Coyote - is the trickster. When we're being too serious about life Coyote may come along to teach us to laugh at ourselves. It is also the karmic enforcer, reminding us that whatever we do to others will be done to us. Learning to balance wisdom with a sense of humor to make life work for us.
Different tribes assign different meanings to each animal, but the association of the Trickster to that of the coyote is by far the most predominant popularised today. Studying the traits, habitats, and surroundings of any animal can give one an insight into its spiritual significance. Coyote is said to trick the learner into the lesson, almost giving one the notion that things are not as they seem, until the lesson is done and the wisdom gained.
Coyote medicine is powerful. In moving from one disaster to the next, Coyote tricks himself into moving through spiritual quests in such a way that lessons learned from his antics cannot be ignored. It has been said that humor is a great medicine, maybe that is why it is associated with Coyote. If we can learn to laugh at ourselves, then we have indeed been blessed with understanding Coyote medicine.
Coyote as a literary symbol has specific forms and functions within oral narratives, but his range is wide and far reaching as is the terrain covered by his biological counterpart. He will exemplify certain literary functions in one story and show up as a different symbolic and often, contradictory referent in another story. The archetype of a trickster is complicated where as, the archetype of a hero or heroine is unified and predictable.
In North American Indian literature, Coyote holds a unique position as one of the First Peoples, in this role he helped prepare the world for the coming of humans. He is often referred to as a creator of "the world-as-it-is". In this role, he serves as a guide to the landscape, which he helped to prepare for humans, as well as a comic figure who is constantly tampering with the original creation of the world. As one of the First Peoples, Coyote embodies qualities of animals and humans, thus the term 'transformer' as well as trickster is used to define his actions. He is cunning and adaptable, inquisitive and mobile, he enjoys thievery for the trickery. He sings, seduces, eats and drinks too much, true to the trickster motif; he makes and embodies a world appropriate for human imperfections.
It has been suggested by some tribes that Coyote invented death to make humans take life seriously. Coyote functions in oral literatures as a symbol for the chaotic; human rituals are positioned as systems of order in the face of this chaos.
In North American Indian narratives he will often appear in the following roles:
Trickster/Clown/Buffoon
Transformer
Deceiver
Monster-Slayer
Scavenger
Thief (of natural resources for and from humans)
Teacher
Guide (across the landscape)
