Maiden
What you need to sow
Begin the thing that needs a long, careful shaping.
Guna / Panamanian
Muu
Grandmother Who Shapes Each Child
Living Guna oral tradition, documented in ethnographic accounts
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Her story
Historical context
spirit · Living Guna oral tradition, documented in ethnographic accounts
In Guna tradition Muu is a grandmother spirit who forms each child in the womb and governs birth. Guna chant traditions describe a spiritual journey to her realm in difficult childbirth; those chants remain the knowledge of specialists and are not reproduced here.
Mythology & traditions
Public accounts describe Muu shaping the developing child and governing a realm approached in difficult birth through specialist curing chants. The journey is mapped through richly named layers of the cosmos, but the chants are trained knowledge and are not reproduced here. At the story’s center is a grandmotherly maker patiently forming every human body.
Domains
- birth
- creation of the body
- grandmothers
- fertility
Symbols
- mola pattern
- gold nose ring
- sea
- cradle
In the oracle
Her guidance
Mother
What you need to grow
Grow with the guidance of those older than you.
Crone
What you need to know
Know that you were made with great care.
Her tradition
Guna Tradition
Grandmother and star powers from the living Guna tradition.
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