The Wixárika people (weeSHAHreeka), known to outsiders as the Huichol, live in the western mountains of central Mexico. Their name means "the People," a primary self-naming for countless Indigenous nations. Their traditions indicate that they originated in the state now known as San Luis Potosí, and emigrated into the mountains long ago, under pressure. They make periodic pilgrimages to their homeland to seek peyote, a sacrament in their culture. The luminous visionary quality of their art reflects their use of this entheogen native to the region, and more often than not depicts deities and medicine people.

Takutsi Nakawé, usually translated as Grandmother Growth, giving birth.

Takutsi Nakawé is called Grandmother Growth. She is the Earth, and a creatrix, but also the first shaman in the world. She is envisioned as a powerful old medicine woman, with a bamboo staff and sacred basket.

The yarn painting above shows Takutsi Nakawé in the act of giving birth, flanked by Corn on one side and peyote on the other. She holds a muwieri (sacred staff with feathery pendants) and two "gods' eyes," yarn wrapped around sticks in the image of the Directions. Flying snakes attend her, as power flames all around her.

Below, "Earth Goddess Nakawé," by Evaristo Diaz Benitez, a yarn painting rich in symbols, including spirals, stars, and peyote again, along with spirit birds.

"Na-Kutsi-Na-Kawe-Teaching Deer How To Hide Better By Turning to Peyote," yarn painting by Fidencio Benitez. She stands across from the deer, who emits glowing peyote buttons from its mouth. Her hair is white (usually represented by yellow in this art) and she is speaking or chanting. Her skirt is ornamented with Spider, frequently associated with her power as the Cosmic Weaver. Spider also hovers above the scene.

Below is an older image, a sculpture of Takutsi Nakawe, with her sacred staffs, sometimes referred to as canes, other times as weaving tools. They contain creative power of growth, as this story explains:

"The wixárika Watakame: "The one who did the 'coamil'", trying to [undo] their labor to plant corn, he found fully grown corn of what he had cut the day before. He kept cutting and the same thing happened. He decided to uncover the cause. Coming from under the soil he saw grandmother of growth, Nakawé, who pointing with her cane towards the five bearings of the universe, she made everything grow.

"She said to him, "There's going to be a flood, and five days before the flood there's going to be a very strong breeze that is smoked chile scented. Build a box of your size with the trunk of a 'zalate'; place a cover to hide inside, keep 5 corn seed one of each color, and five beans; one of each as well. Take firelight and five gourd stems to preserve the fire and a black dog."

"The wixárika did as he was told. The box floated during five years, wandering through the cardinal points every year. The world was now filled with water and the box had gone very high during the fifth year, and in the sixth year the water descended and the box settled on a mountain. The macaws and the parrots opened their beaks and wide ravines started to form along with the separation of the seas into five different ones, and trees and herbs were born."

The same page explains,

"Takutsi Nakawe, the deity of growth, is represented as an old lady that has been part of this world since the beginning of time, taking care of the people, the animals, plants, and other living things. She is prayed to in times of sorrow in order to have a healthy and joyful long life.

"She is the mother of the Gods and the Earth. The place where she inhabits is known as the underworld. She produces the vegetation that feeds the Wixaritari and is identified with Mother Earth and the Mother of corn."

Nakutsi Nakawé is the Waters, often represented by serpents. Her counterpart is Tatawari, Grandfather Fire.

Another yarn painting titled The Mother of Nature shows Takutsi Nakawe again as a white-haired old medicine woman, wielding her muwieri (spirit staff) at night under the moon and stars. Droplets of water flow everywhere. That might be sacred datura flowering at right.

In another story, Takutsi acts as a trickster, outwitting an enemy people, with the assistance of Deer and animals with night powers: Crow, Fox, and Owl. "By singing chants which they admired, Takutsi gained the friendship of the cannibalistic Hewixi tribe, who possessed the two mighty plumed-arrows and the gourd bowl which brought rain. They would call on her to instruct them in her secret knowledge by singing her sacred stories at their celebrations. She is seen at the lower right smoking a cigar with a drum (tepo) in front of her and a plumed arrow (muvieri) in her hand.

...

"With the help of the instruments captured by Tamatsi Kauyumarie, the temple (tuki) was built and the gourd that calls for the rain was placed within it. The two arrows, one blue for invoking female spirits and one red for invoking male spirits, now enable the peyote hunters to make the pilgrimage to Wírikuta, to hunt the peyote-deer and to celebrate the peyote ceremony (Hikuri Neixa) afterwards. Thus, the Tatutuma were able to reach Wírikuta as do their descendants, the Huichol (Wixaritari).

Read the whole story here, which also explains all the elements in the yarn painting below.

I’ve always seen Takutsi Nakawé rendered as Grandmother Growth, but according to this site, Nakawé literally means “hollow ear":

"The Huichol call her Tacutsi, Our Great Grandmother, because she is one of the primordial forces of creation, and as Nakawé, Hollow-Ear, because of her oracular insight that allowed her to foresee the flood that destroyed the previous Underworld. She represents the incubating power of the womb, growth and change, reorganization and fertility. She engendered Our Mothers of Rain and Corn. When she finished her labors, her own body expanded, breaking to pieces. From each part of her body, new plants and animals were formed to feed our life.

"Around her skeleton are scattered her jawbones (on either side of her skull), her arms (to the left) and two teeth (lower left corner). Her brains are on top of her skull between her hairs. Her tongue is to the left of her chin. Her eyes have left their sockets (top right). Above her eyes is her artery. Below it (from left to right) are her pink-red skin, her tendons, and her loin. Her heart, liver and respiratory system are at lower right. Below her torso are her bladder, two kidneys, two pieces of marrow, her sexual organs, her digestive tract and her anal tract. At top left, four objects represent her breasts and flesh from her back. Her spleen and a white eyebrow are below.

Explanation and Interpretation by Juan Negrín based on a tape recorded conversation with the artist."

Who knows where I found the drawing below, labled Disco de la Abuela Crecimiento, which means Grandmother Growth again. Serpents, birds, deer and stars...

"For the Huichol, who call themselves Wixáritari (Huichol pronunciation: /wiˈraɾitaɾi/), their religious life and physical life are the same; life and religion are intertwined. Their deities are honored in their ceremonies and represented in their art; and so are included in the daily interactions of life. They ask the deities for rain and sun for the crops, successful deer hunts, healthy children and protection from natural and supernatural dangers. The oldest gods are Takutsi Nakawé, Grandmother of Growth and Germination, who created the world, Tatewari, Grandfather Fire and Kauyamari, the Deer Spirit. The Huichol are said to have over 100 deities which include sun, rain, wind, ocean, earth, and corn. Their art manifests the deities as motifs in the work. As you can imagine, with so many deities, their art overflows with them!

"Here we explore the Huichol’s oldest gods and goddesses and show their manifestations in Huichol works of art. These can include their very detailed embroidery, gourd bowls, masks, jewelry, face painting, yarn paintings, ceremonial pieces and more. In later posts we will continue illustrating the many deities and motifs in their art. According to ancient traditions the gods brought offerings or votives with them when they came from the chaotic sky world into the new world. The votives, or sacred art, must be replenished to maintain the world. This is why the creation of the Huichol art is so central to their lives."

This account gives a slightly different version than the previous story where it is corn that is cut down:

"Takutsi Nakawe came through the tunnel of light from the chaotic sky world with the other gods and goddesses. The sun, moon, stars, animals and the landscape are created. Afterward, Watakame, a lonely man who works everyday on his milpa (rural place he lives), realizes that the trees he has cut down are again standing. He finds Takutsi Nakawe, who has stood them upright with her cane, and she tells him of the coming flood. 

"They build a boat in which they are saved from the flood. This yarn painting captures the great flood where Takutsi Nakawe and Watakame are saved from the flood, along with his black female dog, Tusi. She gives him seeds to keep safe until the waters recede. After the flood, Takutsi Nakawe recreates the plants, animals and trees. She shows Watakame how to plant the seeds. Watakame and Tusi, who has turned into a woman, marry and have children that are the Huichols, or Wixáritari."

Here again the water from the sky is shown as snakes.

More here: https://latinamericanart.gallery/huichol-indian-gods-deities-motifs-represented-art-part-one/

Grandmother Rain – video trailer in Wixarika, with Spanish and English subtitles. "Here we re-tell the story of Takutzi Nakawe, Grandmother Rain, and how the world was created, according to the Wixaritari (Huicholes) of the Western Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico." Interesting that they call Takutsi Nakawé in this way, highlighting her water aspect. And as you'll see, the "gods" are not held separate.

https://www.wilderutopia.com/traditions/myth/journey-of-grandmother-rain-world-creation-of-the-wixaritari-huicholes/

Journey of Grandmother Rain – World Creation of the Wixáritari (Huicholes)

"Watacame, the first human, journeys with Takutzi Nakawe (Grandmother Rain), in a story about those who walked the Earth to found the creation of life and the blooming of sustenance into the present era. Grandmother Rain recommends Watacame construct a raft made of chalate wood to withstand five days of monsoons, wind, waves, flooding, and storming.

"Into the swirling tempest, Watacame and his black female dog Tziku Mayuri spun round and round in the waves. Would the downpour ever end? The Earth was covered in an endless sea. Watacame looked to the clouds, prayed, dreamed, and held on to the raft and his dog. Looking up to the sky, he saw the clouds part, and Grandmother Rain came down.

F"ive days of storming suddenly ended. The number five, a sacred number correlating to the Five Suns of the Aztec calendar and also the Four Directions and the Center, appears regularly in the Huichol cosmovision. The Goddess then struck her staff five times on the raft, and they transformed onto dry land.

"Grandmother Rain unleashed what she calls gods, which means a soul, a species, an essence, an impulse. These gods and forces must come to fulfill their calling, sent to seek their respective sacred places, to manifest in the land, to make distinct the landscape.

"A god or a force whose living existence connects to sacred space, cultivates health, knowledge, beauty, and inspiration in all the life within its sphere. Thus, Watacame walked with gods and forces of the World, guided by Grandmother Rain, seeking to bring to life the sacred lands that the Huichol people would one day worship and protect.

"Walking beyond time, as the concept had not yet been created, they heard a sonorous chant from the primordial darkness. This singing carried a certain harmony bringing light and hope to the blackened world. The chant emanated from what might be called a sacred temple of the gods. The elder brother Blue Deer, Tamatzika Kuyumare, offered to guide Watacame to the other side of the snake-shaped river. There, they would be welcomed into the revered land-temple.

"the sun was too close to the Earth and so the snake people grew wings so they might fly up into the sky and eat up the sun. In defense, the sun established red, blue, and gray stars in the sky, and the snake people failed. In desperation, the gods went up onto a high mountain, where a quail and a turkey appeared — in those days animals were really people. The turkey person raised his head and said “aru, aru, aru,” but nothing happened. The second time he said “tau-tau-tau” and more light appeared.

"Finally, messengers were sent to ask Grandmother Nakawe to raise the sun up higher so that it would not harm the people. They took a further pilgrimage with the Rain Goddess and continued singing all the way — the very songs the Huichols sing to this day.

"Finally, Nakawe pointed her mumuxi (staff) in all the cardinal directions and the center exhorting them to assist in raising up and supporting the sun. Five times she raised the sun and then asked the gods where they wanted it. At the fifth raising, she left the sun where it is today.

“Stay at this height forever,” Nakawe told the sun. She fastened it in place with pine tree trunks. That is why the Huichols, in commemoration of the tree of our Father Sun, still use pine trees to support the roof of the calihuey, the god house in the ceremonial centers."

Grandmother Rain – A trailer in Wixarika, with Spanish and English subtitles

Soon it illuminated the entire planet, fertilizing the seed of life, giving birth to all the animal and plant species that inhabit the earth.

At last the magical boy received his name: Tawexikia and Tayeu (The Sphere of Great Rays, our Elder Brother), as Father Sun is called today. From that time on the people began to live happily in his light.

Once the sun had fully risen, Tziku Mayuwi, Watacame’s black female dog companion, transformed into the first woman, completing the couple for good. Once the pilgrimage concluded, Grandmother Nakawe told Watacame to cherish and honor the sacred places where the gods stayed, this way these places would bring equilibrium and health to the entire creation.

STORY: Yaqui of Mexico: How the Sorcerer Cricket Saved the People

Grandmother Rain Descends from the Clouds to guide first man.

She instructs him and teaches him how to survive the flood, and what will come.