Huichol Native T Shirt – ‘Kieri’ Design

Description

The design of this T shirt is taken from a yarn painting created by the Huichol Indian Artist Refugio Perez.

Here is the artist’s description of the art:

The Huichol follow the path of knowledge in their community through the traditional use of hallucinogenic peyote. Here unfolds the story of the confrontation of the Peyote Deer God, Kauyumarie, on the left, with the Sorcerer Kieri, emerging from a golden bell-shaped flower.

The Deer God shoots five arrows at Kieri, and it is said that the fifth arrow pierces his heart, but his spirit flies to a craggy mountaintop and enters into the Tree of the Wind.

The plant-being Kieri is treated extremely cautiously by the Huichol, it is rarely touched, never eaten and certainly not cut down.  Kieri may come to someone in their dreams and offer them knowledge, prowess in music or victory over their enemies but the pact made with him for a certain length of time must not be broken or there will be dire consequences.