Kokopelli

BBBH designed and we redecorated my office recently. (She is an HGTV enthusiast.) Since I was born and raised in Colorado, she thought to choose a "Western" theme. During our travels in the West, BBBH found the Anasazi very interesting, and the ubiquitous appearance of Kokopelli througout the Southwest inspired her to choose his image as a recurring motif.

Kokopelli is the little dickens depicted here. He is the music-loving flute player who also happens to be a trickster as well as the god of fertility. So it is said. He appears in the legends of the Anasazi and modern tribes such as the Hopi. Historically, it has been determined that his image appeared among The People well over 1000 years ago.

Many of the images much more clearly suggest the "fertility" aspect of his behavior. Some legends say he carried unborn babies in the sack on his back (the depiction of Kokopelli often shows a distinct hump). He was said to "distribute" these little tykes to young women so that they might bear them into the world. For this reason, the girls were often frightened of this being, very reasonably fearing pregnancy.

There is much information about this personage available, so if this little vignette has piqued your interest, start by entering his name in your browser, and have fun.