I’ll start this by saying my medicine is not Heyoka, although I do believe this archetype emerges through us all as a natural byproduct of expressing repressed emotions in a turbulent and imbalanced society which seeks to suppress the raw, the real, the light and the shadow.
This is an interesting topic because Heyoka popularity is growing within sub-cultural and spiritual communities. The term is being used more frequently and so much so that it’s naturally becoming watered down. By street definition it’s associated to humorous expressions of society’s shadows, dark humour or sarcasm but these are superficial and simplified versions of true Heyoka medicine, so I’ve decided to share some of my own experience of it here.
Heyoka medicine is powerful to say the least. If anyone’s come across this venerated medicine they might or might not know it but they’ll walk away from it having felt many emotions, usually mixed. It can easily leave you scratching your head for months, feeling a deep sense that something foundational has been shaken or awoken, often through a single striking interaction. Under the worst/best scenario it’ll strip you of previous masks of illusions.
The problem with its rise in popularity and it’s attractive powerful role in community is that everyone’s ego is wanting to take a stab at it and often missing the mark entirely. Without a true initiation onto the path of Heyoka from Mother Nature herself, the likely hood of injecting long term healthy sustainable Heyoka medicine into the community from contriving to become a Heyoka is highly deceptive and toxic at worst.
Those of whom are often still driven by lower ego motivations (subconscious or not) such as fear, power lust, jealousy or greed will misuse it as a control tactic often by expressing an oversimplified version of it. Usually negative manipulation through opposition with sarcasm to what is being presented, without thought to the intention behind what may be an act of contrarianism, trickery or comical relief.
Spending time alone in nature is probably the fastest way to obtaining a clear vision of what your true gifts are to the world. The experiences that guide us towards our purpose can happen spontaneously anywhere but the clearest visions and understandings of what they are will come from becoming intimate with the elements themselves, alone, in deep waking meditation, in a natural setting. As we soul-journey through the great big array of archetypal streams of consciousness or ancient tribal roles we are likely to find ourselves wandering the hills to discover our core essence and how it can best be at service to others. If one permits themselves to wander far and wide enough, they’ll have the necessary time to sense into themselves beyond their everyday costumes and perceptions to taste their soul’s unique medicine.
A legitimate Heyoka does not consider themselves to be a Heyoka, if you don’t believe me just ask one for yourself. Heyoka medicine is a behavioural side effect of something more complex happening within that person’s psychological state and heart. Their essence, that which creates the subscribed Heyoka title by their community members is far from Heyoka in and of itself. Becoming a Heyoka is the side effect of holding the highest vibration of pure unconditional love. From within this lens of wholeness and child like wonder, a deeper understanding of interconnectedness is bestowed upon them. It shows them what action(s) is needed to return balance to a situation or to the zeitgeist of an epoch. From this purely loving intention, to be at service to the greater balance and harmony of all things, they’re free to play with light and dark in order to create the conditions for something healthier to emerge.
Heyoka medicine is the by-product of the deepest love and devotion to community. It self-sacrifices for an end greater than itself. It does not care how it looks, is perceived, what it personally loses or gains in the process, it cares only that a greater sense of awareness and love emerges from it’s displays or interactions and can be absorbed back into society.
The Heyoka is often regarded as the bad apple precisely because they’re willing to give of themselves entirely to a cause beyond themselves and in this sense of servitude they’re willing to do anything whether deemed appropriate or not, unleashing and absorbing chaos at its fullest in order to restore balance. Where as an individual with an agenda onto themselves often creates havoc with the shadow intention of appearances or to feel a sense of control, the Heyoka is always in it to lose themselves so others may gain.
The Heyoka is an exalted form of martyrdom. Many individuals consciously striving to become a Heyoka do more harm in the long run, equally to themselves as to the community because their intentions are obscured by lower forms of martyrdom, their ego illusions, their emotional wounds and their negative conditioning. Heyoka medicine can not be premeditated entirely, it is first and foremost a universal force of nature that moves through a person due to their natural disposition in the world combined with their deepest heart felt intentions.
More often than not authentic Heyoka medicine is birthed from a desire to experience and spread love at the highest level, this pure intention is what grants them vision and the allowance to express that intention through trickery or comical manipulation. The lessons they offer naturally without much forethought arrive from having been on the receiving end of twisted psychological behaviour while learning to hold a vibration of unconditional love. Specifically, Heyoka medicine emerges as a byproduct from having had to derive love from the darkest of darkness. This is what allows them to effectively play with darkness and master intuitively what is necessary to do in order to create light.
Heyoka medicine is not in fact a title that one can assume or even designate to another person. It’s a role that community members associate to someone due to that persons ability to turn darkness and ignorance onto itself in a comical or not so comical way to produce something greater as a result of their odd or offensive behaviour. Often only understood in retrospect, which is why most Heyoka’s are perceived as jesters, tricksters, clowns and idiots.
Heyoka medicine can be shared on a variety of different levels depending on who it’s moving through and what psychological state that person is in. A person who’s essence naturally resonates with Heyoka medicine will spend the earlier part of their lives inflicting the medicine upon themselves in an attempt to heal psychological wounds and find the purest form of love within. This is why Heyoka’s may teach what not to do through their bad examples, as they test their skills and drown themselves in their own waters.
Anyone who has overcome their own psychological trickery has the potential to becoming a highly effective Heyoka. This all depends on how they’ve reacted to their wounds and whether they’ve learned to overcome them so as to begin to understand the causes and effects of darkness intimately. In this process they become wise enough to use darkness as medicine to assist others.
The invitation from Mother Nature to Heyoka medicine is a response from that person’s desire to experience love and spirit at the highest level, usually in a wailing plea during their darkest hours, nature will reflect back to them a vision through the initiation of a literal or metaphorical storm and show them the gifts inherent in the storm through the calm that follows.
What happens during this process is a complete immersion into collective consciousness and the gift of being consumed by infinite love. Love at that point is no longer something that is sought after from within their relationships, from their peers or from society as a whole. The sense of knowing they are pure love becomes encoded within them from having experienced Oneness in communion with nature. From this vantage point they are granted the capacity to relinquish personal desire, which is replaced with the visions of collective needs.
The Heyoka initiation happens as a natural outcome of realizing that suffering and joy are one in the same at spirit level. This encoded wisdom allows them to act from a place of intuitive knowing verses deliberate action which ignites the Heyoka Medicine at its core. As they age and have had enough time to reflect they begin to understand the inner workings of their natural gifts, but their main internal orientation is always to stay connected to the pinnacle of Divine Love for the greater good. Through their growing self awareness they begin to consciously evolve their gifts enough to become more deliberate with them, through every interaction, until it becomes their entire play of existence. At this point their community no longer views them as misbehaved but rather recognizes that they’re acting from a place of wisdom and rearranging energies unseen or obscured from the view of community eyes. Up until that point they’re a member of society to be fixed or rehabilitated where as after that point they’re a member to be respected, honoured and celebrated.
Heyoka medicine can be loud and boisterous or quite and suspicious. It brings a sense of stability to those that are unsettled and unsettles those who are arrogant or abusive with their powers. It suppresses truths in order to expose lies and exposes truths in order to push shadows to the surface and shift outdated ways of thinking. At the end of a Heyoka crossing one will always experience a sense of expansion through their interactions whether we condone their behaviour or not and they’ll always self-subsume for a cause greater than their own.
Blasting Love!
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Best short read on what a Heyoka empath is. Little attention is given to the Good feelings a Heyoka empath can evoke. It is quite common for someone meeting a Heyoka to love them on the first day and hate them the very next day. Day one simply being a beautiful reflection of the love they recognize in themselves, as the later day being a reflection of something they dislike about themselves. Many Heyoka are also able to see the “masks” that people wear, for many of us, it is a literal 3D visual “morphing” of the persons being. This can include many things that need to be seen including current life traumas and past life traumas and distorted views of self. For some people meeting this advanced Heyoka, can be quite a intensive experience. Some of these people will see a actual reflection of what the Heyoka is seeing, simply reflected on the Heyoka’s face.. A true mirror image of what is keeping them from feeling and becoming Agape;)