Glitter and construction paper

On Zuni Pueblo a kachina appears in the village roughly 40 days prior to the winter solstice bearing the news that the sun will return. Saint Martins Day, which marks the beginning of winter darkness is 40 days before the Yuletide rebirth of the sun. Interesting how the 40 day period of preparation occurs in two cultures which did not have any contact with one another. It leads me to believe that it is a truth—something which arises from some deep primal memory. Everyone whoever was lies interred in the earth—every single person who ever lived returns to the earth. All of their memories reside within the earth and they are accessible when we open ourselves to them through ritual preparation.

Last night I went to a felting class at Flanders Nature Center in Woodbury. We sat together for three hours and made deer out of wool roving. Earlier in the day I painted an angel. Making things restores my soul. As children we all made "christmas decorations". A treasured item in my house is a Christmas tree my son made when he was 5 years old. (Actually, it was on display in the window of Max's Art Supply Store in Westport. Back in the day, when Max was still alive, he asked several local artists to bring art works by their children for a Christmas display in the window. Basically this was Bran's first "commission". Even though it involved glitter and construction paper—it counted! I realize that most of you don't know Max's, but trust me when I say that I would have been greatly honored to have had my work shown in the window.)

Making the trees was a wonderful process. The weeks leading up to Christmas was always filled with the making of ornaments when he was small. I believe that the stages of development which children go through are a microcosm of the stages of development the human race has gone through. This morning as I was looking at my deer and it came to me in a blinding flash—the ornaments we make connect us to the spirit of the animal. The Zuni make Kachina dolls for the children to teach them about the various spirits which make up their cosmology. Some of these spirits are animals, others are guardians of some sort. (I do not have the privilege of more knowledge of their customs than this.) The making of the dolls created to teach is a sacred process. When our hummingbirds left in September I made a small hummingbird to honor the spirit of the birds and to pray for their safe journey. We love our hummingbirds. Not a day passes in the summer when we do not delight at their antics. They bring joy in to my heart. As I was making the little hummingbird, I thought of the hummingbird kachina. I understood the impulse to honor the spirit of the bird which goes in to the making of a hummingbird kachina. The making of the kachina embodies something about the relationship the pueblo people have with the hummingbird. The making of the hummingbird embodied the love I have for the bird in some essential way. It was prayer, it was love—it was magic and communion. It was a farewell and a hope for their safe return.

Creating images of the many beings which are a part of Yuletide and Christmas can be a way of communing with those spirits. When we buy an angel or a reindeer it is not the same as making one. The process of making a deer or an angel opens the imagination to the spirit of the that being. Making it is a process of meditation—your mind is focused, a channel is opened. You relax, your thoughts wander, and in their wandering they connect to the memories within the earth—the memories of those people who lived long ago and still were in intimate relation with the earth in a way it is hard for us to understand today. 


As I gessoed an angel this morning, my mind drifted to the nativity story. As you know I never concerned myself with the idea of the virgin birth—it never mattered to me. I know far too much folklore to know that there are numerous other enlightened ones who were said to have been born of a virgin—the joining of the energy of sky and earth. I remembered my father telling me that virgin meant "young girl" and nothing more. The image of a young girl, still untouched by the world came in to my thoughts as I brushed on the gesso. Untouched. I remember when I was young and filled with hope and an undiminished capacity for love. There is a time in each of our lives when we are still untouched by the world—our capacity for joy and love undiminished by experience and hurt. The nativity story took on a different shade of meaning as I envisioned a child born of a young woman who was, as yet untouched—whose capacity for love was unbounded. This image is powerful.


Imagine that time, not all so long ago, when all of the decorations for the Yuletide season were brought in from outdoors, or made in the home. Each house had ritual items displayed which were gathered or crafted by the people who live there. Envision a tree decorated only with brown cookies baked in the shape of woodland animals. Imagine a rustic nativity scene shaped from clay and painted—or a Swedish horse, simply carved from wood.


I've read that certain Asian shamans create animals from birch bark and hang them on trees. Each animal acts as a messenger, carrying the prayer up the tree from earth to the heavens. In ancient Rome, gifts of small clay animals were given as gifts in this season—probably as an amulet of protection for the animals people depended on for their livelihood. In Mexico and the Southwest people hang up "milagros" as a form of prayer. The milagro, or miracle, is shaped as a person or a domestic animal. They are hung near images of saints and holy people as a tangible representation of prayer—an offering made with the intention of helping, healing or protecting the person or animal represented by the tiny tin or silver figure. These little figures look not unlike the "charms" we used to get out of vending machines. As a child I wondered why these little toys were called "charms"—like a magic spell. I realized that they were related to milagros, which they resemble. Undoubtedly the first tiny "charms" were worn as magical protection for home and domestic animals. This evolved in to the small pieces of jewelry that pom pom girls in the 50s wore on charm bracelets.

I strongly suggest that you all prepare for the great winter festivals which lie ahead as people did in an earlier time. Make something. Create a deer, or a figure of Father frost. Make a nativity scene or an image of the sun reborn. Craft an angel from simple materials. Even if it is only a stick figure—make sacred images with your hands and with your heart and see what is revealed to you in the process.