The Art and Philosophy of

The Wichol Cultural

Community
Non Profit Organization

Let's keep on sharing!

The Wichol Cultural Community,
Non Profit Organization
http://www.huicholartphil.org.mx/
mailto:wichol@huicholartphil.org.mx
Fax: + (328) 50001
P.O. Box # 13
San Blas, Nayarit,
México 63740
 The Wichol Cultural Community

The Wichol Cultural Community, Non-Profit Organization is committed

to disseminate at once the Ritual Art and the Philosophy of the Wichol
People, the last surviving original seed of the native cultures of the
American Continent, without any kind of intermediary whatsoever.
To share our artistic creations directly is essential for the Wichols, since it
is the only way to avoid the merciless exploitation of the intermediaries,
giving the full benefit to the wichol artist and, at the same time, offering
you genuine wichol art at the most affordable prices possible.
In order to accomplish our goal, we are receiving donations and giving
back Genuine Wichol Ritual Art and the interpretation of the mythic
story expressed on it.
With your kind donation you are supporting directly the Wichol People
in both aspects, in the traditional, for instance helping Haitemai his wife
and children to accomplish the ritual charge of Ta Werika – The Eagle
Sun in the ancestral community of Tatei Kie, up in the mountains of the
Sierra Madre Occidental where most of the Wicholo People are living
nowadays, during the forthcoming five years, and also you are supporting
the modern aspect, for instance, the education of Uxatemai that has just
finished the High School and wants to go on improving his education.
Both of them as all the members of The Wichol Community are in the
way to become professional promoters of the Wichol and all the other
autochthonous cultures on Earth.
And at the same time your donations are supporting the dissemination of
the Wichol Art and Philosophy by the Wichol People themselves, sharing
with you the authentic truth of our perennial way of life.

The Art of The Wichol Cultural Community

Our Art is genuine, since every piece is created, not as a merchandise but
as an authentic Ritual Offering, created by heart, expontaneously, free-
hand made, without any sketch at all, as an original masterpiece, in such
way that every piece is expressing the most ancestral memories conveying
arcane legendary stories, and so our entire ancestral Philosophy, that is,
our Arcane Wisdom, our Symbolic Language, our Mythic Culture and
our Ancestral Legacy, becoming the Wichol Art a Nierika, or Mirror-
Web, that takes you to your own roots to acknowledge our common
essences as human beings.
The creation of every piece begins applying a thin layer of pine pitch, not
bee’s wax, to the carved wood figure and then one by one, in a long
process that takes hours and hours of patience and wisdom, in a kind of
ritual, are applied the glass beads or the yarn strings of cotton, telling the
stories that figure out our ancestral culture.
Before the glass beads, in the Precolonial time, our ancestors used gold,
silver, jade, emeralds, and all kind of precious metals and stones, that
were traded precisely for the glass beads to the European conquerors;
that is why it is very symptomatic that in the present times we are using
the materials of the Colonial times to create the autochthonous art in the
original way, as a Ritual Offering.
As we said before every piece is conveying our arcane legends in a kind of
symbolic language whose interpretation may be easier by the means of
the following words:
The symbol expressed with most frequency is the figure of the Peyote
cactus or Hikuri, that for the Wichol People means, not a drug, but the
origin of the Corn or Iku, the basic meal not only of the Wichols but of all
the American Continental People. Then comes the Deer or Maxa, that
means the soul of the People; when it is pictured only the face of the Deer,
it is meaning the shaman singing in a ceremony, sharing by the songs the
soul of our ancestors; when is pictured the full body of the Deer it means
the Soul of the People dancing around our Grandfather Fire or Tatewari.
The Serpent or Ku means the wisdom of the material things, the body
wisdom or unconsciousness, and the Eagle or Werika means the wisdom
of the mind or consciousness. The Butterfly or Kupí means the movement,
the transformation, the continuous metamorphosis of everything. The
Lizard or Ketzé represents our basic sense that is the hearing, since the
lizard is the beast listener among the animals. The Mountain Lion or
Maye means the hunting spirit of the shaman. The Turtle or Aye is our
first ancestor since we are coming from the Ocean. The Cosmos is
represented by the diamond shape or Tzikuri, also misnamed “God’s
Eye”. The Arrows or Uru are the messages or desires from our Heart or
Iyari. The Eclipse is the beginning of Life on Earth, since when our
Father The Sun or Tau and our Mother The Moon or Metza joined, they
created the Primordial Movement. Finally the Double Duality Mask
expresses that every Person is half animal and half human, and as well,
half cool and half angry.
We are sure that with this brief guide of the Wichol Symbolic Language
you will be able to interpret by yourself the story written in the Wichol
Artistic Ritual Offerings, that is always the best interpretation possible
since comes from your own heart and mind.

The Philosophy of
The Wichol Cultural Community

This couple of schemes express as clear as possible the essence of the

Philosophical Artistic Ritual Offerings
that you receive as feed-back of your donation to
The Wichol Cultural Community, Non-Profit Organization.
 Our whole philosophy is contained in these two schemes, wheels, or
mandalas.
This kind of concentrical design in our language is called
Nierika, metaphorically meaning at the same time
Duality-Mirror-Offering-Web
Our Ritual Art, the World around our own Life is conceived as Nierika

The way to read a Nierika is in counter clockwise spiral sense

from The Black & White center to The Blue to The Yellow to
The Green to The Red and then to the middle again to start
from The Black & White to The Blue and so on.

Then a very particular relation is set between the five areas

The Blue through The Yellow is creating The Green
The Green by The Red is creating the Black & White
and then again The Black & White Center is triggering The Blue
to begin again the Forever Lasting Spiral Movement of our Cosmos

Thence the Wichol Artistic Ritual Offerings are conceived based upon this
perennial logic:

Our creation journey starts in the deepest of our Heart – Iyari

where our Arcane Wisdom dwells
then goes through the Shamanic Chants – Kwikari
expressing our Symbolic Language
uncovering our Pathway – Yeiyari
to embroider the tissue of our Mythic Culture
receiving the scent of the Flowers – Tuturi
inspired for the track printed by our Ancestor’s Legacy
to keep on living as the most beautiful and powerful Nierika
accomplishing our fate
to become ourselves the most fertile ancestors possible at dying
Following we offer a poetical way to define the five areas of our
Philosophical Art or Nierika

The Wichol Iyari – The Arcane Wisdom

The original track of the Arcane Wichol Wisdom

the Wichol Cosmos – Tzikuri
is printed just in the very motive of every one’s life
the cross shaped human Heart –Iyari
hence our primal drive
becoming us Wichol People
is the passionate creation of
Artistic Ritual Offerings
the frenzy of the inspiration
darts us
to the vortex of the spiral –
Kuyuaneneme
the center point of our own
selves
in web connection with the four
corners of the cosmos around
the cardinal points
the seasons
the basic elements
the legacy of the grandparents
the craft of our hands and going
of our feet
 in the ecstatic autonomy of the authentic ritual of creation
staying still in movement suspended in symmetric balance
as the flying Hummingbird –Witzillin
as the central mesh of the Spider Web – Wixari

The Wichol Kuikari – The Symbolic Language

The amazing artistic hands of the wichol people

perform by Heart –Iyari Shamanic Songs –Kuikari
telling stories by means of symmetrical metaphors
as colorful feathered Arrows –Ürü
aiming to captivate the Heart – Iyari of our arcane
soul-mate
the Blue Deer – Tamatz Kauyumarie
and then listen to its legendary voice
to fertilize the common roots of our global ancestral
memory
The wichol language is essentially symbolic
it is a common natural device to convey in a global
way
from the bottom of the Heart –Iyari
without boundaries at all
It is a way to create without models at all
to disseminate our message without intermediaries at all
The wichol symbolic language is the virtual common ground
to communicate and share our own selves
beyond limitations of time and place
at the center point of the web that is our Mother Earth - Yurianaka
 The Wichol Yeiyari – The Mythic Culture

The Wichol Culture – Yeiyari is the natural impetus of the Heart – Iyary
to generate… to create…
The offering is the archetypical ritual
to become yourself in the flesh The One who Knows Mara’kame Tewiyari
The wichol ritual of initiation happens when we are six years old and we
embroider freehand designs on muslin clothes
our second skin to be worn while dancing in spiral
around our grandfather Fire –
Tate’wari
at the center of the cosmos-Tzikuri
cross point of the everlasting two
opposites Life and Death
Conscious and Unconsciousness
Masculine and Feminine
Day and Night You and Me
…and so on… all the Way - Yeiyari
There is the fifth spot where one
becomes a person
dancing alone in absolute autonomy
being all one in absolute authenticity
To be wichol is to be an artist all the way
to cover yourself with the mythic tissue of your own legends
to live as wichol is to make of your life the most beautiful masterpiece
and thence accomplish at the end of the way the wichol common fate to
become yourself a memorable personage
immortal at dying a fertile ancestor
starting over and over again overcoming the oblivion
 The Wichol Tuturi – The Ancestor’s Legacy

The Wichol Historic Legacy

are the Flowers –Tuturi blooming all the way
in the Path of our Ancestors – Yeiyari
Thence the wichol artistic offerings made along the way
are the fruits fertilized by the arcane voices of our maintainers
conveyed by the Shamanic Chants –
Kuikari
these fruits are carrying inside
the seminal primal impulse of
the Artistic Way of Life
to inspire again the global arcane
wisdom
that sings
“What was done in the origin of time
once again will thus be customary
as it was customary in the beginning
those who live will exist once again”
The scent of our flowers may be
different
but they are interconnected by the underground
since the beginning of our planetary journey
The wichol aim is to make History to become mythological
To be mythical to become Legacy
 The Wichol Nierika – The Wichol Art

The very same nature of the wichol artistic ritual offerings

is philosophical
since they are created and conceived as Nierika
a Web-Mirror a Mirror-Web
concentric symmetrical designs
provoking cathartic effects
acting as a network that traps your own self
moving it downwards to the deepest inside of the spiral - Kuyuaneneme
bringing it upwards to the surface of your skin
the very essence of your being
Nierika is a Double Face Mirror that
reflecting the essence of the artist
as well as the essence of the onlooker
connects them in the middle of the web
Nierika is a continuous feedback
transference
making you know yourself by knowing
the other’s selves
and the other way round
The wichol ritual art is an interactive
offering
coming from the soul of one of the last surviving
seminal people on Earth - Yurianaka
The wichol ritual art connects you with your own mythical roots
enhancing the precious value of the millenary heredity
dwelling inside you
in a perennial return
 The Wichol Cultural Community Current Catalogue
Sizes in Inches – Values in US Dollars

Mountain Lion
and DualityMasks Eclipses
Gourd Bowls
Size Value Size Value Size Value
2 - 2.5 4 3.5 30 7 35
2.5 - 3 5 4 40 11 50
3 -3.5 6 4.5 50 14 80
3.5 - 4 7 5 60 Suns
4 - 4.5 8 5.5 70 Size Value
4.5 - 5 9 6 80 7 30
5 - 5.5 10 6.5 90 11 60
5.5 - 6 12 7 100 Quarter Moons
6 - 6.5 15 7.5 150 Size Value
6.5 - 7 20 8 200 6 25
7 - 7.5 25 9 250 12 50
7.5 - 8 30 10 300 Egg Figures
8 - 8.5 40 11 350 Size Value
8.5 - 9 50 12 400 2 x 2.5 5
Tur
HumanMasks tles Round Boards or Nierika
Size Value Size Value Size Value
6x4 30 5 20 6 30
8x6 40 9 30 12 60
11 x 7 50 Lizards
13 x 8 60 Size Value Size Value
14 x 9 70 9 25 11 30

Deer figures (lying or standing)

Size Value
9 40
 Yarn Paintings (round or square)
Size Value Size Value Size Value
6 15 12 40 24 150

You can order any custom made piece that is not in our
Current Catalogue

The value of donation does not include the shipping and

insurance of the artwork by DHL

Any order takes as much two weeks to be supplied.

If you want to see some samples of the art work offered in this
Catalogue please visit our web site at
www.huicholartphil.org.mx

Please before to place your order contact us at

The Wichol Cultural Community,
Non Profit Organization
e mail: wichol@huicholartphil.org.mx
Tel &Fax: + (328) 50001
Address: P.O. Box # 13
San Blas, Nayarit, México 63740

Let’s keep on sharing