=Gods and Kachinas=

The Hopi live, move, and have their being in religion. To them the
unseen world is peopled with a host of beings, good and bad, and
everything in nature has its being or spirit.

Just what kind of religion shall we call this of the Hopi? Seeing the
importance of the sun in their rites, one is inclined to say Sun
Worship; but clouds, rain, springs, streams enter into the idea, and we
say Nature Worship. A study of the great Snake Cult suggests Snake
Worship; but their reverence for and communion with the spirits of
ancestors gives to this complex religious fabric of the Hopi a strong
quality of Ancestor Worship. It is all this and more.

The surface of the earth is ruled by a mighty being whose sway extends
to the underworld and over death, fire, and the fields. This is Masauwu,
to whom many prayers are said. Then there is the Spider Woman or Earth
Goddess, Spouse of the Sun and Mother of the Twin War Gods, prominent in
all Hopi mythology. Apart from these and the deified powers of nature,
there is another revered group, the Kachinas, spirits of ancestors and
some other beings, with powers good and bad. These Kachinas are
colorfully represented in the painted and befeathered dolls, in masks
and ceremonies, and in the main are considered beneficent and are
accordingly popular. They intercede with the spirits of the other world
in behalf of their Hopi earth-relatives.

Masked individuals represent their return to the land of the living from
time to time in Kachina dances, beginning with the Soyaluna ceremony in
December and ending with the Niman or Kachina Farewell ceremony in July.