherworld or otherworldy spirits since that is the heart of shamanism..."Throughout Europe there are festivals in which the Fool or jester plays an important role, and invariably they contain strongly shamanic elements. In fact, the role of the Fool as a sacred clown possibly derives from the antics of the primal shamans dating back to the earliest stages of European history... The Fool wore a pointed hat, like a dunce cap, which is still suggestive of a stupid or foolish person who lacks social graces and mental stability. Again we are reminded of the crazy behaviour of the shaman and the unpredictable, sometimes socially unacceptable activities of those who have been taken by the faeries. Always, however, there is a strong hint of method behind the madness, and the individual is not lost as he or she might seem. From another perspective, the pointed cap is an exaggerated hood. The magical hood has an interesting history. It was originally a vital part of the shaman's regalia, later appearing in the stylised wizard's cap associated with Merlin, the shaman-magician of Arthurian lore, and eventually in the stereotyped witch's hat of fable and folklore. The term 'hood' in American English still refers to someone who operates outside the law, a criminal who conceals his identity, a denizen of the nether regions of society..."By means of masks, makeup, costume, and especially behaviour, the Fool presents a split personality. He is there to remind us of our own splits, our hidden selves, the shadow, the repressed aspects of our nature. He confronts us with the side of our consciousness that dwells partially in the Otherworld and may only appear in dreams, the part of us we might call our "inner" outer darkness. The resulting whole personality may be pictured as a person with three faces: the conscious face on the right, the unconscious on the left, and the self that combines the two in a healthy, life-affirming manner in the middle."

"-EXTRACTS FROM "FIRE IN THE HEAD: SHAMANISM AND THE CELTIC SPIRIT BY TOM COWAN."

"-DRAWING BY DAVE@WHENTHENEWSSTOPS"

Reference: religion-events.blogspot.com