Pooka (The Trickster)
From the Pooka, a goblin and trickster of the Otherworld, expect the unusual. The Pooka is known to take humans for a ride and dump them. He is not what he appears to be. Be open to unforeseen experiences, circumstances, or insight.
Invoking the Unexpected, Curious, and Whimsical.
The Pooka is the trickster among the Irish and Welsh goblins and is known to take many forms. Always rough and unkempt, the Pooka appears as a horse, a goat, a dog, or occasionally an eagle the size of a horse. Sometimes the Pooka appears as a ghastly-looking creature resembling a horse with great big long horns or an unknown mix of several animals. Appearing as a horse, it may sneak under a man and between his legs and then take off galloping. At the cave under the Dun of Clopook, there is "a spirit of a Pooka in this cave which frequently presents itself in the form of a fleece of wool, which issued from the cave and roamed over the field with astonishing celerity. Its motions were accompanied by a buzzing sound.
Pookas frequently appear around Halloween and May Eve (April 30), when the veil between the supernatural and human worlds grows thin and otherworldly beings and humans may pass more easily to and fro. Occasionally, a kindly Pooka rescues a man or woman from the faery host or other unseen dangers. More typically, though, the trickster Pooka appears to a lost and weary traveller to offer the man a welcome lift home - or somehow manages to get the man on its back. And "when he was on his back, [the Pooka] would race over the tops of cliffs frightening the man riding on him, and when the Pooka was tired of going with him, would bring him back again to the place where he was before or some lonely spot." The Pooka may laugh heartily as it gallops out of sight. A typical story from County Kerry tells of a saint who was caught out in the woods at night by a Pooka:
"The saint wasn't long more in the place, when a pooka horse came up to him. The pooka horse told him to come on his back and that he would bring him home. The saint was glad to hear the pooka saying that, and he thanked the pooka and said that he would go up on his back. Anyhow he got up on the pooka's back, and the pooka started running wild around the wood. [He] ran into big heaps of briars and bushes. The poor saint couldn't come off his back at all, and the pooka jumped across big glens and big holes and every place worse than another and the saint thought that he would be killed every minute. Anyway the pooka kept going on that way till morning, and he let the saint come off his back when it was bright day.
When the saint was on the ground again, he took a good rest before he started away again because indeed there was a right good fright on him after the night before."
IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you may expect the unexpected. Tricksters are natural shape-shifters, so the Pooka might show up suddenly in many guises, as unforeseen events, unanticipated circumstances, unique people, or abrupt changes in direction. The Pooka's signaling characteristics are its sudden appearance (as if from nowhere), feeling tricked into doing something you wouldn't ordinarily do (against your better judgment), and perhaps being shaken by a series of seemingly dangerous or reckless events. Despite their unlikely appearance, these unsettling experiences may awaken you to new choices and opportunities. When you least expect it, the Pooka has the pesky habit of picking you up and "dumping" you into new circumstances.
The Pooka is the trickster or prankster of the Celtic world, making mischief with unsuspecting people especially when they feel lost or tired. While the Pooka may frighten and disorient, no one is harmed. Without the Pooka's intervention, you might not have been able to see clearly the circumstances now before you.
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