"Corn Dawn Mother" by Marti Fenton

“Iyatiku’s themes are Earth, the harvest, providence, health and weather.  Her symbols are corn, beans, seeds and soil. Iyatiku is the Pueblo corn and underworld Goddess who protects not only future crops but the future in general by safeguarding children. During the early months of the year, Iyatiku extends arms of compassion to embrace us with nurturing support, just as the earth nurtures seeds.

If you have a garden, today is an excellent time to dance on the land and invoke Iyatiku’s blessings on your crops or flowers. The Pueblo and Hopi Indians have spirit dancers waltz around the land to instill the crops with energy through sacred movements.

The Hopi also plant beans on top of underground ritual rooms called kivas, which house Iyatiku’s nurturing energy. When children go into kivas for rites of passage, they emerge as adults thanks to the Goddess’s care and guidance within.

Using this symbolism to foster maturity or any other of Iyatiku’s attributes today, go today to some place close to the earth, taking a bean with you. Plant the bean, then sit on top of the ground covered with a blanket (a mock cave/ womb/ kiva). Meditate here, focusing on the bean, the rich earth below you and the earth’s generative energy. Allow Iyatiku to meet you in this sacred space and begin manifesting what you most need.”

(Patricia Telesco, “365 Goddess: a daily guide to the magic and inspiration of the goddess”.)

Iyatiku is the corn Goddess of the Keresan Puebloes. From shipap, Her underground realm, mankind first ermerged, from there infants today are born and tither go the dead. To provide food for them, She plants bits of her heart in fields to the north, west, south, and east. Later the pieces of Iyatiku’s heart grow into fields of corn. The Cochiti Puebloes regard Mesewi as the hero who had led the ancestors of the tribe out of shipap. [1]

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