Sacred Clowns

There was a time when I was privileged to build a small sacred fire on a mound in the sacred circle for new moon ceremonies. The fire was an embodiment of the spirit made manifest for the group who came together to replenish their collective and individual spirits. It was my privilege to make pretty fires which danced as they burned. This task of mine was a sacred task and I took it seriously, but what I enjoyed most about the festivities was the joy and humor which infested all who participated. One of the many things I have experienced in my long life is the joy and laughter I have always associated with Native American activities. When Indians are together they laugh together, much more than I have noticed in gatherings of non-Indians, who have other cultural indicators of spirituality. Many Native traditions hold clowns and tricksters as essential to contact with the sacred. People prayed after they had laughed, because laughter tended to open one's mind and free up rigid preconceptions. So human animals had tricksters within the most sacred ceremonies lest they forget how the sacred comes through upset, reversal, surprise. The trickster in most Native traditions is essential to creation, to birth. And the heyokah, the booger, the clown, the neweekwe, the koshari, the contrary, was the sacred bringer of this laughter. The bringing of laughter to the group was often accomplished with a zany dance of pratfalls or patently absurd physical activities. There is a shared understanding of the need for this aspect of sacred dancing being necessary to open the spirits of the people, to prepare them to participate in the spiritual togetherness of the sacred circle. The sacred clowns of the Native Americans were very often overtly sexual in their "clowning"; so much so that in modern American society they would all be pilloried for sexual aggression. One must remember that these clowns were male, female, and bisexual. Their sexually explicit stance was their way of forcing their audience, the other members of their group, into a place of embarrassment which could be relieved only by laughter. Laughter was the weapon of change in an individual's anti-social behavior. Poking fun was the ultimate weapon of shaming. And because it produced laughter all could share in a release of tension caused by the wrongness involved. So when i finally found a thick, stiff nylon string to make string figures with I began to make dancing figures which became for me a series of "sacred clowns" personifying this crucial part of my cultural upbringing. This book is a partial record of my ongoing passion of creating touchstones of laughter, for reaching the spirituality within us all. inoli