Gusiuū: lightning goddess

Size:60x100cm; 2x3ft

Weaver: Zenaida from San Miguel del Valle

Materials and methods: criollo sheep wool hand dyed with naturaldyes: Yauhtli (TagetesLucida) and Xiuhquilitl (indigo). Handwoven on a Zapotec style loom of the 16th century adapted from European styles. Woven using a 7 threads per inch reed and wool rayon blend for warp.

Design, patterns and symbols. 

This desgin was sketched by Samuel Bautista Lazo to depict the cosmic snake element in the eye of the feather snake that is used to represent lightnings. Just before the rainy season, at the end of May, there are many lightning storms in the central valley of Oaxaca, the strike of lightning is believed to start the sprouting of many seeds and a type of pine mushroom that is very tasty. It is as if trees know it is time to turn green and start growing off shoots, even before the first rains fall, some acacia trees are already growing green buds because they can tap to deep underground moisture with their long snakey roots. Lightning thus, connects the water from the sky with the water from the underworld and starts the rainy cycle. Hence, this rug has this set of triangles that point towards the center adorned with seeds of life. The center is a stripe of mountain patterns that reassemble the DNA shape, we are an expression of sacred geometry expressed with biological molecules.