Size: 60x100cm; 2.x3ft
Weaver: Gregorio Gutierrez
Price: 225 USD
Materials and methods: criollo sheep wool hand dyed with natural dyes: Xiuhquilitl (indigofera suffroticosa). 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 dentated pattern represents the smile as the source of true healing, a medicine that we carry within and that is free and always available. Our ancestors understood the subtle energy flows in life; the nahuales can see that certain emotions draw energy away from our bodies and others create a synergy that moves energy around allowing the healing process to begin. We now know through science that when we laugh and smile our brain releases a cocktail of hormones and molecules that are good for our health. In the Teachings of Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda is taught the path of the warrior and how to embrace death as a teacher and a counselor (in the light of death one becomes more present). A warrior embraces life as if any moment could be one's lasts moment of earth and all we can do is smile and laugh with death, trying to do the best we can in each moment so we don't regret our missed opportunities to live life to the fullest--as Don Miguel Ruiz teaches in the four agreements, a book of Toltec knowledge.
When you visit the remote villages of Oaxaca, you can see the contentment with life that native people exhude with a smile, living in the "poorest" villagues of the country; they won't hessiate to offer help, share food or give their time in conversation; because poor people are not those who have less but those who need more.