Mercury Rising: Women, Evil, and the Trickster Gods

What can a silly, chaotic figure like a Trickster offer the world? Jungian psychoanalyst Deldon McNeely argues that Trickster’s value lies in amplifying and healing splits in the individual and collective psyche and in inviting us to differentiate our comprehension of evil. Tricksters, long held as aspects of the divine in many cultures, are an archetype of transition, guides in the journey of individuation and psychotherapy, and mediators between the conscious and unconscious world, that which is either unseen or banished from consciousness. Mercury Rising examines Tricksters in light of contemporary cultural trends, including:
--society’s current disdain for heroes and the hero archetype;
--Trickster’s need for mirroring and its implications regarding the narcissistic nature of contemporary culture;
--the Trickster’s role in psychotherapy in terms of truth, reliability, and grounding;
--the relationship between Trickster and the feminine, and the concomitant emergence of feminine values and voices of wisdom; and
--feminine influences on the philosophy of ethics as well as current attitudes toward evil, violence, and sex.

Inasmuch as Tricksters force us to question our sense of order and morality, as well as our sanity, Mercury Rising explores the hope that “the Anima-ted, life-affirming Trickster will flourish and prevail over the death-dealing excesses that threaten to annihilate many species, including our own.”