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kachina (ke-chê´ne), among PUEBLO peoples, the spirit of the life forces. Elaborately costumed tribesmen, impersonating kachinas, visit Pueblo villages early in the year. They dance, sing, and give gifts to children. Dolls that the Hopi and ZUÑI carve and dress like the dancers are also called kachinas.

kachina

kachina (ke-chê´ne) noun
1. Any of numerous deified ancestral spirits of the Pueblo peoples, believed to reside in the pueblo for part of each year.
2. A masked dancer believed to embody a particular spirit during a religious ceremony.
3. A carved doll in the costume of a particular spirit, usually presented as a gift to a child.
[Hopi katsina, supernatural being, masked impersonator of a supernatural being.]

 - The Hopi Prophecies

The very same kachina doll sits today on the mantle in Oscar Janiger's living room, under a particularly stunning framed pair of before-and-after renderings of it. Painted by Fortune illustrator Frank Murdoch, the picture on the left is of draftsmanlike quality, a perfect "representational" image. Its acid-inspired twin couldn't be more different - awhirl with color and asplash with motion, its planes and curves lurching in multiple directions. But it is recognizably the same kachina doll. And if anything, its colors more accurately capture the doll's brilliant hues. (Janiger has saved all the pieces from the study, consistently declining offers from the artists to buy back their work. Several years ago, he mounted a successful gallery exhibition of the acid art.)

- John Whalen - Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

The Hopi believe Kachinas (Kat'sinas) are the spirits of nature and the messengers and teachers sent by the Great Spirit. The Sumerians believed KAT.SI.NA were righteous ones sent of God.

Cydonia   Sunrise - a flavor of tea by Shaman Products - obtained at the Bodhi Tree Used Books on Melrose, Los Angeles, California.  package depicts Kachina

first mention of Kachina in Usenet:

From: Bob Ollerton (bobbyo@celerity.UUCP)
Subject: Cal's dog spot eats Tex's bull and spits on eazy-credit.
Newsgroups: net.rumor
Date: 1985-04-28 15:31:30 PST

Ya, Tex heart-burn had it down to a science way before Cal came to phoenix.  Tex would even give you your choice of a shot gun, cowbow hat, or 1000 pounds of fertilizer (good ol' Arizona bull...) for every car, truck, or kachina doll purchased by man or beast.

Watching ol' Tex was real good entertainment while growing up in Eloy.  Not much else to do bu admire the bull.

bob.
--
Bob Ollerton; Celerity Computing;
9692 Via Excelencia; San Diego, Ca 92126; (619) 271 9940
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