Changing Woman – Navajo People (North America)

Changing Woman – Navajo People (North America)

Changing Woman is the most important goddess of the Navajo. Daughter of Long Life Boy and Happiness Girl, she is created by Talking God from a turquoise image and raised by First Man and First Woman.

She is a very important figure in creation and is identified as the essence of life, growing old and becoming young again in an endless cycle of regeneration. Her sister is White Shell Woman. Changing Woman married the Sun God (although they did not live together), who carries the sun on his back and every night hangs it on the west wall of his dwelling. Their sons, the Hero Twins (Monster Slayer and Born for Water), aided by Spider Woman, located their father, who helped them bring peace to the earth by destroying the monsters that dominated it. However, despite killing many evil beings, they were never able to kill Old Age, Cold, or Hunger.

Spider Woman

Spider Woman is an important figure in the mythologies of the American Southwest and plays several roles, among them a contribution to creation. In Navajo myth, she is a helpful old woman. She aids the Hero Twins, Monster Slayer and Born for Water, and it is she who teaches the Navajo to weave. For this reason the Navajo must never kill spiders, which also benefits humans, since spiders catch flies, mosquitoes, and other insects. Children who kill a spider will have their teeth ruined, because it is said that Spider Woman has very sharp teeth angled backward so that prey cannot escape her. So that Navajo girls will become tireless weavers, their arms are rubbed with spiderwebs. When a Navajo woman uses Spider Woman’s knowledge to weave a mat, she must make a hole within the design at the end, so that her soul may return to her once more.