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Fox • Hare • Jaguar • Raven

The four major sections of this site are represented by iconic trickster figures from myth, folklore, fable, and fair tales. Tricksters are devious, chaotic forces, sometimes attributed good, other times seen as evil. However, many see them as neutral characters that bring about wisdom, strength, and change through their natural sense of mischief.

Chinese folklore and fairy tales imbue the fox with the ability to brew the elixir of life by allowing its breath to rise to the moon. When a fox does this, the breath seems to be a ball of fire; thus, it is called foxfire. Sometimes people steal the foxfire and swallow it to gain supernatural powers. There are many other Chinese tales of the Huli-jing, the Fox Spirits.

In Japanese folklore, the Kitsune has a trickster nature, and some have the ability to take on human form.

Scandinavian folklore grants the fox the ability to produce foxfire, except in Scandinavia, foxfire refers to the northern lights or the aurora borealis. Many indigenous cultures of the Americas see the fox as a sly animal, a symbol of wisdom or craftiness.

Often confused with the rabbit, the hare is a symbol of wisdom. Taoist fables of the hare on the moon refer to its ability to make the Elixir of Life. In Japanese folklore, the hare is a crafty but clownish trickster, unlike their Kitsune counterparts.

Trickster hares can be devious, mischievous, good, evil, and neutral. Many West African cultures see the hare as a trickster culture hero. A very old story about the hare has the Moon sending the Hare, the dopey messenger, to earth to give humans the gift of immortality. The Hare, however, fails to deliver the message, bringing death into the world.

Perhaps the best-known modern offshoot of the hare as a trickster is Brer Rabbit.

Indigenous cultures of South America speak of Tezcatlipoca, or "Smoking Mirror," who often takes the form of a jaguar. Smoking Mirror rivals Quetzalcoatl; in the legends of Tollan, Tezcatlipoca tricks the ruler of the city, Quetzalcoatl, into acts that later force the culture hero and king into exile.

Tezcatlipoca represents change through conflict as well as ancestral memory, time, and the night sky. The name itself, Smoking Mirror, comes from a form of Aztec divination, which utilized black obsidian.

In the form of Jaguar, Tezcatlipoca battled Quetzalcoatl and even destroyed the world. Symbolically, the jaguar took on elements of power, night, discord, death, conflict, and temptation.

Throughout North America, Siberia, and Northern Europe, stories imbue the raven with mystical trickster powers. Many different cultures tell how Raven stole the Sun, bringing the light into the world.

Many people associate the raven with death, rebirth, and fortitude. In Ireland, the raven symbolizes the battlefield and warfare. The Norse god Odin is affiliated with Ravens, with two serving him as his thought and memory, or eyes and ears, they fly over Midgard everyday and bring Odin news.

In some Native American myths, the Raven is responsible for bringing death into the world.