Ko-ko-pel-li (kô kô pel´ lê) n. {der. Hopi "kokopilau" (koko = wood, pilau =
hump)} the humpbacked Flute Player, mythical Hopi symbol of fertility, replenishment, music, dance, and mischief.
The mysterious Kokopelli character is found in a number of Native American cultures, being especially prominent in the
Anazasi culture of the "Four Corners" area. The figure represents a mischievous trickster or the Minstrel,
spirit of music. Kokopelli is distinguished by his dancing pose,
a hunchback and flute. His whimsical nature, charitable deeds, and vital spirit give him a prominent position in Native American
mysticism.
Kokopelli has been a sacred figure to Native Americans of the Southwestern United States for thousands of years. Found
painted and carved on rock walls and boulders throughout this region, Kokopelli is one of the most intriguing and widespread
images to have survived from ancient Anasazi Indian mythology, and is a prominent figure in Hopi and Zuni legends. Kokopelli
is also revered by current-day descendants including the Hopi, Taos and Acoma pueblo peoples.
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Rituals of Greek Mystery Cults
Greeks have participated in esoteric religious rites which included dancing throughout their history. The
rites of Dionysus and Bacchus have been most commented upon, but there were many more deities, especially those which pertained
to fertility.
Pan, the ancient god of nature, was also worshipped in nocturnal mysteries and dances in the Greek world.
There were also mysteries celebrated in honor of Aphrodite, goddess of human love and fertility on the island of Cyprus. Ecstatic
and lewd dances to the tympanum (a type of cymbal) were a feature of these rites. And there were, of course, the great mysteries
celebrated at Eleusis, near Athens, for Demeter and Persephone.
They were often characterized by frenzied nocturnal dances, with crazed outcries,
to the stirring accompaniment of shrill flutes, tympana, metal cymbals, castanets of wood, earthenware or metal, horns, "bull-roarers",
and rattles. In these situations, music and dance were used as a form of "medicine" for illness of the spirit and the
body, as will be seen in the "trance dance" cults that still survive in many parts of the middle east.
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The
Whirling Dervishes trace their origin to the 13th century Ottoman Empire. The Dervishes, also known as the Mevlevi Order, are Sufis, a spiritual offshoot of Islam. In 1972, Jelaluddin Loras, Sheikh of
the Mevlevi Order of America, brought the religion from Turkey to the United States.
http://www.dankphotos.com/whirling/index.shtml
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