Also called God's eye, sikuli, tsikuri, Eye of God
A diamond of colored yarn woven around two crossed sticks. Among the Wixárika (Huichol) people of western Mexico, the sikuli is a sacred object made for a child's protection; the yarn God's eye made in craft classes is a separate, open folk craft that can carry your own blessing.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Respect the closed practice: do not claim to make a Wixárika sikuli or perform Huichol ceremony, and do not sell your craft as Huichol work. Keep loose yarn and small sticks away from very young children.
Museum records describe the sikuli as placed on family altars to protect very young children, generally under five. Accounts say a father weaves the central eye at a child's birth and adds to it each year until the fifth. This belongs to a living, closed religious tradition and is described here, not taught.
In New Mexico, ojos de Dios have been hung in homes and workplaces as reminders of a watchful Providence. They blend Indigenous and Catholic meanings and are common in Pueblo communities today.
From the 1960s yarn God's eyes became a staple children's craft across the United States. Most makers have no tie to Wixárika belief; the craft version is open to anyone when it is not presented as a Huichol ritual object.
The Wixárika, often called Huichol, live in the mountains of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Jalisco and Nayarit. Their religious life has continued strongly, in part because communities long resisted conversion and outside control. The Norwegian explorer Carl Lumholtz, who lived among them in the 1890s, published Symbolism of the Huichol Indians in 1900, documenting their votive objects. The sikuli, glossed in museum notes as the power to see and understand unknown things, is one such object, placed on family altars for a young child's protection.
Elsewhere the woven cross took other lives. In New Mexico, Hispanic and Pueblo households hung ojos de Dios as signs of God's watchfulness. In the 1960s and 1970s the yarn God's eye spread through American classrooms, camps and hippie craft fairs, usually with little knowledge of its source. A respectful approach keeps both facts in view: honor the Wixárika sikuli as theirs, buy Wixárika-made art directly from artisans when you can, and treat your own weaving as an open folk craft and personal blessing.
A blue glass eye bead hung in the home or worn on the body so that envious or admiring looks are caught and reflected before they can do harm.
A home blessing for a dog, cat or other animal, modelled on the church blessings of animals held on St Francis's feast, October 4. It asks for health and safe return, and it comes with the practical checks that actually keep pets safe.
An Ojibwe protective charm, a small hoop netted like a spider web and hung on a baby's cradleboard to catch harm. Later widely adopted as a dream charm. This entry explains its history and gives a respectful way to keep one.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
