Brother Coyote Opened the Door and I Walked Through
In the early summer of 2024, I’d felt the need to go deeper with my shamanic practise in addition to finding a clearer direction with art and what I wanted to express. I felt increasingly drawn to images of Coyotes. But why Coyote? Like the animal itself which seems primal and instinctive, I just followed my intuition. Coyote was the start of this unfolding of shamanic animal connections. He opened the door and I walked through. Just to be clear, Coyote isn’t the first animal I’ve ever connected with shamanically. I have a core group of Power Animal helpers with whom I work. Each one has its own character and qualities that it brings to bear on healings and quests for wisdom and insight. But this was different – Coyote was leading me somewhere, and I didn’t know where but I just had to follow. It felt mysterious, exciting and somewhat strange. There is something electric about locking eyes with such an animal and having their intense gaze bore through you.
Coyote the Trickster Spirit and Agent of Change
There are a plethora of myths and stories in many Native cultures about Coyote being a clever trickster, sometimes harmful and destructive, sometimes helpful and altruistic. This dual nature is part of the Medicine of Coyote. Delving deep into anything I could find about these fascinating animals, including nature documentaries and scientific papers, I started to learn about their habits, their ways of thinking. Their secret lives are often played out in plain sight of human activity to the point where we might not even know they are there even in the middle of a busy city. This is part of their clever survival strategy.
For me, drawing an animal is a way to get to know it, and to start to understand it. So I started sketching Coyotes. This allows me to see their curves and architecture, and understand how their shape and movement fits their role in the ecosystem. One of the sketches I did was upside down because sometimes I find it easier to capture the shape of the object when bypassing what I think I know. (How Coyote!). As I turned the sketchbook back up the right way, I realised that I’d actually drawn it upside down in the sketchbook and so he remains on his head! How appropriate.
Coyote Medicine
This and meeting the animal in shamanic journeys and asking it what it wants to show or teach me, creates a relationship which deepens over time. Coyote seemed to invite me to touch something deep inside – a part of my own psyche, that I’d not experienced before. It feels to me that this is one of the roles of the Trickster or Heyoka – the Sacred Clown of Lakota tradition. They shake your world and turn it upside down and make you see things differently because there is nothing left that is “solid”. Everything you thought was “real” – (whatever that means!) can be turned on its head. This contrarian behaviour can stimulate you to make changes in your life. To let go of old habits and ideas that no longer serve. To get out of a rut and shift perspectives. It doesn’t necessarily feel comfortable. Coyote is a little bit edgy. He’s not there to calm you down but to wake you up! When he is around there is a feeling that you never know what might happen next. He can be really funny, sharp-witted and brazen.
Coyotes are consummate survivors, expanding into nearly every part of the americas and every ecosystem from deserts to forests with great success. Despite being persecuted and reviled by humans, this only makes Coyotes bounce back even harder, increasing their population growth. You can never keep a good Coyote down! This persistent desire to live, to thrive and to adapt is a wonderful life lesson. Coyote brings that energy of a curious opportunist, ready to take advantage of any situation.
Coyote even appeared in my dreams, creating a bridge to ancient historic cultures and strange paths into canyons and gullies. Wherever I follow Coyote he is always one step ahead!
So where did Coyote lead me to? What was the door that he opened for me to walk through? It’s always the door of the Self, but in this instance he led me to a place where I felt able to start doing deeper shamanically connected artwork relating to other animal spirits who are waiting to work with me. It was actually a gentle introduction, and there is much more to be revealed but I have made my first tentative steps into this new and very exciting reality.
Resources
There is a fantastic resource online called Coyote Yipps by Janet Kessler. She is a dedicated citizen scientist with nearly two decades of research under her belt. Her blog has many wonderful reference photos of Coyotes mainly in an urban setting. In addition, her website is rich with interesting information about the Coyotes she studies and their family dynamics.
Coyote in Scrubland watercolour painting by Shamanic Artist Nicky Perryman
No responses yet