Author Description

Traditional Huichols take on the arduous pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Wirikuta, as they say, "To find our lives." This ageless practice refers to the original journey the deities made upon arriving on Mother Earth from the Sky World. Embodied in the cosmology is not just the vision to clarify one's own life but the desire to reinforce their sacred connection with the natural world, with the ancestors, and with the Universal Life Force.Tom Pinkson retells the story of one of the many pilgrimages he made during his apprenticeship with Guadalupe de la Cruz, the spiritual leader of her rancho, a gifted Contador (singing shaman), and a skilled yarn painter.