......in another article entitled
The Loom as a Sacred Power
Object in Huichol Culture
Stacy writes about designs:
There are various ways in which women express through their designs the messages they receive from the gods. After ingesting peyote women look forward to receiving beautiful designs, and many consume peyote as a kind of vision quest to reach closer to the gods, to communicate with them and see them in their brilliant splendour. Peyote induced designs are believed by Huichols to have been sent from the gods and are sacred. Designs known as nierica often take the form of mandalas, representing the energy life force emanating from all forms of the environment, including those that in western thought would be classed as inanimate. Nierica also appear as representations of the face or aura of individual gods. Huichols not only perceive these designs, but while under peyote intoxication they become part of their visions and personally interact with their gods in whatever forms they may take. From these experiences women duplicate their visions in their weavings and artwork, which commonly take the form of endlessly repeated designs, such as mandalas, lattice forms, and geometric images of flowers and animals.

With peyote so intimately integrated into the lives of weavers, many explain that it is the peyote which teaches them and helps them develop and weave designs from their own iyari , heart memory. My weaving teacher explained to me that everyone is born with their own iyari or receives it shortly after birth. One's iyari grows throughout her lifetime. She says: "The iyari grows like a plant, because when one is young she has a small heart. But then when she grows, it grows like a plant to become much larger."

When a woman weaves with her iyari she does not need to copy a design. Those inspired to weave iyari designs learn to view nature and the world about them in a different perspective, as living designs. When they tune into this mode of seeing their world, they tap into a wealth of design sources and consciously bring their knowledge into visual form.

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