Pollen Boy- Navajo SpiritSpirit
Also known as: Tádídíín Ashkii
Description
Every morning, a Diné person steps outside, faces east, and offers a pinch of golden corn pollen to the rising sun. Pollen Boy is present in that gesture, the spirit of tádídíín, the sacred powder gathered from corn tassels and offered in every prayer and ceremony.
Mythology & Lore
The Morning Offering
Corn pollen is the most sacred substance in Navajo practice. A traditional Diné person carries a small pouch of it and uses it constantly: offered to the Holy People at dawn, applied to the body during healing ceremonies. The powder comes from the tassels of mature corn, fine and yellow, and Pollen Boy is its spirit. He is present each time a healer dusts pollen across a sandpainting, each time a person steps outside before sunrise and speaks the morning words with pollen on their fingertips.
Pollen Boy is paired with Grasshopper Girl. Together they appear in ceremony, the masculine and feminine halves of the blessing that corn carries.
In Creation
In the creation narratives recorded by Wyman, pollen was among the substances used to form the first human beings. The offering of pollen gives back to the Holy People something of what they gave when they shaped human life.
Relationships
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