Light Touch
Sacred Sun
Optical phenomena created by ice crystals and sunlight have inspired visions used by many, from prophets to flag designers to UFO skeptics.
A sun pillar in San Francisco, Calif., USA [Wikimedia]
When Harry Mera, a physician and sometime anthropologist at the Museum of Anthropology in Santa Fe, N.M., USA, submitted his new state flag design in 1920, he probably had no idea it would start a cultural debate. His flag featured a sun symbol that Mera had seen at the museum on an 18th century pot from the Native American Zia Pueblo. But the Zia people opposed the design; they claimed the state had usurped their sacred symbol—a design so meaningful that it was not allowed off of Zia land.
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