Sixteen degrees.
They brought only the faintest dusting of snow overnight, but the clouds hang heavy this morning, shrouding the peaks from the sun’s warmth and light. As I write this, the sun manages to show its face from time to time, but the blue in the northwest runs headlong into a wall of pewter sky in every other direction.
It’s the time of year when Father Sun has less and less time to make his daily journey across the heavens, when his progress is overtaken by the night spirits increasingly early at day’s end. And although he rises early, here, at least, he has mountains to climb before he can really begin to put some miles beneath his moccasins. As we get closer to the what the modern calendar calls winter, the time when the days are shortest, he needs every-more help to make the journey.
He gets help from the katsinam, the spirit beings, and from the songs and prayers of the people. At Hopi, Morning Singer performs this task year-round. Called Talavi in his people’s language, he appears as one of a pair. Together, they ascend to the rooftops of the pueblo and sing to call the dawn, waking the people to morning prayers that, merged, melded, and magnified, help Father Sun on his way across the sky.
For peoples who depend on the sun for so much of daily life, it’s nor surprising that Morning Singer plays a central role in art and culture and dance. Josh Aragon (Hopi/Laguna) renders him in the traditional way, coaxed from cottonwood root in Josh’s signature style, emerging via the ladder into the pre-dawn air. From its description in the Other Artists: Katsinam Gallery:
Hand-hewn by master carver Josh Aragon (Hopi/Laguna) in the traditional manner, out of a single piece of cottonwood root, Morning Singer emerges to call the dawn. Most carvers create katsinam standing alone, divorced from the context of daily Pueblo life; showing the figure ascending the pine ladder to emerge onto the roof is one of Josh’s signature styles. Here, Morning Singer wears his traditional case mask and ruff, hand-painted in brilliant traditional colors and patters, and carries an eagle feather. He wears a blanket of the dawn sky, complete with shooting star. Stands 7.5″ high from bottom of base to top of figure; 10″ to top of longest ladder pole (dimensions approximate). Additional views shown above and below.
Cottonwood root; paint
$585 + shipping, handling, and insurance
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It’s an ancient way of life, since before the dawn of recorded time, but one that continues today. It’s a beautiful embodiment of the symbiotic relationship between the people and the spirits, one that finds expression in the notion that we, mortals that we are, have something to give back to that which provides for us.
It’s also a lesson in community, a reminder that when we work to help all, we likewise help ourselves. Because it is in the working together that the people sing warmth and light — for ourselves, for each other, for the world.
~ Aji
