Our Embroidered Tote Bags Mean Something!

We designed our embroidered tote bags to incorporate our backstrap weaving and its traditional motifs as accents. The motifs have been handed down from our ancestors, who we call “the grandparents”. They are very rich with meaning. Truthfully, we don’t always understand the meanings any more, but our Maya spiritual guides still do.

You can see an example of one of our embroideries in the photo below. If you study it, you will be able to see three different symbols. We don’t think of these as symbols so much as “energies”. Hopefully you can identify a serpent, a pair of owl’s eyes, and two pyramids (one pointing up and one pointing down (all intertwined). The serpent’s energy is about wisdom and fertility. The owl’s energy is about choosing good paths, reflection and recovery, and communication. And the pyramids represent the energy we call Tijax, the earth below and the sky above, as well as the entries to the world below and to the world above.

Each of our tote bags has different embroideries. You are always welcome to ask about the meaning of other ones.