It had been a very dry year and the trust that rain was coming had worn thin. Kokopelli, the master magician, had come to trade. His humpback was actually his bundle of sacred objects, Medicine and seed he had brought for trading, and his flute seemed to glow in the firelight. He used the reflected light, as well as sound, to mesmerize his observers.
The feathers in Kokopelli's headdress were bright red Macaw feathers, which gave the illusion of his being bathed in the Eternal Flame of passion and creativity. The Fire of fertility that crowned his head also radiated from his body as he swayed in front of the communal fire. When he finished with his flute, he wrapped it like a child in brightly woven material and offered it to the Great Star Nation. His words carried to the farthest reaches of the pueblo. "This flute carries the music of the stars to the Great Earth Mother and calls for the Thunder-beings to unite with her," he cried. "This union will bring a child to the People who will one day lead them back to the stars, through the inner-Earth from which they came."
A cool rush of high mountain air blew up the canyon to stir the embers of the communal fire into a whirlwind that exploded, filling the night sky with starlike sparks. The gasps of wonder from the mouths of the People echoed through the moonless night. Suddenly the light that the Fire-beings cast, gave enough light for everyone to see the masses of Cloud People who had gathered in the heavens to answer Kokopelli's call. Once again, the People cried out in awe at the magic of this half-god, half-man, Kokopelli. Even the sleeping babies awakened to the spectacle of Kokopelli's magic. Surely the long-awaited rain would feed the Three Sisters and the People would live. Kokopelli called out for everyone to gather up their clay pots so that the moisture could be collected for future use. The Thunderers called out that Rain was about to begin.
The Fire Sticks gave quite a light show before Rolling Thunder broke the silent night. The only other sound was the scurrying of feet in yucca-fiber sandals running up and down ladders to grab the pots. One maiden stood entranced near the main plaza marveling at the lightening in the night sky while others around her became frenzied, running to and fro. Kokopelli looked at her beautiful, innocent face filled with wonder and approached her, still holding his flute like a child. She was filled with a sereneness that had piqued his curiosity.
"Why have you not gathered your pots?" he asked. "They are in place high on the mesa," she answered. When he asked the maiden her name, she replied, "I am called Ice Flower of the Winter Clan of White Corn." "Why are your pots already in place, Ice Flower?" he asked. "Because your flute called to me when you came up the canyon and told me you would bring the rain," she answered. Kokopelli was intrigued. He smiled in a knowing way as the maiden returned his smile. "So you are the one," he said.
The People assembled for the Medicine Chief of the Eagle Clan's prayer of gratitude just as the first Rain People began to touch the Earth Mother. Kokopelli took Ice Flower by the hand and led her to the Fire. All eyes were watching the couple as they made their way to the head of the plaza. When the prayer was over, Kokopelli placed the flute, wrapped like a child in Ice Flower's arms as a symbol that this woman would share his music and his seed.
Magic was in the air and the child of this union would use the magic of this Medicine to assist the People in finding their way back to the stars. The legend of the Pueblo People tells that they crawled up from the underworld after creation. Meanwhile the spirits of their Ancestors went back into the underworld until it was time to walk the Earth again. Kokopelli spoke to them of a time before the Creation when each person was a spark of Fire from Great Mystery's Eternal Flame and had fallen to Earth to seed the Mother with fertile thoughts, ideas, and actions. He told them that they would all become like Fireflies in the Great Sky Nation on the day when the Toltec and Pueblo bloodlines came together as one.
The Aztecs say that Ice Flower brought a man-child, who became a great spiritual leader of the Eagle clan, into the world. His Medicine was the gentleness of his mother and the Fire of his father. Since Mesa Verde was abandoned hundreds of years ago, we are left with this question: did they leave the Earth and go to live in the Great Star Nation? If so, the fertility and abundance of Kokopelli shines on our world each night.
Kokopelli was a proud Toltec who came to Aztlan from deep in the heart of Mexico. Aztlan was the origin point of the mighty Aztec Nation before they built their capital in the middle of a lake, on an island now known as Mexico City. Aztlan's uppermost border was in southern Colorado and covered all of the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico. The inhabitants of Aztlan were the peaceful Pueblo Nations. These Pueblos were farmers and cliff dwellers who depended upon the Thunder-beings and the Whirling Rainbow to feed the Three Sisters -- Corn, Squash, and Beans -- so the People could live.
The name of Kokopelli carries with it many myths and legends. All stories agree on one thing: he played the Indian Flute. His music was said to bring fertility to the land and to the People. His trade routes from southern Mexico to the southern regions of Colorado are marked with Petroglyphs of a humped-back flute player. His life was colorfully told around many a Council Fire and his praises sung in many a Kiva. It is said that his seed was sacred and that children born of him were blessed with special talents. Any woman chosen by Kokopelli was honored among her people for she would bear a child from the race of gods.
