The Trickster in Power, Part III: Bound, Banished, or Absorbed
What becomes of the trickster when his tricks no longer amuse? Myth has an answer.
The Trickster in Power, Part III: Bound, Banished, or Absorbed
What becomes of the trickster when his tricks no longer amuse? Myth has an answer.
Mythic Endings
Loki: Laughed one too many times, orchestrated Baldr’s death, and was bound in chains with venom dripping on his face until Ragnarök.
Anansi: Outwitted himself as often as others; greedy schemes backfired, leaving him humiliated.
Coyote: Dies a thousand deaths of his own making, always to rise again, battered but unbroken.
Hermes: The exception—his tricks were not punished but institutionalized. Zeus found his cunning useful, and Hermes became a god of commerce, diplomacy, and thieves.
The lesson: tricksters rarely build kingdoms. They destabilize them. They either self-destruct, are restrained, or—rarely—are absorbed into the very order they once mocked.
Historical Echoes
Rasputin: Survived bullets, poison, drowning attempts—but his chaos finally collapsed into assassination.
P. T. Barnum: Died leaving no empire, only a traveling circus. His trickery entertained but built nothing lasting.
Nixon: Master of cunning politics, undone by his own paranoia and deceit.
Each shows the same arc: trickery can win power, but it cannot sustain it
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Trump’s Choices
Trump now faces the trickster’s endgame.
Bound: Courts and law may chain him as Loki was chained, not for one trick but for a pattern of mischief turned destructive.
Banished: The public may tire of his circus, as audiences do when the act grows stale.
Absorbed: Like Hermes, he could channel his disruption into a new order, reshaping institutions in his own image—though history suggests this is the least likely fate.
The Trickster’s Tragic Flaw
Ultimately, the trickster cannot stop. He tricks until the trick collapses on him. The hunger for chaos is not strategic—it is compulsive.
Trump, like every trickster before him, risks becoming the prisoner of his own performance. The very chaos that carried him to power may yet be the venom that drips, drip by drip, until the show is over.
Why the Trickster Matters Now
Because Trump is not the last. He is only the loudest.
When societies lose faith in order, when institutions rot, tricksters rise. If we do not repair the foundations, the next trickster will step forward—and he may be even more dangerous.
The trickster never truly dies. He only waits for the next brittle empire to mock.
Thanks for reading this 3-part series. I really believe many things are called myths when, in fact, they are simply ways of showing people truths for betterment. If you appreciate these different takes that support reality through myth, history, and personal inspiration, please share far and wide.