Description
The heyoka is a part of Lakota culture: the sacred clown, the jester, the trickster and storyteller; whose role is to bring absurdity into the tribe, to illuminate reality by subverting assumptions. They play an essential part in the Sundance ritual.
The man becomes Heyoka through an encounter with Wakinyan, the Thunder Being. This being is terrible to behold and lightning shoots from his eye. An encounter with Wakinyan invariably drives a man into a state that the white man calls "insane".
Whatever the Heyoka does will be done with the intent of bringing the absurd into the tribe. Of shocking people into an awareness of the fine balance between extremes that creates the energy tension of life.
After restoration, the man is blessed by the spirits with the true humilty of Knowledge. A "sane" Heyoka is capable of almost any behavior. The boundaries and limits of social intercourse disappear.