Nakawé

Nakawé

Our Grandmother Growth; The Little Old One

ALSO KNOWN AS:

Takutsi Nakawé

ORIGIN:

Huichol

The Huichol are an indigenous people of Mexico now famous worldwide for their complex, shamanic religion, which fascinates anthropologists and for their beautiful artwork, much coveted by collectors. Nakawé is the Huichol goddess of Earth and senior deity of water. She is the female principle of Creation. The male is associated with fire and the sun. Nakawé controls the generative, reviving power of water, which balances, counteracts and alleviates the sun’s heat, making life possible.

Nakawé, powerful magician, may be the original shaman who first created the world using her magical bamboo staff and her medicine basket. Nakawé is responsible for vegetation and agricultural abundance. She gave people healing and spiritual rituals.

Nakawé formed red flowers from her own bloody undergarments. permeated with her menstrual blood. She tossed these flowers into a desert spring, and fruits and flowers sprang up—as did her daughter, the Huichol goddess of childbirth. Nakawé, primal ancestress, also influences personal fertility. She blesses people with longevity and safe, easy childbirth.

In the Huichol version of the deluge myth, Nakawé foresaw the coming flood. (She may also have caused it.) Nakawé was the deity who warned the sole survivor, advising him to build a canoe and stock it with maize, squash, and beans. She then guided him to the place that would be his home after the waters receded, teaching him to plant and cultivate the seeds he had pre served.

Jealous men schemed to steal Nakawé’s power. As she was too powerful to attack directly, they tricked her, inviting her to perform a curing ceremony. Meanwhile they stole her staff in which her heart was hidden. They planted her heart in their fields, and maize of five different colours sprouted. A pepper tree sprang from her heart’s blood. Nakawé escaped underground, and the men became the first male shamans, appropriating her power and position.

MANIFESTATION:

Nakawé manifests as an elderly woman who walks with a staff. Like Moses, her staff may transform back and forth into a serpent. She is often accompanied by a javelina (wild pig) in which form she can also manifest.

ICONOGRAPHY:

Wooden images of Nakawé serve as protective amulets intended to guard children, vulnerable landscapes and/or sources of water.

ATTRIBUTE:

A medicine basket and her snake-staff (Iwaitsu: a bamboo staff patterned to resemble snake skin), which is symbolic of her high authority.

PLANET:

Moon

Direction:

West

Number: 5

Bird:

Macaw

ANIMALS:

Javelina (peccary) and snakes, especially water snakes

Tree:

Pepper tree (Schinus spp.), known as the pirul tree in Huichol territory. It has many traditional medicinal uses.

SOURCE:

Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses– Written by Judika Illes Copyright © 2009 by Judika Illes.