Tatei Werika Uimari
Huichol · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Tatéi Werika Uimari, 'Our Mother Young Eagle,' is the Huichol sky-goddess imagined as a great double-headed eagle whose outstretched wings are the vault of heaven on which the deities stand. Her two heads keep watch simultaneously over the earth below and the heavens above, one supervising the rising of Our Father Sun and the other his setting. In the visionary yarn paintings studied by ethnographers she is shown emerging from and attending upon the deer culture-hero Kauyumari, listening to his counsel, and she embodies the celestial order that shelters the world.
Parentage
- parent: Kauyumari
Domains
- sky heavens
- sun guardianship
Powers
- to hold up the sky on which the gods stand
- to watch over earth and heaven with her two heads
Relations
- subordinate to: KauyumariIn yarn-painting narrative she bows her head and opens her wings to listen to the deer-god Kauyumari, from whom she is said to have emerged and whose counsel she heeds.MacLean, Hope, The Shaman's Mirror: Visionary Art of the Huichol (2012) (secondary)
Sources
- Tatéi Werika Uimari, 'Our Mother Young Eagle,' is the Huichol double-headed eagle goddess of the sky who upholds the heavens and watches over the course of the sun.: Zingg, Robert M., The Huichols: Primitive Artists (1938) (secondary); MacLean, Hope, The Shaman's Mirror: Visionary Art of the Huichol (2012) (secondary)