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  KoKopelli
 
  KoKopelli Dances by E. Carol Gaines.
 
  KoKopelli or Kokopilau (pronounced Coke-a-pellie) is the Ancient Hopi God of Powerful Communication and Fertility.

Often depicted as a humpbacked flute player, this mythic being has survived in recognizable form from Anasazi times to the present. There is something appealing about Kokopelli which fascinates all kinds of people, even in our modern technological age.

Hopi legend tells us that upon their entrance onto this, the fourth world, the Hopi people were met by an Eagle who shot an arrow into the two 'mahus', insects which carried the power of heat. They immediately began playing such uplifting melodies on their flutes that they healed their own pierced bodies.

 
 
 
 

The figure represents a mischievous trickster or the Minstrel, spirit of music. Kokopelli is distinguished by his dancing pose, a hunchback and flute. His whimsical nature, charitable deeds, and vital spirit give him a prominent position in Native American mysticism.

Kokopelli is also revered by current-day descendants including the Hopi, Taos and Acoma pueblo peoples.

 
 

KoKopelli

 

A strange lonely figure stares out of the past
where engraved by an artist in stone
Held firm by the sand in which he is cast,
these last thousand years quite alone.
Could he be listening, trying to hear
moccasins scuffing the butte?
Bringing the people once again near
to hear Kokopelli's sweet flute?

His image inscribed on a thousand rock faces
from east to the great western sea;
From Sonora's hot sun to the north glaciers bases,
proclaiming this loved tutelary.
Though powers possessed and methods employed
are often in open dispute;
One thing is agreed, the people did love
to hear Kokopelli's sweet flute.

This stick figure man, with a hump on his back
seemed always to cast a good feeling;
His magic perhaps, taken out of his pack
would comfort the sick and do healing.
Whatever his talents, they surely were grand,
a fact no one cares to refute,
As people would come from afar in the land,

to hear Kokopelli's sweet flute.

Author Unknown

 
 
 
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