Every native tribe of Indians had a position of “scared clown”. This position was held on high. Someone who would taunt and tantalize your
insides to go within to see what was left to heal. They all had different names for them, but
they all had them. From north all the
way to south America they all had them. Everyone
hoped that the sacred clown would come to them so they could grow. What a healthy alternative to medicating
pain.
Sacred Warrior. To
Native Americans, the path of the Sacred Clown is ALSO considered a spiritual
calling, essential to the smooth functioning of the tribe:
In the days before the invaders came. . .we had clowns. Not
clowns like you see now, with round red noses and baggy costumes. Our clowns
wore all kinds of stuff. Anythin’ they felt like, they wore. And they didn’t
just come out once in a while to act silly and make people laugh, our clowns
were with us all the time, as important to the village as the chief, or the
shaman, or the dancers, or the poets.
Most every tribe had their Clowns. The Oglala and Lakota called
them Heyoka ("crazy"), the Arapaho called them Ha Hawkan ("holy
idiot"), and both peoples considered them religious specialists.
The survival of these ritual clowns
gives us a clue as to how important a Clown was to the community-spirit of each
Native American tribe. Nothing was sacred to a Sacred Clown. She was a social
critic of the highest order. Her funny mimicry and joking exposed hypocrisy and
arrogance. Her portrayals of ridiculous behavior showed the people (in a very
humorous way) their own foolishness and blind-spots. They made comment on
everythin’, every day, all the time. If a clown thought that what the tribal
council was gettin’ ready to do was foolish, why the clown would just show up
at the council and imitate every move every one of the leaders made. Only the
clown would imitate it in such a way every little wart on that person would
show, every hole in their idea would suddenly look real big."
A negative religious figure (such
as the Sacred Clown) seems odd to most non-tribal people. Most Native
Americans, however, LOVE the humor of it and tell stories about a mythic
Trickster whose pranks and mishaps teach the tribe moral lessons.
These Clowns were dangerous to tyrants and exploiters because they
were so disorganized and so completely honest. They could see with the eyes of
a child, and because of this, could spot a phony a mile away. They were
sometimes called "destroyer of heroes." The white invaders hated
them, of course, so it was either be killed or find a way to hide.
Sacred Clowns function as the eyes
of the Trickster in this world: mirrors in which we see our folly as well as
our resilience.
The initiation for a Sacred Clown
happens as she realizes that even people who love each other can be cruel to
each other, or that Life itself can be cruel. Her own intense reaction to a
personal experience of abandonment, betrayal of trust, or shattered romance may
result in extreme depression, emotional imbalance, a nervous breakdown, or (in
extreme cases) a suicide attempt. One remembers her initiation thus, "I
didn’t care about my life or what happened to me. I didn’t realize it, but
there is big medicine in that abandon."8 If she can
somehow find her emotional equilibrium, somehow go THROUGH the pain and come
out on the other side, learn to dance on the knife edge of her own Soul, the
experience becomes a gateway THROUGH the illusions of life and into the truth
of life.
What is truth? This question
propels the Clown into the sacred dimension. The Truth the Clown intuits is the
interconnectedness of all life. She KNOWS (although she cannot prove) that no
part is more important than any other part—no matter how big or how small—and
that the tiniest change in one part produces a profound change in the Whole.
She SEES (although she cannot explain) that imbalance or blockage of the Life
Force is the result of a person or group believing themselves to be more
important than another. And she can’t help puncturing that over-blown
self-importance with her sharp humor!
I have been called a sacred clown.
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