Diné (Navajo) TraditionHoly Person
Talking God (Haashchʼééłtiʼí)
Haashchʼééłtiʼí(Haashchʼééłtiʼí)
Also known as Hastséyalti (Matthews's spelling)
- the dawn and the east
- guidance and teaching
A leading Holy Person associated with the dawn and the east, who appears at key moments of the origin story to guide and teach; the ceremonies in which he appears are not described here.
About Talking God (Haashchʼééłtiʼí)
A guide
Haashchʼééłtiʼí, Talking God, is one of the most important of the Holy People, associated with the east and the dawn. In the origin story, as published by Matthews and Zolbrod, he appears at key moments to guide, teach, and help the people and other Holy People; in several tellings he is present at the finding or raising of Changing Woman, and he helps the Hero Twins.
In ceremony
Talking God is a leader of the yéʼii, Holy People who are represented in certain Diné ceremonies. Those ceremonies are sacred, and this site does not describe them or reproduce images associated with them.
Limits of this entry
Because much of what is significant about Talking God belongs to ceremonial knowledge, this entry is deliberately brief, and records only the outline found in published narrative sources.
Worship and cult
Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for Talking God (Haashchʼééłtiʼí)
The Holy People are part of a living religion. Ceremonies associated with them, including the Blessingway (Hózhǫ́ǫ́jí) and the chantways conducted by hataałii (ceremonial practitioners), are not described on this site, and sandpaintings are not reproduced, because they are sacred and made for healing within ceremony. Many Diné families teach that the origin stories in which the Holy People appear should be told only in winter, after the first frost and before the first thunder of spring.
In the atlas
Where Talking God (Haashchʼééłtiʼí) appears
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Washington Matthews, Navaho Legends
Further reading
Hastséyalti in the origin legend
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.