Changing Woman
This year has been a roller coaster, full of ups and downs, but the biggest thing I think a lot of us can relate to is that this was a year of massive change, in our personal lives and the collective. So much has and still is transforming, and for that reason, I want to introduce Changing Woman, sometimes known in Navajo as Asdzáán Nádleehi, one of the most beloved and powerful of the Holy People to the Diné. I’ll be using Navajo and Diné interchangeably to avoid confusion.
Her name in the native tongue can be roughly translated as “The Woman Who Changes,” and everything about her speaks of transformation, renewal, and the mysterious cycle of life, death, and rebirth. From a contemporary, comparative perspective, Changing Woman can be seen through the lens of the triple goddess concept, the Maiden, Mother, and Crone, which can be thought of as an allegory for the changing seasons of the earth and all life. She represents the power of the earth as it ages and returns to youth, the pattern of the seasons, and the enduring strength of the Motherline, the matriarchal thread that wove together many Native families and clans and kept their cultures, community, and traditions alive.
In Navajo teachings, Changing Woman is closely connected with White Shell Woman and in some traditions Turquoise Woman. Their relationship varies across ceremonial stories and Chantway traditions. In some retellings, all three names refer to the same Holy Person understood through different roles or stories. In others, White Shell Woman and Turquoise Woman appear as sisters created at the same moment as Changing Woman, in others, she creates them. Some Chantway narratives describe them living alongside her or participating in the early establishment of ceremonies. Chantway refers to the prayers, songs, rituals, stories and art used in healing ceremonies by the Navajo and is central in tribal rituals. Each Chantway has its own mythic cycle, stories about how that particular healing power or wisdom was first given to the people by a Holy Person. Across these various Chantways, what remains consistent is that these “jewel women” are associated with the sacredness of white shells and turquoise, materials that hold ceremonial importance in Navajo cosmology and appear in the stories as elements used in creation, jewelry and clothing, decoration, or offerings. Their connection to these stones isn’t simply a symbolic interpretation but part of the original narratives themselves. Because of this, White Shell Woman, Turquoise Woman, and Changing Woman are linked through their roles in creation, in the establishment of ceremonial knowledge, and in the renewal and balance of hózhó, which does not have a direct English translation, but can be thought of as the sacred balance of right relationship with all beings central to Navajo life.
Part of the mystique of Changing Woman is how many stories and interpretations there are of her origin, which is especially unique given how much written or oral traditions were disrupted or destroyed by colonization, re-education, and religious enforcement. Luckily, there are many stories of her that we can learn from. One story takes place after her great maiden ceremony, the people watch Changing Woman age into an old woman and then return to youth four times, until she finally settles as a beautiful young adult woman. In others, visitors come to her house in the West and see her age as she passes through doors at each of the four directions. To the Diné, she is the earth’s rhythm of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, the way life is born, grows, fades, dies, and inevitably returns. For those of us more familiar with European mythologies, her story can feel parallel to the story of Persephone and Demeter we well as Brigid and the Cailleach, another way of exploring the feminine energy surrounding the cyclical nature of, well, nature.
In one well-known account, First Man, whose name I think sort of speaks for itself, notices a dark rain cloud hovering over a sacred mountain for four days. When the mountain is finally covered with rain, he climbs the mountain with song and prayer and hears the cry of a baby. He finds a child lying in a cradle of rainbows and sunrays, wrapped in cloud, laced with lightning and sunlight. He brings the baby to First Woman, and with the help of the Holy People they raise her, feeding her pollen, dew, and broth from animals. Because she is nourished on such sacred food, she grows with miraculous speed and becomes Changing Woman.
In another story, long before humans, the Holy People find a small image or sculpture of a woman carved from or in turquoise. They gather at a sacred mountain, and White Body, one of the four sacred figures in Navajo cosmology associated with the East and dawn light, has a similar image made from white shell. Through songs and ceremonies, the turquoise image is transformed into Changing Woman and the white shell image into White Shell Woman. At the same time, an ear of white corn becomes White Corn Boy and an ear of yellow corn becomes Yellow Corn Girl. These beings are then sent out into the world to help shape life.
One of my favorite things in learning about the different Native languages is how honest and direct they are, which we can see in the meaning of their names and stories. You don’t find a lot of lies or ambiguity in most native languages. And we are not done with Changing Woman origin stories yet. One myth has her parents as Long Life Boy and Happiness Girl, who, as their names suggest, embody the powers of longevity and joy. In this version, they give the girl a sacred mountain-soil bundle filled with the powers that created the world, along with the songs and prayers of Blessingway. Through this, Changing Woman is not only a person, but a living embodiment of the creation itself, the keeper of the original beauty and order of the world.
As her story was told across the various Navajo clans, and as related figures appeared in neighboring Apache and Pueblo traditions, her image and teachings changed and transformed, like myths often do, and like Changing Woman herself embodies . But across all of these stories from her native and adopted cultures throughout time, her nature stays the same. She is born under extraordinary signs, raised with care by Holy People, and given the power to shape the world and renew life, making the earth habitable for human life. With the strength of the bundle she carries and the Blessingway prayers she has learned, she helps establish order, helps in the creation plants and animals, and in some stories even calls up storms to help clear away the monsters and dangers that threaten life. We’ll get to that shortly.
In many Navajo stories, she then creates the Diné, the Navajo people, or at least the first Navajo clans. Some stories say that a new race of beings is born out of Changing Woman’s own body and the body of Mother Earth. Others tell how, as an elder, she rubs her old skin, often under her breasts, and mixes it with earth and pollen, forming people in pairs who become the ancestors of the clans. Here we can feel echoes of the biblical story of Adam’s creation, made from the earth in the image of the creator. What these different traditions and origin stories share is the understanding that the people come from her. She is the mother of the Navajo and the source of their way of life.
In addition to being the mother of the Navajo, or Diné, Changing Woman is also the mother of the Hero Twins, Monster Slayer and Born-for-Water. In most versions their father is the Sun, and they conceive the twins in a sacred place or through light and water in what is considered a sacred and not strictly biological way. Again, these sorts of birth stories can be found everywhere, from Athena bursting from Zeus’s head to the idea of immaculate conception, and they often allude to an otherworldly and mystical nature of the deity in question.
Once the great monsters are defeated and the world is prepared, the Sun wants Changing Woman to come and live with him in the West. In many stories he has already built a house for her far out over the great western waters, on a mystical land that floats on the water. The house the Sun builds has rooms on different levels, ladders of black jet, white shell, turquoise, and abalone, and an altar in the center decorated with the colors and spirits of all flowers and birds. On top of the house sits a great thunderbird with smaller thunderbirds upon it. The entrance faces the East and is guarded by a white shell rattle that sounds when visitors approach. But Changing Woman doesn’t want this, she wants a house that is as just as fine as the Sun’s primary home in the East, floating away from the shore so she won’t be overwhelmed or bothered with visitors. She asks that precious stones be planted around it and that animals be given to her as companions, so she won’t be lonely. Honestly, it sounds like she’s asking for every introvert woman dream, and so the Sun promises to give her everything she asks for. On the journey to her new home, her animals being to multiply, with some of them wandering off in different directions, which explains why certain animals are found in other lands. Finally she reaches the western waters and lives there in her floating house, and the Sun meets her there after his daily journey across the sky.
Changing Woman is central to some of the most important Navajo ceremonies. She is the heart of Blessingway, a complex of songs, prayers, and rites that focus on creation, harmony, long life, and well-being. In these rituals, her stories are told, her mountain-soil bundle is remembered, and her example is held up as a model of a life lived in hózhó. She is so beautiful and so wholly benevolent that she is rarely portrayed directly in sandpaintings or artwork, although I chose to capture her majesty and serenity in my own way. In modern times, many artists interpret her in their own way incorporating various ages, seasons and elements, while the Diné and other indigenous tribes have symbols represent her essence, such as an ear of corn wrapped in shell and turquoise beads, or the form of the earth itself, as she can be thought of as their Mother Earth goddess. She also taught the People how to make the ceremonial paintings correctly, how to shape ritual spaces, and how to use them to call in blessing, crops, more children, and long life.
Her own maiden ceremony is the model for the Kinaaldá, the girls coming of age rite that is still practiced by many young Navajo girls today. At her first period, a major rite of passage for all females, the Holy People held an elaborate ceremony for her. She was dressed in white shell shoes and fine deerskin, adorned with shell and turquoise ornaments. Her hair was parted and tied, her cheeks were painted red with small white lines, and she was molded by the hands of older women to become strong, beautiful, and enduring. Songs were sung through the night, races were run before sunrise, and a great cake was baked. From this original rite come many of the practices used now when a Navajo girl becomes a woman.
In the Kinaaldá, the girl is treated as Changing Woman herself. For four days she runs, is molded, and participates in the baking of a large corn cake in the earth. Older female relatives guide her hands as she mixes the batter and tend the fire with her. The cake is shared with family and community. Through this, the girl learns that she carries the power to transform raw gifts of the land into nourishment, to endure hardship, and to shape her own life in harmony with her people. She steps into womanhood on the path that Changing Woman first walked.
Many Navajo families also keep mountain-soil bundles connected to her story, wrapped in buckskin and filled with earth from the four sacred mountains, stones representing Long Life Boy and Happiness Girl, and other sacred objects. These bundles are reminders of the original bundle given to Changing Woman and of the responsibility to care for the world in beauty. Today, Changing Woman continues to live in ceremony, in stories, and in the land itself. She is the presence behind rain and corn, behind lakes, rivers, and mountains. She stands for the strength of women, the importance of the Motherline, and the knowledge that life is always changing yet held within a larger pattern of harmony.
She reminds us that renewal is possible even after great loss. She teaches that power is not just force or conquest, but the ability to nourish, to create, to restore balance, and to walk in beauty. To honor her is to honor the earth, our mothers and grandmothers, the children yet to come, and the delicate web of relationships that sustains all life. Through Changing Woman, the Diné remember their origin, their responsibilities, and their place within the living world. Through her story, anyone who listens can be reminded that change can be sacred, that aging and renewal are both holy, and that true beauty lies in living in respectful relationship with land, sky, animals, plants, and one another.
