Living the Dream

Ojo De Dios: Eye of God
The Ojo de Dios or God’s Eye is an ancient symbol made by the Huichol of Mexico.  The central eye was made when a child was born.  Each year, a bit of yarn was added until the child turned five at which point the Ojo is complete.
Ojos de Dios (God’s Eyes) come from many countries, but especially from the Mexican state of Nayarit where the Huicholes (the name means healer) make God’s Eyes to serve as protection from evil.

With the migration of people, the Southwest tribes made the God’s Eye as a ceremonial shield.  They consider the God’s Eye the eye of the Creator keeping a watchful eye.  They were the first to make the now well-known God’s Eye with yarn.

The cross design of the God’s Eye represents the four elements:  earth, wind, fire and water. 
© Carol Desjarlais

Tags: Crafts & Art by Shewolf
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Outside Hoops

My weavings reflect the honor and respect for nature and a gift given back.  Each is unique.  Stones, bones, shells, bells and tiny antique bottles may be added to the weavings.
© Carol Desjarlais

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Sing Mother Earth Awake with the gentle bells of an Outside Hoop.  All of my hoops, made to hang in the boughs of trees, are between one to three feet in diameter.  The have beads, buttons, bones, stones, sticks and jingles attached to sing in the breezes.

None of them have harsh clackers or loud gongs.  Each one has a gentle jingle to sing back to the birds and animals we wish to gather here.

The hoops are made after the style of the hoops used in the Hoop Games, like the men used to roll and throw spears through or shoot arrows through, games much like darts.  The hoops were traditionally used by Plains Tribes to allow train the hand and eye co-ordination of the young boys when they joined their male relatives to be taught.

The Hoop was also the genesis of Dream catchers.

Each of my hoops is unique in that I make no two alike.  Some are made of leather and sinew.  Some are made of yarn.  Some have the dream catcher weave and some have god’s eyes in the middle.  Some have butterflies or other symbolic objects in the middle.  Some are made like mandalas.  Each has been smudged and given to nature as an offering.
© Carol Desjarlais

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This place is a fish bowl with the sand at the bottom,
shaped like a turtle shell turned upside down,
lying dry and dented belly-up to the big blue sky.

It is hard and sharp-edged, enough to cut the feet
of one who wanders too close to falling out.
A familiar travel but like walking to the moon
caught in a downward spiral of a whirlpool
sucking, tucking us against the dusty walls
like a curled leaf waiting to crackle and shatter.

It is a beggar’s bowl, a dog’s bowl left to mildew,
masquerade container of milk and honey,
a shell in a shell game where the coin hides well.
It is a cracked and chipped tongue
licking the sand for a drop of moisture
then bowing itself to the heavens
waiting for rain to drop.

This place is the green mould of forgotten
cupped palm, a half-orbit of reality,
an empty pod, settling in for the long wait.

A poem written after seeing an elderly lady being dumped from the hospital, in her hospital gown, on to the streets of the homeless in LA.

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Warped sister    body
blue with white wrinkles
terror in the moon
dancing on the waves    sister
not on the land
where the ground will hold your print
not swinging from any vines
sister, blue, and lapping,
wild face in the lake
terror wears navy
sorrow the white caps
on the mirror
plain as day     sister
they have swallowed you whole
The women in the camps that were taken by the solders, and the buffalo hide men, and the homesteaders…when raped..would go to the lake and scrub themselves clean.  Some waded and scrubbed so deep and hard, they never returned.

Tags: Native Culture, Poems by Shewolf
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