MYTHWORKS
CHANGING WOMAN
THE NAVAJO EARTH-GODDESS
Taken from Traditional Navajo Sources
and Re-told by Kathleen Jenks
CHANGING WOMAN
THE NAVAJO EARTH-GODDESS
Taken from Traditional Navajo Sources
and Re-told by Kathleen Jenks
From the PEGASUS PROJECT Series: Here the rock from which the sacred narrative springs is a mountaintop where a newborn child is found protected by a rainbow. She will later be named for turquoise and white seashells. Unlike most Holy Child stories familiar in the West, this divine child is a little girl....
Soon after her puberty ritual, Changing Woman dressed herself in a garment decorated with white shells, and went out to gather seeds. After a time, to refresh herself, she sat under a waterfall. The light shone in all directions around her. The Sun saw her there.
© Andy Tsihnahjinnie
[All rights reserved](The following excerpt comes from the middle of the story of this Navajo Goddess. After being carried down from the mountain by Talking God, she is raised by the Holy People who give her two names: Whiteshell Woman and Turquoise Woman. She grows well and swiftly, racing every morning towards the dawn while her guardian, Talking God, chants the rhythm of her movements. When she reaches puberty, the Holy People hold a powerful ritual for her. She ages before their eyes, becoming old and withered, and then reversing back to youth. She does this four times, which is why they give her a new name, "Changing Woman." This excerpt is taken from a portion of what follows after her puberty ritual.....)
© Andy Tsihnahjinnie
[All rights reserved]The Sun, who is called Turquoise Man, comes down over a rainbow bridge -- which is the way most of the gods traveled. Then he woos this young goddess, Changing Woman.
She becomes his bride, his mate. In Navajo belief, he represents thought and she is sacred speech. Together, they are the male and female poles of the same sacred realm of power, thru which cosmic harmony and beauty, or what the Navajo call hozho, flows.
This is the rainbow bridge which the Sun rides over to reach Changing Woman. These rainbows were the favorite form of divine transportation. The rainbow itself is personified as a female deity, Natseelit, who is extremely powerful because she contains in herself all colors.
One color alone already has great force: all of them combined possess an unimaginable energy. In a sense, the rainbow is a Navajo version of a nuclear reactor. For this reason, pregnant women are forbidden to look at a rainbow lest those intense energies damage the still-developing foetus. A young woman who has not yet completed her puberty ritual, or Kinaalda, is also forbidden to look at the rainbow because she too, like a foetus, is in a fragile, in-between state, and would be unable to handle the intense influx of energies.
Changing Woman soon gives birth to divine twins, both male. Their names are Monster-Slayer and Born-for-Water. Since the Sun is often away, Changing Woman raises her boys as a single parent.
She raises them with love and care. This is not easy, for many monsters roamed the land in those days and life was often difficult -- especially for women who were left alone with their young children.
© Shonto W. Begay
[All rights reserved]
The primordial Navajo female deities of that Mythic Age lived lives of great loneliness with their children; they were always wandering and hiding to escape monsters; their normal diet was quite insufficient and was mostly berries, nuts, seeds --- even small rodents. These were very real and earthy deities who never had the luxurious lives of Greek deities living on Mount Olympus and dining on ambrosia and nectar.The twins grow to full manhood and decide to set off and fight the monsters. They do this with the full consent of the Holy People.
© Andy Tsihnahjinnie
[All rights reserved]They go first to Grandmother Spider Woman for help: this goddess gives them secrets of power and sacred feathers which can fly the twins through the air.
Next they go to their father, the Sun. The Sun hesitates to help them because some of the monsters are his own offspring. He would prefer to protect his monster children, who aren't so much mean as just very clumsy -- but after Changing Woman's twins prove their courage to him, the sun reluctantly decides to give them help and weapons.
© Andy Tsihnahjinnie
[All rights reserved]
Finally they set off -- slaying monsters --
© Andy Tsihnahjinnie
[All rights reserved]-- escaping dangers on their sacred feathers --
-- and killing more monsters.
© Andy Tsihnahjinnie
[All rights reserved]
From the bodies of these monsters came many mountains and other geological features of the Navajo homeland. Sometimes these sons travel and fight together. Sometimes Monster-Slayer goes forth alone while his brother, Born-for-Water, remains in their camp, deep in a trance, wandering in realms in which he is able to use his psychic gifts to help his brother. (In the hunting traditions of many northern peoples, the wife stays home, merging psychically with the spirit of the animal her husband hunts. Under her influence, the animal agrees to give up its life so that she and her husband may survive. Thus, both husband and wife are equally responsible for a successful hunt. The two sons of Changing Woman, Monster-Slayer and Born-for-Water, have a similar relationship when it comes to hunting monsters........)
(The story continues with Changing Woman's move to an island off the coast of California, where human children eventually find their way to her with Talking God's help. She teaches them the sacred rituals, chants, dances. She even creates a new art-form, that of sandpaintings. The story concludes with a look at several sandpaintings and the events they represent.)This is another in a series of animated stories
for THE PEGASUS PROJECT.
It will be narrated, with Navajo music in the background;
most of the art will be taken from the work of Navajo artists.
The intended audience includes teenagers to grandparents.Back to THE PEGASUS PROJECT
© 1999-2003 by Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.
All rights reserved
Background changed: 5 November 2003.