The heyoka is a part of
Lakota culture: the
sacred clown, the
jester, the
trickster and storyteller, whose role is to bring
absurdity into the
tribe, to
illuminate reality by
subverting assumptions. They play an essential part in the Sundance
ritual. Heyokas have been seen drying before bathing, burning themselves and yelling about the cold, dancing backwards, and, often, running around
naked in the winter.
A man becomes Heyoka through an
encounter with
Wakinyan, the
Thunder Being. This
being is terrible to behold, and
lightning shoots from his eye. An encounter with Wakinyan invariably drives a man into a state that the white man calls "
insane".
Whatever the heyoka does will be done with the intent of bringing the
absurd into the
Tribe. Of shocking people into an awareness of the fine
balance between extremes that creates the energy tension of life.
Heyoka may
encounter Wakinyan a second time. In the second encounter, Wakinyan appears as the hugely exaggerated,
archetype Heyoka. This encounter shocks the Heyoka into an awareness of the
Truth, and the Heyoka is restored to "
sanity".
After restoration, the man is blessed by the spirits with the true
humility of
Knowledge. A "sane" Heyoka is capable of almost any behavior. The
boundaries and limits of social
intercourse disappear.
plus:
Heyoka, the comic book version
A character from
Larry Marder's
independent comic,
Tales of the Beanworld (first appearance in issue #19.)
Heyoka is the
backwards bean, who does everything
upside down and back to front, very much in the
Lakota Heyoka tradition. She does everything backwards: ask her if she's Heyoka, and she'll answer "no". In her own words,
"I don't think - therefore - I ain't! Oops, I didn't mean to say that...".
Once a lowly Fling'n Flank'r in the Chow Sol'jer Army, she began her breakout and drifted off into the Inspiration Constellation to figure out what she was,
philosopher,
historian, and
clown. The
story was never finished.