God's eye facts for kids
A God's eye (in Spanish, Ojo de Dios) is a special object made by weaving colorful yarn onto a wooden cross. These beautiful woven designs are often found in Mexican, Peruvian, and Latin American communities. Both Indigenous people and Catholics use them.
Ojos de Dios are common in the Pueblo areas of New Mexico. Many people believe they show that a higher power is always watching over them. Some think the spiritual eye of the Ojo de Dios can see and understand things that our normal eyes cannot. From the 1500s to the 1800s, during Spanish colonial times in New Mexico, Ojos de Dios were placed where people worked or walked along trails.
Today, artists in the Americas create many different kinds of Ojos de Dios. They sell them as decorations or religious items. Making Ojos de Dios has also become a popular and fun craft for children.
What is an Ojo de Dios?
The Ojo de Dios, or God's eye, is a traditional tool. People believed it would protect them while they prayed. It is also seen as a special object and an old cultural symbol. It is very important to the Huichol and Tepehuan people of western Mexico.
The Huichol people, also called Wixaritari, call their God's Eyes Tsikuri. This word means "the power to see and understand things unknown." When a Huichol child is born, the father weaves the center of the eye. Then, a new color is added each year until the child turns five. Real traditional Tepehuan Crosses are very rare. Many are now made for tourists, but these do not have the same deep meaning.
Nierika: A Sacred Vision
In traditional Huichol communities, a nieli'ka or nierika is a very important sacred object. One main meaning of "nierika" is "a spiritual vision." It can also represent a god or an ancestor. The Tepehuán people use the same word for their gods.
The word nierika comes from the verb nieriya, which means "to see." Nierika objects are found in the most sacred places of the Huichol and Tepehuan people. These include house shrines, springs, caves, and temples.
Some Native people in northwest Mexico and the southwest U.S. had special visions. During these visions, gods appeared to them. The eyes of these gods were so powerful that many people could only see the god's eye. To share their visions with others, they made the God's eye. They wove them on sticks using handspun yarn. They used colors from berries, flowers, and other materials to show what they had seen.
A votive nierika is usually a round offering. It stands for an ancestor and represents prayers. It is made sacred with the blood of a sacrificed animal. Nierika objects can be attached to special arrows with bamboo and yarn. They can also be wood-and-wax objects. They are meant to honor an ancestor and ask for their help.
The nierika can look different. It might be a small round or square tablet with a hole in the middle. It is covered with a mix of beeswax and pine resin. Yarn threads are pressed into this mixture to create a design. If the object is not round, it might be a resting place for ancestors or a prayer mat.
Older, more detailed woven nierika objects are now very rare. These were often rectangular or square. They had yarn woven onto a grid of bamboo sticks. These types of God's Eyes are also called ojo de dios in Spanish. One idea about the ojo de dios is that it is a "wand" or "eye" through which the eye of god sees the person praying. The cross shape of the ojo de dios is said to represent the four directions: earth, fire, water, and air.
See also
In Spanish: Ojo de Dios para niños
