The dead are very much alive in Mexico.
Take, for instance, Baja California.
Humans have been in Baja for at least 12,000 years, perhaps much longer. And the people who painted the rock murals 7,500 to 4,000 years ago, these people who left their mark are, still, very much with us.
Over 300 different painted caves or rock shelters have been discovered in the Baja.
Many of the paintings’ rock surfaces have crumbled, and collapsed. Many paintings have been reduced to ruined traces.
And yet, thousands of images survive.
When you stand in the presence of the Painters’ intact works, you are challenged with cryptic, and yet amazingly vivid communications from the dead.
Harry W. Crosby’s exploration and discovery, in the 1960’s and 70’s is described in his book, “Cave Paintings of Baja California: Discovering the Great Murals of an Unknown People.”
It is the authoritative work on the Painters.
According to Crosby the Painters lived on little.
They had no agriculture, no permanent buildings, no fixed pueblos, no agriculture, no basketry, no pottery.
They didn’t even have dogs.
They were always moving to collect available edible plants and fruit, moving to the coast to fish, and hunt marine animals. They were always moving in the interior highlands to hunt deer, sheep and antelope.
The Painters lived in close contact with all the large animals of the peninsula.
The paintings show this.
They hunted with bow and arrow, spears, throwing sticks.
They traveled light.
And yet, for thousands of years, this materially poor culture supported a large group of people who did no food production for long periods of time.
The Painters had to make long trips to collect the colored rocks from which the paints were made. They had to spend a lot of time grinding the rock. And they had to make the elaborate scaffolding and ladders to paint the rock surfaces chosen by some shamanic authority.
The way Crosby sees it the altars of the Painters’ shamanism/spirituality were the rock surfaces that were painted.
The rock surfaces chosen were not chosen on the basis of accessibility, or their suitability for painting.
At the rock painting sites, there are perfect, easily accessible rock surfaces at ground level. And yet, the rock surfaces chosen for painting are 30 feet, or more, above the ground, requiring the construction of scaffolding and ladders.
The far less accessible rock surfaces were, evidently, chosen because they were judged to be the right places to paint.
These rock surfaces were judged to be the interfaces that accessed the on-going creation of the universe, the interfaces that allowed human artistry to be part of the on-going creation of the universe.
Most of the rock paintings are painted over previous works, and that previous work was painted over a pre-existing work, and so on. In some case there are as many as five painted over images beneath the surviving visible one.
Most of the time, the Painters had no concern about the longevity or preservation of their creations.
The act of painting, the spiritual practice of painting seems to have been the point.
And yet, there are large, sweeping masterpieces done by a single artist.
There are large, sweeping masterpieces that are collaborative works involving many generations of Painters, over thousands of years, who created a single, meaningful work of art.
All the images began with white stylized outlines.
The outlines of animals and plants render naturalistic, observable detail.
But inside of the outline there is no attempt to depict the observable physical world, to depict nature.
Inside the outline it is all abstract imagining and magic.
The spiritual/shamanic beliefs and practices of the Painters are unknown.
The Cochimi are the people who lived in the Great Mural Region when Europeans arrived in the 16th Century.
They said the Painters, were giants, and they were, definitely, not related.
And there is no reason to disbelieve them.
The remains of tall people, over six feet tall, like the relatively nearby, modern Yaquis, (on the other side of the Sea of Cortez) have been found in the great mural region.
And yet, the images of the great murals, deer, humans, deer and humans impaled or overlaid by arrows and spears, human images and deer images superimposed on each other, deer hoofs that look like human hands, humans with outstretched arms in a posture of adoration/transcendence are the mythic images of the Huichol or Wixáritari (the people).
In the rugged, remote Western Sierra Madre Mountains the Wixaritari resisted the conquistadores and the Catholic missionaries.
They never surrendered.
The Wixaritari maintain their mythology, spirituality/shamanism, language and culture into the 21st Century.
Their belief system could be similar to the Painters’.
The Wixaritari believe when deer are hunted in a sacred manner, the deer willingly surrender their lives, so the human can live.
And yet, after deer are hunted and killed it is necessary to honor and appease the spirits of the dead deer.
Perhaps that’s most of the explanation of the multitude of images of deer and deer with arrows in them.
But to the Wixaritari deer and peyote are one.
Each year around the time of Semana Santa, Wixaritari make a 500 mile pilgrimage to their sacred mountain (where the sun first rose), and their peyote rich holy land in the vicinity of Real Catorce in the state of San Luis Potosi.
Carrying bows and arrows, in a crouched low hunting posture the pilgrims are metaphorically guided to their destination by deer.
Peyote and deer are a single, sacred symbol. When the sacred deer moves, it creates the peyote in its hoof prints.
At the end of the pilgrimage, each pilgrim shoots an arrow at a peyote cactus before gathering the disk-shaped buttons.
By shooting the arrow the pilgrims metaphorically release the spirit of peyote, the spirit of the deer from its materiality, its physicality.
The White Shaman rock mural near the confluence of the Pecos and the Rio Grande Rivers in South West Texas is a different indigenous groups’ very different rock mural.
Take, for instance, Baja California.
Humans have been in Baja for at least 12,000 years, perhaps much longer. And the people who painted the rock murals 7,500 to 4,000 years ago, these people who left their mark are, still, very much with us.
Over 300 different painted caves or rock shelters have been discovered in the Baja.
Many of the paintings’ rock surfaces have crumbled, and collapsed. Many paintings have been reduced to ruined traces.
And yet, thousands of images survive.
When you stand in the presence of the Painters’ intact works, you are challenged with cryptic, and yet amazingly vivid communications from the dead.
Harry W. Crosby’s exploration and discovery, in the 1960’s and 70’s is described in his book, “Cave Paintings of Baja California: Discovering the Great Murals of an Unknown People.”
It is the authoritative work on the Painters.
According to Crosby the Painters lived on little.
They had no agriculture, no permanent buildings, no fixed pueblos, no agriculture, no basketry, no pottery.
They didn’t even have dogs.
They were always moving to collect available edible plants and fruit, moving to the coast to fish, and hunt marine animals. They were always moving in the interior highlands to hunt deer, sheep and antelope.
The Painters lived in close contact with all the large animals of the peninsula.
The paintings show this.
They hunted with bow and arrow, spears, throwing sticks.
They traveled light.
And yet, for thousands of years, this materially poor culture supported a large group of people who did no food production for long periods of time.
The Painters had to make long trips to collect the colored rocks from which the paints were made. They had to spend a lot of time grinding the rock. And they had to make the elaborate scaffolding and ladders to paint the rock surfaces chosen by some shamanic authority.
The way Crosby sees it the altars of the Painters’ shamanism/spirituality were the rock surfaces that were painted.
The rock surfaces chosen were not chosen on the basis of accessibility, or their suitability for painting.
At the rock painting sites, there are perfect, easily accessible rock surfaces at ground level. And yet, the rock surfaces chosen for painting are 30 feet, or more, above the ground, requiring the construction of scaffolding and ladders.
The far less accessible rock surfaces were, evidently, chosen because they were judged to be the right places to paint.
These rock surfaces were judged to be the interfaces that accessed the on-going creation of the universe, the interfaces that allowed human artistry to be part of the on-going creation of the universe.
Most of the rock paintings are painted over previous works, and that previous work was painted over a pre-existing work, and so on. In some case there are as many as five painted over images beneath the surviving visible one.
Most of the time, the Painters had no concern about the longevity or preservation of their creations.
The act of painting, the spiritual practice of painting seems to have been the point.
And yet, there are large, sweeping masterpieces done by a single artist.
There are large, sweeping masterpieces that are collaborative works involving many generations of Painters, over thousands of years, who created a single, meaningful work of art.
All the images began with white stylized outlines.
The outlines of animals and plants render naturalistic, observable detail.
But inside of the outline there is no attempt to depict the observable physical world, to depict nature.
Inside the outline it is all abstract imagining and magic.
The spiritual/shamanic beliefs and practices of the Painters are unknown.
The Cochimi are the people who lived in the Great Mural Region when Europeans arrived in the 16th Century.
They said the Painters, were giants, and they were, definitely, not related.
And there is no reason to disbelieve them.
The remains of tall people, over six feet tall, like the relatively nearby, modern Yaquis, (on the other side of the Sea of Cortez) have been found in the great mural region.
And yet, the images of the great murals, deer, humans, deer and humans impaled or overlaid by arrows and spears, human images and deer images superimposed on each other, deer hoofs that look like human hands, humans with outstretched arms in a posture of adoration/transcendence are the mythic images of the Huichol or Wixáritari (the people).
In the rugged, remote Western Sierra Madre Mountains the Wixaritari resisted the conquistadores and the Catholic missionaries.
They never surrendered.
The Wixaritari maintain their mythology, spirituality/shamanism, language and culture into the 21st Century.
Their belief system could be similar to the Painters’.
The Wixaritari believe when deer are hunted in a sacred manner, the deer willingly surrender their lives, so the human can live.
And yet, after deer are hunted and killed it is necessary to honor and appease the spirits of the dead deer.
Perhaps that’s most of the explanation of the multitude of images of deer and deer with arrows in them.
But to the Wixaritari deer and peyote are one.
Each year around the time of Semana Santa, Wixaritari make a 500 mile pilgrimage to their sacred mountain (where the sun first rose), and their peyote rich holy land in the vicinity of Real Catorce in the state of San Luis Potosi.
Carrying bows and arrows, in a crouched low hunting posture the pilgrims are metaphorically guided to their destination by deer.
Peyote and deer are a single, sacred symbol. When the sacred deer moves, it creates the peyote in its hoof prints.
At the end of the pilgrimage, each pilgrim shoots an arrow at a peyote cactus before gathering the disk-shaped buttons.
By shooting the arrow the pilgrims metaphorically release the spirit of peyote, the spirit of the deer from its materiality, its physicality.
The White Shaman rock mural near the confluence of the Pecos and the Rio Grande Rivers in South West Texas is a different indigenous groups’ very different rock mural.
It was done about 4,000 years ago.
It is also a beautiful, prehistoric work of art.
The White Shaman Mural has been interpreted as depicting the same mythic peyote/deer hunt of the Wixaritari.
It too has images of arrow impaled deer. There are also fringed black dots that are believed to be images of peyote.
These are also impaled with arrows and spears.
There is also an image of a human with deer antlers.
This image is believed to be ‘Our Elder Brother Deer,’ one of the Wixaritari’s principle gods.
In the at least 4,000 year-old, (perhaps much longer) spirituality/shamanism maintained by the Wixaritari not only are peyote and deer one and the same, deer and humans are one in the same.
Black dots on Our Elder Brother Deer’s antlers have been interpreted to represent the just-sprouted peyote.
Not only is deer and peyote one,
as is deer and the human.
The human and peyote is one.
At Cave of the Palm, in the great mural region, there are 15 human images. Four of the humans have a black disc about the size of the images’ head suspended over the figures’ biceps.
The black discs are similar to the fringed dots in the White Shaman Mural.
The discs could also be depictions of peyote.
For the Wixaritari Peyote symbolizes life, and the acquisition of transcendent, shamanic and artistic powers.
It appears in most all Wixaritari art.
Peyote is a gift from the gods.
With peyote humans can enter into mystical realms.
With peyote humans can be more than human.
There is peyote in Baja California, in the great mural region.
The Wixaritari’s pilgrimage is a re-enactment of this story:
There was a time of sickness, starving, dying of thirst in an unending drought.
Four young men each with bow and arrows were sent forth.
They represented fire, water, air, and earth.
They walked for long days.
Then they saw a deer and gave chase.
They gave chase for hundreds of mile.
They chased the deer to the vicinity of the sacred mountain.
One of the hunters shot an arrow.
But the deer disappeared.
The arrow landed in a deer image on the ground composed of peyote.
The hunters harvested the peyote and brought it back to the people.
The people were healed, and fed, and were no longer thirsty.
‘Our Elder Brother Deer’/the human with deer antlers represents the power of peyote to feed, to enlighten the spirit, to bring artistic and shamanic inspiration.
He is the transcendent power.
In the great murals of Baja there are images of deer with what seem to be human hands, there are images of deer superimposed on humans, images of humans superimposed on deer.
Wixaritari call peyote the ‘divine flesh of Elder Brother Deer.’
When Elder Brother Deer is depicted in some Wixaritari art he is impaled or covered with arrows.
In his house/temple, where his spirit abides, there is an altar, floor and ceiling covered with votive arrows.
And yet, even though he is impaled or covered with arrows,
When Elder Brother Deer is depicted in some Wixaritari art he is impaled or covered with arrows.
In his house/temple, where his spirit abides, there is an altar, floor and ceiling covered with votive arrows.
And yet, even though he is impaled or covered with arrows,
he is the death transcending power.
He is the inspiration of the great murals.
They are suffused with his power.