Tłʼéhonaaʼéí- Navajo GodDeity"Moon Bearer"
Description
After the emergence into the Glittering World, the Holy People shaped a white shell disk and mounted it in the sky. They appointed the Moon Bearer to carry it across the darkness each night, tracing the same east-to-west path the Sun Bearer follows by day.
Mythology & Lore
The White Shell Disk
In the Diné Bahaneʼ, after the people emerged into the Glittering World, the Holy People set about ordering the new world. They created two disks to light it. The first was turquoise, bright and hot. They mounted it in the eastern sky and appointed Jóhonaaʼéí, the Sun Bearer, to carry it from east to west each day. The second was white shell (yooł), cooler, softer in its glow. They mounted it in the sky for the night and appointed Tłʼéhonaaʼéí to carry it.
The Moon Bearer makes his journey through darkness while the Sun Bearer rests. His disk waxes from a sliver to a full circle and back again, and the Navajo traditional calendar follows these phases. Ceremonies are timed to them. The lunar month structures planting and harvest.
The Night Journey
Where the Sun Bearer's path is fixed and blazing, the Moon Bearer's shifts and softens. Some nights the white shell disk rides high and floods the desert with pale light. Other nights it hangs low on the horizon, barely clearing the mesas. The Sun Bearer is associated with turquoise, vivid and direct. The Moon Bearer's white shell has the quality of moonlight itself: luminous but indirect, present but not overwhelming.
The two carriers are counterparts, not rivals. The Sun Bearer's daily crossing and the Moon Bearer's nightly one together mark every unit of time the Navajo world recognizes. Without either journey, the count of days would break.
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