The Trickster is the most valuable companion one could ever have.
The Trickster doesn't exist, yet there seems to be an aspect of life that has an uncanny ability to get in our way when we're in the biggest hurry, disrupt our best-laid plans, take away our favorite things, etc. I used to feel that her/his machinations in our lives were malicious, tripping us up with a sinister laugh and gleam in their eye. It felt personal to me because the Trickster was messing with me in precisely the places where I was the most attached, controlling, resisting, etc. The cool part of this was that they were messing with me in precisely the places where I was the most attached, controlling, resisting, etc. They were showing me what was in the way of me being at home in that moment.
The Trickster is much more than that, though. She's the gatekeeper - as responsible for miracles as for obstacles, forever confronting our fearful, self-important, unrealistic ideas with the conscious intelligence of the movement of reality. He'll play with your mind, speaking the truth in ways that turn your views upside down and inside out, often with a dose of humor. She's fierce and irreverent, ruthless and merciful, the giver of life and the destroyer of lives. He's blunt and cutting, slicing illusion down to the bone of reality in one fell swoop, a gleam in his eye and a knowing look from the core of existence that strips away all belief in what isn't real. Now you see it, now you don't.
Let me reiterate: the Trickster isn't real - he told me so himself - but only a fool would ignore him. You will never win a tug-of-war with her and your attachments will prevent you from seeing and enjoying the humor and grace of whatever situation she's put you in. The only way to not get run over by the Trickster is to climb into their car. Get on board. Let go of what they're tugging on and have a laugh with them at yourself.
My personal relationship with the Trickster began sometime early in my life, but it deepened during a death/rebirth process in my mid-thirties. Death became my constant companion during that time, always at my side, teaching me how to die in order to be alive. When that process came to a close, my companion revealed to me that he was actually the Trickster in disguise. He's been with me for decades since and has continued to guide my learning, dying, birthing and homecoming. Without his constant presence and tutelage i would be lost.