Chirisópori (the Morning Star)
Rarámuri · deity · Rarámuri traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Chirisópori is the Morning Star of the Rarámuri, the third of the celestial children of the dual creator alongside the Sun, Rayénari, and the Moon, Metzaka. In the creation narrative, when the Sun and Moon are still tiny dark children possessing nothing, the only light they receive is that scattered by Chirisópori, who keeps watch over them in the long darkness before they are healed and begin to shine. The Morning Star thus occupies the cosmogonic role of the first light and the guardian of the nascent luminaries, completing the celestial family that dwells in the sky. As the herald of dawn the Morning Star marks the daily return of the Sun whose continuance the yúmari and tutugúri dances are meant to secure.
Parentage
Domains
- morning star venus
Powers
- to give the only light of the world before the Sun and Moon shine
- to keep watch over the infant Sun and Moon
Relations
- sibling: Rayénari (the Sun, the Father)The Morning Star and the Sun are children of the same creator; Chirisópori's light watches over the Sun in infancy.Wendell C. Bennett & Robert M. Zingg, 'The Tarahumara: An Indian Tribe of Northern Mexico' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935). (secondary)
- sibling: Metzaka (the Moon, the Mother)The Morning Star and the Moon are children of the same creator; Chirisópori's light watches over the Moon in infancy.Wendell C. Bennett & Robert M. Zingg, 'The Tarahumara: An Indian Tribe of Northern Mexico' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935). (secondary)
Sources
- Chirisópori is the Morning Star, a son of the Father-Mother creator and sibling of the Sun and Moon, whose light is the only illumination of the world before the Sun and Moon begin to shine.: Carlo Bonfiglioli, 'El yúmari, clave de acceso a la cosmología rarámuri', Cuicuilco 15, no. 42 (2008): 45-60. (secondary); Wendell C. Bennett & Robert M. Zingg, 'The Tarahumara: An Indian Tribe of Northern Mexico' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935). (secondary)