The Trickster
Hermes, Loki, Coyote
The shape-shifter who breaks every rule.
The Trickster: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The trickster is a figure of the undifferentiated psyche: sly and stupid, cruel and helpful, animal and divine, a maker of mischief who is sometimes also a bringer of culture. Jung wrote of it in a commentary on Paul Radin’s study of the Winnebago trickster cycle, and linked it to the medieval Feast of Fools, when the order of the church was for a day turned upside down.
He called the Mercurius of the alchemists, with his pranks and changes of shape, a trickster of the first order, and thought the figure appears when a rigid order is about to be loosened.
The Trickster: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Hermes the thief and guide of souls, Loki, Coyote and Raven, Reynard the Fox, the court jester, Till Eulenspiegel.
From the Sources
The Hymn to Hermes calls the newborn god a son of many shifts, blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams and a thief at the gates.
“For then she bare a son, of many shifts, blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods.”
Hesiod, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, Homeric Hymn IV, 'To Hermes', ll. 1-29. Translator: Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Project Gutenberg eBook #348). The text, read in part
Bulfinch describes Loki as the slanderer of the gods and the contriver of all fraud and mischief, handsome but fickle and of most evil disposition.
“There is another deity who is described as the calumniator of the gods and the contriver of all fraud and mischief. His name is Loki. He is handsome and well made, but of a very fickle mood and most evil disposition.”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Northern Mythology (Loki). Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- “On the Psychology of the Trickster-Figure” (1954), CW 9i, first in Paul Radin, The Trickster (1956)
- “The Spirit Mercurius” (1943/1948), CW 13
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Hermetic.
Also among Heroes and Tricksters
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Trickster.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/trickster.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Magician (Magus) · The Ascent · Mercury (Mercurius) · The Vessel (Vas hermeticum) · The Caduceus (The staff of Hermes)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Tree: Growth, rootedness, and the axis of the world. The Triangle: The three, rising toward a point. The Trinity: Threeness, process, and the missing fourth. The Twelve: The whole circle of time.