Lying Down Mountain by Heyoka Merrifield

Author:Heyoka Merrifield
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

The Initiation

Spider Girl was very excited. She had just passed through her seventh cycle of seasons and the next ceremony would include her initiation with the other children of her age. For the first time, they would be allowed into the kiva with the kachinas.

Spider had often seen the kachinas during ceremonies in the village. Crow Mother, her favorite, had large crow wings on either side of her head and wrapped herself in a wedding shawl. She sang songs at various shrines throughout the village and then disappeared into a kiva. Sometimes the Powers from the World of Spirit would also bring the uninitiated children wonderful gifts, giving them bows, food, rattles, and even small carved wooden dolls. Once, Spider had been gifted with a doll of Crow Mother, and she treasured this more than any other plaything.

Not all of the kachinas were beautiful and kind. Some were ugly and frightening and dragged children out of their lodges to whip them. It was said that the kachinas knew which children were disrespectful to their elders and would punish them by flogging them with yucca whips.

The initiation rituals inside the kiva were kept secret, though after the ceremony some of the children emerged with bloody wounds on their legs from the whippings. The thought of these wounds on her own legs terrified Spider, although she had never yet been punished by the Whipping Kachinas.

On the evening of her initiation ceremony, Grandmother Crow arrived at Spider’s lodge at the time of the new moon. She helped Spider Girl take off her clothes and wrapped her in a white blanket, tying a white eagle feather to the top of her hair. She spoke softly to the trembling girl.

“Dream Catcher, we put a feather in your hair because in this ceremony you are called a baby hawk. After the ceremony, you will be like a young hawk leaving the nest to fly for the first time. The feather also represents your future path: you have shown in your childhood that you will become one of our tribe’s spiritual leaders.

When you enter the kiva, the boys will be sitting and facing the girls on the other side of the kiva. Squat on the Earth with your knees at your sides like a baby hawk in its nest. The ceremony will last all night, and for the next several days I will take you home each morning and return you to the kiva each evening.”

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