The
Heyoka belong to a certain type of Lakota medicine man
clan and is roughly
translated as meaning contrarian.
They derive their powers of medicine, prophecy, healing
and teaching through the 7 ancient ceremonial rites and
from the wakinyan (thunder beings)
Heyoka
portray and symbolize aspects of the sacred in a special
way, a way in which their teachings get through to us
without even thinking about them. Heyoka in their
actions don’t seem to care about concepts and
definitions taboos or boundaries, but paradoxically and
simultaneously define the concepts at the root of
societal guidelines for moral and ethical behavior, and
the theories of balance and imbalance.
They are
the ones who can ask why of dangerous subjects, and ask
why of people who are specialists in advanced knowledge
and positions of authority. They ask in their satire by
fooling around. They ask the difficult questions and say
things others would like to say but are too afraid to
speak.
By
reading between the lines, the audience is able to think
about things not usually thought about or cause them to
look at things in a different way.
The
Heyoka have many functions, like healing through
laughter and opening people’s eyes to deeper meaning and
underlying truth and first and probably foremost is to
prepare the people with laughter for disaster
