In the creation of www.storytelling.co.za, and after much searching, we settled on a modified version of Kokopelli, a fertility deity and trickster god who is usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player (often with feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head), who has been venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern US. In these traditions, we read of travelers who would arrive from afar and approach the village playing a flute and carrying a bag of interesting things like seeds on their backs from afar. Of course, they would also bring stories with them.
So what interested us about Kokopelli is that he seems to be one of the original 'wandering bards' - making his living through travelling, telling stories, bringing new seed and helping connecting communities - a shamanic calling. Kokopelli also seems to be one of mankind's oldest brands and his image is to be seen in many parts of North America, the earliest dating back to between 750 and 850 AD.
In another tradition, Kokopelli's fluteplaying chases away the Winter and brings about Spring. Many tribes, such as the Zuni, also associate Kokopelli as the bringer of rain.
There are also interesting stories about the flute played by Kokopelli and the enculturation of young men in a tribe. In order to woo a maiden, the young man would need to make and then learn to play a 'courtship flute'. When he had mastered the flute, he would then play outside the village and when his intended heard the sounds (and her 'elk medicine' and his 'elk medicine' were sufficiently strong), she would come to him.
So Kokopelli is many things, an entertainer, bringer of rain, dispeller of winter, bringer of seed from exotic places and, of course, shaman and teller of stories.
And shining down from Kokopelli's image is a yellow sun that looks very much like Picasso's sun in 'don quixote'
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