Mastop Kachina: Death Fly

acrylic on canvas – 30″ X 40″
© 2007 Sandra Ware

For every death, let a child be born
This is the warp and the weft
This is the way of weaving
The web that is the People
          The drum beats like a heart. The seconds dance.

I am the life in the corpse
I am the death in the seed
That is the way of unfolding
The story that is the World
          The drum beats like a heart. The days dance.

I bring the rain for the corn
In the white breast of snow I sleep
This is the spiral song
On the path that is Becoming
          The drum beats like a heart. The seasons dance.

For every birth, let come destruction
For every end is a door
That opens on a ladder
Into the dream that is All
          Infinity beats like a drum. The heart dances.

 © 2007 Sandra Ware

According to Hopi belief, everything in the world exists in two forms – the physical and the spiritual. A Kachina is the symbolic incarnation of a spiritual form. Hopi dancers costume themselves as Kachinas in order to magically embody the spirits who will empower the cycle of ceremonies that take place throughout the Hopi year.

Mastop, or Death Fly, is a spirit of the process of regeneration. At the Winter Solstice, during the Soyal ceremony, a pair of Mastop Kachinas appear on Third Mesa. These Mastop Kachinas embody the essence of fertility as manifested in the moisture of the rain and snow. As part of their performance, the pair make copulatory gestures toward the women present in order to foster an abundance of new life in the coming year.

Mastop Kachina was painted not long after my decision to return to the visual arts. I love the Kachinas. Both visually and spiritually they touch on the deepest levels of heart and soul. Mastop seemed a particularly good choice for a Kachina painting, as I was in the process of destroying an old life that no longer served in order to launch a new one. Perhaps Mastop will appeal to you for similar reasons, or perhaps you will simply find him visually compelling.

The dancer stands in moonlight. Beside him on the cliff face are pictographs. Most are traditional symbols, but one is a Feyman diagram that describes the process of death and rebirth in the language of quantum physics. I included the diagram as a playful reference to the growing convergence of tribal spirituality with the world-view of cutting edge science.